Gennaro Bonafede has graduated to Bridgestone Production Car championship having raced in Engen Volkwagen cup last year. This youung 19 year old will be the the bay of the field.

Although only 19 Gennaro has a wealth of racing experience. He has been racing in the Engen Volkwagen Cup since the age of 15 and before that he raced karts. Being a tall chap, he found karts a little bit cramped and has decided that his future lies in saloon car racing.

Gennaro finished 10^th overall in his first year of circuit racing, which was enough to earn him the ‘Rookie of the Year’ prize. That prize secured him a drive in a round of the ADAC Polo Cup in Germany. “That first season was great. I raced against the top, very experienced drivers like Curt Alchin, Graham Donker and Kosie Swanepoel. We, the ‘rookie’ drivers learnt a lot from the older drivers, then they put an age limit on drivers for the next year.”

In 2008 Bonafede joined the Federal Mogul ‘Champion Young Drivers’ team and began winning races. In what turned out to be an very competitive season he ended the season. He says he could have finished higher had he not had mechanical problems but that, as they say, is motor racing.

The 2009 season got off to a shakey start with his biggest ever crash in East London. Nevetheless, he still managed to end the year as runner-up. “That was the biggest crash I’ve had and we tracked down an old car that hadn’t been raced for a few years which we spent the night getting in race trim so I could race. It was a dog to drive, but I scored points.”

The Bridgestone Production Car series will be a challenge but that’s exactly what he thrives on. He will be racing a VW Golf in class T.  “The cars are much faster than the Polos we raced in the one-make Engen VW Cup. At Kyalami the class T cars are about eight seconds faster, so I’m really looking forward to driving the new car,”

Graeme Nathan is the only class T driver ever to have won the overall championship, which he did in 2008. Gennaro hopes to have similar success but there could be a conflict since the car was built in Nathans Kyalami workshop. We’ll be keeping a close eye on his progress.