The African Endurance Series has confirmed a 6-round championship for 2016 at the same time as confirming its 2015 champions.

Francis Carruthers has been confirmed as the 2015 African Endurance champion following a dominant season aboard his Juno also co-driven through year by Nick Adcock and Johan Engelbrecht. Curruthers won three of the six races including both his home Killarney three and nine-hour races and the Kyalami 3-hour en route to the title, which he wrapped up with 30 points over VSP pilot Mike Verrier’s 25 points and Jeff Gable who amassed 24 points through the season in his Birkin Seven.

Gable was the most consistent driver of the year, winning the Index of Performance championship from Golf racer Deon Crous, with Martin Botha (Alfa Romeo) and Ronald Janse van Rensburg (VW Golf) tied in third on Index. In the classes for saloon cars, Mike Schmidt and Bruce Avern-Taplin drove their Toyota Corolla to the Class F title, Deon Crous took Class G and Martin Botha Class I .

In the sports cars, Mike Verrier took the Class P title and overall champion Carruthers won Class R, while the GT classes saw Backdraft Cobra pilot Paul De Klerk take Class V title, while Stefan Puschavez drove his Porsche to Class W honours and Seven drivers, Rod Schafer and Jeff Gable took classes X and Y respectively.

“Congratulations to all the winners and well done,” series boss Roger Pearce said on confirming the champions. “2015 was a fantastic first full season for the African Endurance championship and we now have significantly more interest for 2016 — we have no doubt that we will now move up another gear.
 
“Most of the teams that raced last year should be back and we have a significant amount of interest from new drivers and teams for the coming year,” Pearce concluded as he confirmed the dates of the six rounds throughout South Africa in 2016:

2016 African Endurance Series Calendar
27 February – 6 Hours of the Free State – Phakisa Raceway Welkom
14 May – KZN 3-hour – Dezzi Raceway Port Shepstone
23 July – Border 3 Hour – East London Grand Prix Circuit
03 September – 3 Hours of Gauteng – Zwartkops Raceway Pretoria
15 October – 3 Hours of the Eastern Cape – Aldo Scribante Port Elizabeth
12 November – Cape 6-Hour – Killarney Cape Town