Thrilling VSP Wins For Tilanus And Eve
- 3 August 2002

Round five of the Nissan V6 powered Vodacom Sports Prototype racing series at AA Kyalami’s Vodacom PowerTour races on Saturday produced two close races and drama aplenty.

After qualifying on pole position for both races, reigning champion, George Ferreira (PAK 2000) ran into mechanical problems but championship leader, Bernard Tilanus (Platinum Asset Management) wasn’t able to take much advantage of Ferreira’s woes.

Race one started with quite a bit of wheel banging amongst the leaders as they headed into the first corner and it was Ferriera who emerged with the lead while Damien Frost (Strocam) had a wild spin at Nashua which split the pack.

On lap two Ferriera’s car hesitated at the top end of the track and Tilanus snatched the lead as Alan Eve closed up on Ferriera, but then spun away his chances at Nashua on lap 4.  That left Neil Lobb (DK Woodcraft) to take third ahead of teammate, Clive Kennerley in the DK Privacy version. A steady run from Dave Beattie netted fifth place ahead of Marco da Cunha who had started the Nissan backed car in 11th place.

Terry Voller (DK Lamminates) emerged unscathed from a huge accident against the infamous Sunset wall on lap 5 and after being in the running for a top four placing, Melvill Priest retired the Caltex car on the last lap.

Ferriera retired from race two on the opening lap which left Tilanus, Priest, Eve, Kennerley and Lob fighting for top honours, but Tilanus spun to the tail end of the field on lap two which left Eve under pressure from the two yellow DK cars.

Despite the pressure, Eve never put a foot wrong and finished just sixth tenths of a second ahead of Kennerley while Lobb was four seconds back.  Donovan Roscoe (Optimum) took fourth with the steady Beattie just beating Priest into fifth.

Quotes:

Alan Eve: “I’m very happy. I only managed 21 laps in the entire weekend – including two 8-lap races. I had a nasty moment when my hand slipped off the gear lever and knocked the ignition switch off, but I saw it and managed to hang onto the lead.”

George Ferreira: “The car just died – I’m not sure if it is a fuel or electrical problem.”

Results

Race 1: 1. Bernard Tilanus 15 minutes 41.736 seconds;  2. George Ferreira 15:42.534; 3. Neil Lobb 15:49.365; 4. Clive Kennerley 15:50.447; 5. Dave Beattie 15:54.815; 6. Marco da Cunha 15:57.861.

Race 2: 1. Eve 14:49.674; 2. Kennerley 14:50.304; 3. Lobb 14:54.771; 4. Donovan Roscoe 14:57.196; 5. Beattie 114:59.177; 6. Melvill Priest 15:00.111.