| www.motorsport.co.za | 08 September 2010 |
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At only 19 years, Ferodo backed Gennaro Bonafede will be the youngest driver in this year's Bridgestone Production Car championship when he lines up for the first race of the year at Kyalami next month (20 Feb).He served a three year 'apprenticeship' racing in the competitive Engen Volkswagen Cup where he matured into a formidable competitor. In his first year of circuit racing (2007) finished 10th in the championship and was awarded the "Rookie of the Year" prize. In 2008 joined the Federal Mogul 'Champion Young Drivers' team and opened his account of wins. In what turned out to be an incredibly competitive season he ended the year in third place after mechanical gremlins at the final round cost him dearly. 2009 saw him fight back from a massive character building crash in East London to end the year as runner-up. Looking for a new challenge, class T of the Bridgestone Production Car series offered exactly what he wanted. "The cars are much faster than the Polo we raced in the one-make Engen VW Cup. At Kyalami the class T cars are about eight seconds faster, so I'm really looking forward to driving the new car," enthused Bonafede who is a second year Industrial Engineering student at University of Pretoria. With support from Volkswagen Racing, a new car has been built at former Production Car champion Graeme Nathan's Kyalami workshop. Nathan is the only class T driver ever to have won the overall championship, when he finished on top of the points table, even ahead of the class A machinery, in 2008. "The car is coming along nicely, Graeme and Dean have done a superb job, and it will be tested this week then it gets the new Ferodo branding and Kyalami will be brilliant," commented Bonafede who hails from Dainfern. Issued by Steve Wicks on behalf of Gennaro Bonafede |
