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Jurie Swart wins the Killarney battle, but Leyton Fourie is victorious in the overall Volkswagen Polo Cup war

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Killarney – Cape Town. The famed Killarney race circuit with Table Mountain as a backdrop played host to one of the most intense title fights in the history of the 25-year old Volkswagen Polo Cup. After the two final races, just three points separated the two title rivals.

Johannesburg driver Leyton Fourie came to Cape Town with a lead of 17 championship points that he earned throughout the previous six events across South Africa. Under most circumstances, 17 points might sound like it’s enough, but South Africa’s most successful racing series is known for providing unusual circumstances that are designed to test both the young driver’s driving skills as well as their mental strength. Although Fourie had the points advantage, recent momentum was on Swart’s side. Furthermore, Swart has a hometown advantage in Cape Town and has proven to be almost unbeatable on the Killarney race circuit.

It was therefore no surprise when Swart qualified his Polo in pole position during the Friday afternoon Super Pole qualifying session. Fourie put himself under huge pressure by only setting the seventh fastest time. To add to the young man’s challenges, Swart went on to draw the lucky number one that would also put him on pole for race two. One could not have scripted the season finale any better with Swart disappearing into the distance shortly after the lights turned green to signal the start of race one. He took Tasmin Pepper with him who in turn was followed by Tate Bishop and Jayden Els. This was also the order in which they finished, with Clinton Bezuidenhout crossing the line in fifth. Fourie managed to improve his starting position by one to take sixth but gave away a fair amount of points to Swart in the process. “The only thing that I could do was to put my head down and win the race. I don’t have any control over what happens behind me,” said Swart shortly after winning race one. “The only thing I can do now is to try and win race two also and see how it unfolds.”

And that is exactly what the Capetonian did. For the second time over the weekend, he disappeared off into the distance, leaving the rest of the field to fight it out for the second position. Meanwhile, Swart had the assistance of a few friends who did what they could to hamper the progress of Fourie who had to fight his way up into third place to secure the title. This proved extremely difficult at first, but the young man withstood the pressure and fought bravely to drive himself into a championship-winning position. Nathi Msimanga equalled his career-best by claiming second place with Fourie crossing the line in exactly the position that he needed to win the championship. Towards the end of the race, his teammate Charl Visser did a fantastic job of riding shotgun for the young Fourie who went on to win an emphatic title.

“I don’t know what to say. It is a lot to take in,” said an elated Fourie moments after winning the 2021 Volkswagen Polo Cup. “It was a great fight with Jurie and everyone else throughout the year and I just want to thank everyone in my team for doing what they did. It will take time to sink in, but what a feeling.”

Head of Volkswagen Driving Experience, Mike Rowe was quick to add the official viewpoint from the custodians of the series: “This will go down as one of the most intense title fights in the recent history of the series. In the end, it proved that a championship is earned over a whole season. Congratulations to Leyton for coming out on top and well done to Jurie for taking the battle all the to the last few metres of the entire season” he concluded.

The Volkswagen Polo Cup had more good news to share following the announcement that medical care company CompCare Medical Scheme will join the Volkswagen Polo Cup as title sponsors for 2022, further ensuring the future of this successful series.

While Killarney played host to the Volkswagen Polo Cup championship fight, it also provided the scene for the famed Killarney 9-Hour race. Volkswagen Motorsport made use of the last opportunity of 2021 to run both their Golf 8 GTC car as well as their official SupaCup Polo in preparation for the 2022 season. “The plan with the GTC Golf GTI was to get it ready for the first race of 2022 which is scheduled to take place at Killarney in the new year, so we ran the Golf for the first hour of the race in order to gain valuable data,” said Rowe.

Behind the Golf GTI, the SupaCup Polo of Volkswagen’s Jonathan Mogotsi, partnered by Andre Bezuidenhout and JP van der Walt was running as high as sixth overall. A tyre that delaminated early on did some damage to the cooling system which resulted in gearbox failure after 8 of the race’s 9 hours. “It was a great way for us at Volkswagen Motorsport to finish the 2021 racing season and we can’t wait to return in 2022,” concluded Rowe.

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