Sasol Nissan Motorsport made an auspicious debut in the 2005 Sahara Production Car Championship at Kyalami on Saturday (February 26) with a third, a fifth and a sixth in the four opening races of the new season.

Gary Formato, making his debut for the Sasol Nissan 350Z team, went home with a fifth in race one and a podium third in race two. Team-mate Duncan Vos, struggling a little more with the set-up of his car, crashed out of the first race when he lost control in the Esses, and did well to recover to finish sixth in race two.

Reigning class A production car champion Anthony Taylor won the first race in his BMW 330i from Reghard Roets (Alfa Romeo 147 GTA) and Taylor's team-mate Hennie Groenewald.

Roets turned the tables on Taylor in a wet race two with Formato giving the Sasol Nissan team a very welcome podium place in their first race meeting.

Gary Formato qualified his Sasol Nissan 350Z in third position on Friday, just six tenths of a second slower than the BMW 330i of reigning class A Production Car champion Anthony Taylor, and Duncan Vos fifth.

In Class B, Sasol recorded another podium via new team-member to Phillip Kekana in the Sasol RunX Rsi squad. Dave Compton braved the wet conditions in race two to take third behind the powerful Mini's of Sean van der Linde and Martin Steyn, with Kekana scoring his first points after finishing 6th , albeit down on power.

The two Sasol drivers finished 5th and 10th in the first race on Saturday.

Watch highlights of the Sahara Production Car races from Kyalami at 18h00 this Thursday (3 March) on Supersport 2.

The next round of the Vodacom Power Tour is at Killarney Raceway, Cape Town, on 2 April.

For all the inside news on Sasol's racing, rallying and aerobatic sponsorships visit www.sasolracing.co.za or call 08 22 33 4321.

Original article from Car