08.05.2004 Martyn Steyn gave Alfa Romeo their first official track win in South Africa for twenty years when he drove his 147GTA to double victory at Kyalami last weekend

Alfa Romeo Squadra Corse brought Alfisti among the 27,000 strong crowd at AA Kyalami last weekend weekend as Martin Steyn drove his LG Electronics Alfa Romeo 147GTA to two spectacular wins in rounds 5 and 6 of the SA Production Car Championship.

While the 156GTA driven by Martin Steyn last year took victory early in the season in the wet at Killarney, this weekend’s win is the first official Alfa Romeo victory since the late Nico Bianco won ahead of the BMWs in a GTV6 3.0 in 1984 on the old Kyalami.

The two Alfa Romeo 147GTAs of Martin Steyn and Morne Jurgens were not allowed to race at Killarney for homologation reasons, but the team arrived at Kyalami silently optimistic after lots of testing and development.

Martin Steyn soon showed Alfa Romeo’s intent in Friday practice by posting the fastest time of the day, being quicker than the BMWs by nearly a full second at one stage.

However qualifying saw Anthony Taylor’s works BMW claim pole position ahead of Steve Wyndham's Ford XR8, leaving Steyn in third spot on the grid 0.3 seconds off Taylor. The first eight cars on the grid were covered by only 0.8 seconds.

Wyndham led into the first corner chased hard by Steyn and Taylor, but the 147GTA forced its way into the lead on lap 5 and held off a strong attack from Wyndham to mark the historic occasion of Alfa Romeo’s first official win in 20 years and the end of BMW’s habitual Class A dominance.

The Castrol BMWs of Taylor and Etienne van der Linde finished third and fourth respectively with Richard Sorensen driving the Titan Aviation BMW 330i in fifth ahead of the Alfissimo Alfa 147GTA of Morne Jurgens and Marco da Cunha in the Alfissimo Alfa 156GTA.

“It was a marvellous day. We are very proud and very happy,” said Alfa Romeo Squadra Corse team manager Hein de Necker. “We have enjoyed immense support from Fiat Auto SA in terms of testing and development and have learnt a lot from Italy,” he continued.

The team has been undergoing a stringent development and testing programme, running the two 147GTAs in parallel and transferring technical progress. “It has allowed us to make much faster progress than we thought and has resulted in our first win in effectively only our second outing with the 147GTAs,” said de Necker.

Heat Two saw Anthony Taylor being punted from behind into the pit wall and retirement leaving Steyn to notch up Alfa Romeo’s second win for the day, chased relentlessly by Etienne van der Linde’s BMW and Morne Jurgens’ 147GTA, placing two factory Alfa Romeos on the podium for good measure.

Alfa Romeo Squadra Corse can now also confirm that a third 147GTA will be arriving this week from Italy for Marco da Cunha, putting the 156GTA into retirement.

“We learnt a lot from our experience with the 156GTA,” said de Necker, “but it has been raced hard and punted a few too many times.

"We aren’t resting on our laurels and will be in PE with an even bigger offensive with three 147GTAs on the grid. We have found reliability and know we are very fast in a straight line and we are continuing to work on the handling.”

Alfa Romeo Squadra Corse will line up on the grid for round 4 of the SA Production Car Championship at the Port Elizabeth Aldo Scribante circuit on May 29 with three Alfa Romeo 147GTAs.