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. BMW took the manufacturer's title in the GTC Class, while Volkswagen secured the GTC Production title.
Teams and drivers GTC ManufacturerCarTeamDriversRounds Audi Audi A3 GTC Engen Xtreme Team12 Michael StephenAll38 Simon MossAll BMW BMW M2 GTC Sasol GTC Racing Team08 Hennie GroenewaldAll32 Gennaro BonafedeAll EPS Couriers BMW14 Johan Fourie2-5Rustenburg Steel Construction BMW95 Michael van Rooyen4-5 Volkswagen Volkswagen Jetta GTC Volkswagen Motorsport21 Graeme NathanAll57 Matthew HodgesAll
GTC Production ManufacturerCarTeamDriversRounds Volkswagen Volkswagen Golf GTi Volkswagen Motorsport11 Daniel RoweAll44 Mandla MdakaneAllVW Genuine Parts15 Charl SmalbergerAllKalex VW35 Devon Piazza Musso5-6 FordFord Focus STN/A42 Shaun Duminy1-5 BMWBMW Z4GTCX Zambezi Auto74 Mark du Toit3
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 RoweR2 Michael Stephen Michael Stephen Charl SmalbergerR3 Michael Stephen Michael Stephen Daniel Rowe 3R1 Killarney Race Track, Cape Town 24 September Michael Stephen Michael Stephen Daniel RoweR2 Gennaro Bonafede Gennaro Bonafede Daniel RoweR3 Michael Stephen Michael Stephen Daniel Rowe 4R1 Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, Midrand 23 October Gennaro Bonafede Gennaro Bonafede Daniel RoweR2 Gennaro Bonafede Gennaro Bonafede Daniel Rowe 5R1 Zwartkops Raceway, Centurion 26 November Michael Stephen Michael Stephen Daniel RoweR2 Michael Stephen Gennaro Bonafede Daniel Rowe 6R1 Prince George Circuit, East London 3 December Michael Stephen Matthew Hodges Charl SmalbergerR2 Michael Stephen Gennaro Bonafede Daniel Rowe
Championship standings Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers as follows: Race Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Points 50 38 28 20 14 9 6 4 2 13 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 11 11 11 11 11 11 22 1 1 23 2 11 Ret1 51 5 1 619 2 Gennaro Bonafede 33 33 3 4 5 33 11 33 11 11 3 13 43 1 508 3 Matthew Hodges 2 4 6 3 6 Ret 6 5 42 5 4 4 1 43 296 4 Hennie Groenewald 5 DNS 4 5 3 4 5 Ret Ret Ret 2 2 2 2 262 5 Simon Moss 6 5 53 23 Ret2 22 33 22 3 Ret 7 Ret Ret2 DNS2 219 6 Graeme Nathan 4 2 7 6 4 Ret 7 Ret 5 3 6 6 3 3 215 7 Johan Fourie 22 Ret2 22 5 4 4 Ret Ret 5 32 198 8 Michael van Rooyen Ret 4 Ret 5 34Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap 1 – 5 Points for Pole 2 – 3 Points for P2 3 – 1 Point for P3
References