The final round of the international Superstars Series for V8 production cars at Kyalami on Sunday saw first time wins for Italians Fabrizio Armetta (Motorzone Race Car Chevrolet Lumina CR8) and Luca Rangoni (Audi Sport Italia Audi RS4).  It was the first time the Italian-based series had ventured outside Europe and an appreciative crowd of South African fans enjoyed their first experience of the winged and big-engined luxury saloons.

Boasting three former F1 drivers and a former Olympic downhill skier among the mix of professional and gentleman drivers, Superstars was brought to South Africa by the Gauteng government as part of their initiative to attract foreign investment and tourists to the province by staging top-class international motor sport.  Superstars followed the successful staging of a round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Kyalami in February and a round of World Superbikes in May.

Armetta, a 37-year-old Roman, drove the perfect race in the opening 15-lapper from pole position to cross the finish line first ahead of San Marino’s Christian Montanari (Habitat Racing BMW M3), Mauro Cesari (CAAL Racing BMW 550i), former F1 driver Pierluigi Martini (Zakspeed Team Chrysler 300C SRT-8), reigning Superstars champion and former F1 driver Gianni Morbidelli (ROAL Motorsport BMW M3) and Olympic downhill skier Kristian Ghedina (Movisport BMW 550i).

A seasonal Highveld thunderstorm was just minutes away from Kyalami as the 17 cars lined up for the rolling start of race two, but the rain held off until the 12th lap when a heavy downpour brought out the red flag to signal the end of the race.  

The official result reflected positions at the end of lap 11 and saw Rangoni followed across the finish line by Armetta, Montanari, Morbidelli, Max Pigoli (Max Pigoli Team Mercedes C63 AMG) and Ermanno Dionisio (Audi Sport Italia Audi RS4).  The 41-year-old from Bologna had finished seventh in the morning’s 25-minute plus one lap race and made the most of his Audi’s all-wheel drive and a favourable front row starting position (the top eight finishers from race one started in reverse order), leading from start to finish.   

Final driver championship positions after round nine of Superstars:
1 Gianni Morbidelli (BMW) 197; 2 Stefano Gabellini (BMW) 151; 3 Max Pigoli (Mercedes) 137; 4 Roberto Papini (BMW) 124; 5 Pierluigi Martini (Chrysler) 122; 6 Mauro Cesari (BMW) 120; 7 Kristian Ghedina (BMW) 113; 8 Fabrizio Armetta (Chevrolet) 67; 9 Francesco Ascani (BMW) 62; 10 Roberto Russo (BMW) 61.