2016 Global Touring Car Championship Explained

The 2016 Global Touring Car Championship (commercially known as the 2016 Sasol GTC Championship) was the inaugural season of the Global Touring Car Championship, a South African touring car racing series. The series was scheduled for six rounds, consisting of a total of fourteen races from 9 August until 3 December.

Michael Stephen became the series's first champion, taking seven race wins from the first eight races behind the wheel of an Audi A3 GTC. Daniel Rowe took the title in GTC Production, the second class of the series consisting of production racing cars, driving a Volkswagen Golf GTi.^[1] BMW took the manufacturer's title in the GTC Class, while Volkswagen secured the GTC Production title.

Teams and drivers

GTC

Manufacturer	Car	Team		Drivers	Rounds
Audi	Audi A3 GTC	Engen Xtreme Team	12	Michael Stephen	All
			38	Simon Moss	All
BMW	BMW M2 GTC	Sasol GTC Racing Team	08	Hennie Groenewald	All
			32	Gennaro Bonafede	All
		EPS Couriers BMW	14	Johan Fourie	2-5
		Rustenburg Steel Construction BMW	95	Michael van Rooyen	4-5
Volkswagen	Volkswagen Jetta GTC	Volkswagen Motorsport	21	Graeme Nathan	All
			57	Matthew Hodges	All

GTC Production

Manufacturer	Car	Team		Drivers	Rounds
Volkswagen	Volkswagen Golf GTi	Volkswagen Motorsport	11	Daniel Rowe	All
			44	Mandla Mdakane	All
		VW Genuine Parts	15	Charl Smalberger	All
		Kalex VW	35	Devon Piazza Musso	5-6
Ford	Ford Focus ST	N/A	42	Shaun Duminy	1-5
BMW	BMW Z4	GTCX Zambezi Auto	74	Mark du Toit	3

Calendar

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole position	Overall Winner	GTC-P Winner
1	R1	Zwartkops Raceway, Centurion	9 August	Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Shaun Duminy
	R2			Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Daniel Rowe
2	R1	Aldo Scribante Circuit, Port Elizabeth	10 September	Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Daniel Rowe
	R2			Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Charl Smalberger
	R3			Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Daniel Rowe
3	R1	Killarney Race Track, Cape Town	24 September	Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Daniel Rowe
	R2			Gennaro Bonafede	Gennaro Bonafede	Daniel Rowe
	R3			Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Daniel Rowe
4	R1	Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, Midrand	23 October	Gennaro Bonafede	Gennaro Bonafede	Daniel Rowe
	R2			Gennaro Bonafede	Gennaro Bonafede	Daniel Rowe
5	R1	Zwartkops Raceway, Centurion	26 November	Michael Stephen	Michael Stephen	Daniel Rowe
	R2			Michael Stephen	Gennaro Bonafede	Daniel Rowe
6	R1	Prince George Circuit, East London	3 December	Michael Stephen	Matthew Hodges	Charl Smalberger
	R2			Michael Stephen	Gennaro Bonafede	Daniel Rowe

Championship standings

Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers as follows:^[2]

Race Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	50	38	28	20	14	9	6	4	2	1	3

Additionally, the top three placed drivers in qualifying will also receive points.

Qualifying Position	1st	2nd	3rd
Points	5	3	1

Drivers' Standings

Driver ZWA1 ALD KIL KYA ZWA2 PRI Points GTC Class 1 Michael Stephen 1^1 1^1 1^1 1^1 1^1 1^1 2^2 1 ^1 2^3 2 1^1 Ret^1 5^1 5 ^1 619 2 Gennaro Bonafede 3^3 3^3 3 4 5 3^3 1^1 3^3 1^1 1^1 3 1^3 4^3 1 508 3 Matthew Hodges 2 4 6 3 6 Ret 6 5 4^2 5 4 4 1 4^3 296 4 Hennie Groenewald 5 DNS 4 5 3 4 5 Ret Ret Ret 2 2 2 2 262 5 Simon Moss 6 5 5^3 2^3 Ret^2 2^2 3^3 2^2 3 Ret 7 Ret Ret^2 DNS^2 219 6 Graeme Nathan 4 2 7 6 4 Ret 7 Ret 5 3 6 6 3 3 215 7 Johan Fourie 2^2 Ret^2 2^2 5 4 4 Ret Ret 5 3^2 198 8 Michael van Rooyen Ret 4 Ret 5 34

Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap 1 – 5 Points for Pole 2 – 3 Points for P2 3 – 1 Point for P3

Notes and References

1. Web site: Sasol GTC Championship Crowns Maiden Champion . GTC Africa . 7 December 2019.
2. Web site: Racing Regulatrions . GTC Africa . 7 December 2019.