ITS GLOVES OFF WHEN SEVENS RUGBY STAR WERNER KOK MEETS MMA CHAMPION GARRETH ‘SOLDIERBOY’ MCLELLAN IN A FIGHT FOR TOP HONOURS ON SPEED STARS
Yes, Speed Stars is about teaching our stars how to be better and safer drivers, but it’s also about winning as they go head to head on track to see who is fastest. So when you pair up two physically honed, mentally sharp professional athletes who thrive competing under the most pressured of situations, we know we are in for a cracker episode!
Werner Kok burst onto the international rugby stage in 2013 when he made his debut for the SA Sevens side, the Blitzbokke, at the final event of the IRB Sevens World Series in London. In just three years he and the team have won the World Games in 2013, the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 2015 was a standout year for Werner, when the longhaired flyer was named the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year – not only is he devastating on attack but was also the leading tackler in the series. He is fast and fearless, attributes required to be fast on the racetrack, but which also best describe his sparring partner on this episode, Garreth ‘Soldierboy’ McLellan!
Garreth was on track for a career as a professional rugby player when a conditioning coach at the Sharks Academy introduced him to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. As a national champion in karate and grappling, Garreth possessed a skill set that made him a natural for MMA and after his professional debut in 2009 he quickly rose to the top, twice being crowned EFC Africa Champion and EFC Worldwide Champion, before joining the Ultimate Fighting Championships at the end of 2014.
With a professional record of 18 fights 13 victories and 5 losses, Garreth is looking to make it 14 victories when he meets Werner on the racetrack in the next episode of Speed Stars.
Catch the blow by blow action on Ignition DSTV 189 at the following times:
22nd OCTOBER @ 19:30
23rd OCTOBER @ 07:30
24th OCTOBER @ 01:30
25th OCTOBER @ 09:30 & 21:30
26th OCTOBER @ 06:30 & 18:30
27th OCTOBER @ 13:30
28th OCTOBER @ 15:30
Speed Stars is also available on DSTV Catch Up.
NICOLE FLINT LEAVES NONHLE THEMA IN HER DUST…LITERALLY
In what can only be described as the biggest moment on the show to date, Nicole Flint took her Opel Adam S ‘farming’ when she completely misjudged the downhill braking point for the final turn at Zwartkops. To her credit, the self-confessed tomboy showed some impressive car control to get herself safely back onto the track, dust her tiara off and still beat Nonhle Thema in the two lap race.
Unfortunately, that off-track excursion did compromise her flying lap time and saw her drop way down the leaderboard, slotting into 11th place with a time of 1:31.732.
There is no doubt that Nonhle Thema is a star, but on the racetrack she proved she wasn’t a SPEED star with her lap time of 1:55.909 seeing her in last place on the leaderboard. Having not driven a manual car in years, Nonhle was game for anything and left Speed Stars a lot more confident as a driver.
WINNING IS EASY WITH SPEED STARS
Congratulations to Belinda Steenberg who won an Advanced Driving Course with Opel in our weekly viewer competition and to Ark Animal Centre who won R2500-00 in this week’s Charity Challenge when Nonhle and her team of Werner Kok, Shikar Singh and Sandro Godinho won the gymkhana.
Don’t forget to enter this week’s Predict the Winner competition and you could win an Advanced Driving Course with Opel and Michelin. Head to www.speedstars.co.za and make you prediction: will it be Werner Kok or Garreth ‘Soldierboy’ McLellan winning this week’s match up.
Enter every week for a chance to win our Grand Prize at the end of the season – a trip overseas with Michelin & the winner of Speed Stars as VIP guests at their 2017 Pilot Sport Experience.
Traditionally held at a world famous Formula One circuit like Sepang in Malaysia, the Michelin Pilot Sport Experience will see our winners take to the track in a variety of racing cars for a taste of what it’s like to be a racing driver for a day!
But your chances of winning don’t end there, as both Opel and Independent Media will be running their own Predict the Winner competition. So keep a look out for details on the Opel social media pages – opelsa – and in the motoring supplements of The Star, Pretoria News, Daily News, The Mercury and Cape Times.
ABOUT SPEEDSTARS
Speed Stars is a television show conceptualized, produced and owned by Marius Roberts, and his company M.R Productions.
The shows’ first season was broadcast on Ignition, a dedicated motoring channel on DSTV 189, as well as on DSTV Catch Up. The 13 episodes were split into 2 parts, with the first 6 shows broadcast during November and December 2015 and the next 7 shows broadcast through February and March 2016.
Each of the 24min episodes featured 2 high profiled individuals from the world of sport, music, television and entertainment, who were first given professional driving instruction, before being unleashed on the racetrack to set a timed lap. The star with the fastest lap time was deemed the winner.
Road Safety and Driver Education forms an important part of the entire Speed Stars experience, so each episode had a key road safety message. Not only are we educating and improving the driving abilities and awareness of our stars, but also those of our viewers.
Stars who featured in our first season:
- Lalla Hirayama – TV Presenter
- Boity Thulo – TV Presenter, Actress
- Catherine Constantinides – former Miss Earth SA & Environmental Activist
- Melinda Bam – former Miss South Africa
- Gilan Gork – Mentalist
- Larry Soffer – Magician
- Bridgitte Hartley – SA Canoeist & Olympic Bronze Medal Winner
- Sanani Mangisa – SA Hockey Goalkeeper
- Rob Forbes – 5fm DJ
- Darren Simpson – Highveld Stereo DJ
- Siv Ngesi – Actor, TV Presenter, Comedian
- Tumi Morake – Comedian, TV Presenter
- Jack Parow – Musician / Rapper
- Kurt Darren – Musician
- Elana Afrika Brendenkamp – TV Presenter
- Jeannie D – TV Presenter
- Ross Learmonth – Musician (lead singer, Prime Circle)
- Leanne Manas – Morning Live Anchor
- Reuben Riffel – Chef
- Kamini Pather – Winner, Master Chef
- Trevor Gumbi – Comedian
- Katlego Maboe – TV Presenter, Singer
- John Smit – former Springbok captain, RWC 2007
- Jonathan Kaplan – former international referee.
And the winner of Speed Stars Season 1: Jonathan Kaplan
Not only did he earn the boasting rights as SA’s speediest star, but his charity, Animal Allies, received a R30 000-00 donation from Michelin. As the winner, a trip to the world’s greatest endurance race, the 24 hours of Le Mans, as a VIP guest of Michelin. With Jonathan becoming a Dad for the first time, it was runner up Rob Forbes who attended the event in June in his place.
Jonathan also received a Fortis timepiece valued at R28 000-00 as the winner of the show.
Clermont to Le Mans: The Michelin Story covered Rob’s trip to France with Michelin and was broadcast on Ignition as a 24 min special. You can view the show by clicking on this link: https://youtu.be/pGpZkYNTOPI
Speed Stars is sponsored by Michelin, with support from the following partners:
- Opel
- Force Fuel
- Greensky Creative Branding Solutions
- Zwartkops Raceway
- The Fairway Hotel
- ION Action Cameras
- Fortis Timepieces
ABOUT THE CHARITIES
Ark Animal Centre – www.arkanimalcentre.co.za
As the leading puppy shelter in South Africa, this NGO has a no suffer policy. They specialize in the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of puppies, pregnant moms and small breed dogs.
Their aim: to change the attitude of people towards animals through education and awareness and to promote animal welfare and animal rights.
The Sunflower Fund – www.sunflowerfund.org.za
As a National Non-Profit Company, they aim to create awareness, educate and recruit a viable source of ethnically diverse bone marrow stem cell donors in an effort to save the lives of those suffering from life threatening blood disorders. Higher numbers on the registry increase the chance of finding matching bone marrow stem cells donors in order to undergo life-saving bone marrow stem cell transplants.
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