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Connor Thompson

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ALL is set for the Bulawayo Motoring Club’s end of year event — Toyota Castrol Three-Hour Endurance Race to be held today at the Bulawayo Motorsport Park, formerly known as Victoria Falls Road Circuit.

Fifty-five racers, of which 40 will compete in cars with 15 on motorbikes have registered for the event that will see local participants battling it out with competitors from Botswana, South Africa and England.

Bikers will compete in a one-hour endurance race at 1PM with the main race, the Toyota Castrol 3-Hour Endurance starting at 3PM.

Defending three-hour race champion and crowd favourite Darren Winterboer will be hoping to win his six consecutive title with his BMW 335i. Winterboer won last year’s edition with 122 laps which came short of his 127 winning laps in 2014.

Winterboer comes to race oozing with confidence following a  recent victory at the Extreme Supercar series in South Africa.

South Africa’s Shelby Can Am arrived with six cars on Thursday with Botswana’s super fast Nardini arriving yesterday morning for the race.
Toyota Zimbabwe will field three cars which will be driven by Ian Howden, Jesse Watson, Jephter Chingura and Hilton Harunavamwe.

“I’m ready for the race and we’re looking forward to tomorrow,” said Chingura.

On motorcycles, 14-year-old British-born Zimbabwean rider Connor Thompson who competed at the British Superbikes recently and teenage sensation Savannah Woodward will race for South Africa’s Monroe Racing Club.

Shaun Whyte will be defending his title on the motorbike side with his Yamaha R6. He won the one hour race with 45 laps in the previous event followed closely by Dave Mouat and Cam Aitken also with 45 laps on a Honda CBR. Mathew Shultz completed with 43 laps falling into third place and the quartet should expect stiff challenge from Thompson.

Thompson has been delivering good results which saw him grabbing the attention of front running teams. For the 2016 season, Connor signed for Team Steelmate Racing and finished a very impressive sixth in the championship despite missing the first four rounds, also bagging two wins and four second-place finishes.

In the women’s category, all eyes will be on 16-year-old Woodward who has been prolific this year, having competed in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. Her highlight was being selected for the Red Bull Rookies Cup trials in Spain.

Other female bikers expected at the BMC event are Bianca Schultz from Bulawayo, who will ride a Honda CBR600 and is expected to face stiff competition from Harare’s Tiffany Fisher, who will also be using a similar bike.

These two competitors have improved steadily in recent years, with Tiffany winning last year’s Megelli 250 cc Zimbabwe National Championship.

— @ZililoR