Two wins, interspersed with a hard-fought second position, saw Devin Robertson extend his lead at the top of the 2023 Don Bravo INEX Legends Championship after the third round of the season, held at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday (19 August).
After dominating the early morning warm-up session, Devin Robertson’s quest for victory was made easier when he drew pole position in the post-session grid-draw. He lined up with Tyler Robinson alongside him on the front row, with Sebastian Lanzetti and Neels Jooste on the second row. Johan van de Venter and Jagger Robertson shared the third row of the grid ahead of Seef Fourie Jnr and Richard van Heerde. Row five was filled by Jayden Goosen and Cyril Jacobs Jnr, while Christian Padayachee, Berlin Robinson and Dawie Deetlefs completed the biggest field of the season.
In the opening heat, Devin Robertson led the way from pole position while Jagger Robertson worked his way up through the field in the first couple of laps to join Lanzetti in a runner-up spot battle. Jagger got through to second place shortly before half-distance while Tyler Robinson and Fourie squabbled over fourth behind them, with Fourie making a move that stuck on lap five. A late-race safety car called to allow the marshals to remove a car stuck in a dangerous position bunched the field up, but the laps ran out before the circuit was cleared, leaving Devin Robertson to lead the procession across the finish line. Jagger Robertson and Lanzetti followed him in second and third. Fourie took fourth ahead of Tyler Robinson and Goosen. Van Heede was next up in seventh ahead of Berlin Robinson, Van de Venter, Jacobs and Jooste. Deetlefs and Padayachee were the last of the classified finishers.
The second race grid draw wasn’t kind to Devin Robertson, but he didn’t let that worry him, taking just a handful of laps to join Jagger Robertson and Fourie at the front of the field, where the three of them put on a superb display of bumper-to-bumper racing. Despite a brief safety car interruption which closed the pack up around the race’s mid-point, the trio could open up a gap over the rest of the field despite attempting passes at almost every corner. In the end, Jagger just took the win from Devin, with Fourie less than half a second adrift. Lanzetti ended in fourth ahead of Tyler Robinson, while Goosen got the better of Van Heerde to finish in sixth. Jacobs, Padayachee and van de Venter rounded out the top ten, while Jooste, Deetlefs and Berlin Robinson completed the field.
With the main protagonists starting from down the grid in the day’s final heat, it took a lap or two before for the field to settle into a familiar formation, but by the third lap, Devin Roberston had charged through to the lead, closely followed by Jagger Roberson. Devin slowly opened the gap at the front and went on to take a comfortable win. Behind them, Tyler Robinson and Lanzetti were involved in a tussle for third, which ended when Lanzetti was sidelined with a couple of laps left to run, allowing Tyler to take the final step on the podium. With Lanzetti out, the battle between Fourie Goosen and Van Heerde became a fight for fourth. It ended in that order, with less than a second separating the trio. Jacobs, Berlin Robertson, Van de Venter and Deetlefs completed the top ten, while Lanzetti and Jooste were classified in eleventh and twelfth, respectively.
Devin Robertson took the honours from Jagger Robertson and Tyler Robinson in the day’s overall standings. The Professional class went to Devin Roberston, with Jagger Robertson and Seef Fourie Jnr him on the podium. Tyler Robinson’s good day gave her the Semi-Professional class win from Dawie Deetlefs. In the Young Lions class, Jayden Goosen led the way from Cyril Jacobs Jnr and Berlin Robinson, while Richard van Heerde topped the Masters class ahead of Johan van de Venter and Neels Jooste.
The next outing for the Don Bravo INEX Legends competitors is at Red Star Raceway, just east of Delmas in Mpumalanga, on 16 September 2023.
Published by: Brandsponential on behalf of INEX Legends South Africa
Photography by: James Thomson and Paul Bedford
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