Nothing to lose and everything to gain
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Following the drama of June’s round at AA Kyalami, the
Vodacom Sports Racing series heads to Zwartkops Raceway’s only round of
the Vodacom Power Tour with the championship delicately poised. With lap times of around 1 minute 4 seconds, and all 20 drivers competing in identical Nissan powered US built sports cars, the racing is bound to be full of excitement. Following two faultless wins at the last round, DK Woodcraft driver Neil Lobb has a slender six-point lead over former champion George Ferreira (PAK 2000). “This race is a bit different to Kyalami as the rules have been changed to allow a revised front splitter that increases frontal downforce and finding the correct set-up will be crucial as a good qualifying position is very important at Zwartkops,” commented Lobb. Last season’s champion, Bernard Tilanus (Micro Imaging) failed to start at Kyalami after an engine failure in qualifying. “We got away lightly as far as mechanical damage was concerned, but we lost a lot of ground in the championship,” he explained. He’s currently holding third in the points race. Adding spice to the race is the fact that four points separate the next three drivers. Francois Gerber (Autohaus) is fourth, three points ahead of Alan Eve (Odes Autobody), but Melvill Priest is only one point adrift. Priest, in the Revlon 24-7 car has been the fastest man at most races, but a few mistakes and more than a fair share of bad luck have cost him dearly. At Kyalami he retired from the first race and then smote the barriers as he was lining himself up to take the lead on the final lap of the last heat. “I caught Neil quicker than I expected and as I lifted off to avoid him, the rear stepped out and I spun into the barrier. I just slammed it into first and carried on to finish third – I was amazed the car was driveable.” Last year’s championship runner-up, Donovan Roscoe (Optimum Racing Developments) could upset everybody’s plans by being in amongst the leaders and when you add the likes of Dave Beattie in the Steiner Hygiene car, Mark Attieh (SmartCall), Neville Jordan (Vodacom) and the trio of DK Group drivers Clive Kennerley, Terry Voller and Alan Green into the mix, you have a recipe for thrilling action. A new face in the line-up is former sports 2000 champion Gugu Zulu. Since he graduated from the Isondo Sports 2000 series, the ‘Impi-Warrior’ has competed in both the Sascar and Wesbank V8 categories and this year he has successfully been campaigning in a Sasol backed Golf in the national Sasol Dual Fuel rally championship. His progress in the big sports racer with be watched closely over the weekend. |