VSP Championship – Zwartkops : Lobb extends VSP lead
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Neil Lobb extended his Vodacom Sports
Racing championship lead in front of a packed Zwartkops crowd at round six
of the Vodacom Power Tour national championship series. Having qualified his DK Woodcraft backed car third on the grid, Lobb managed to find a way past reigning champion Bernard Tilanus (Micro Imaging) and set about closing the gap to race leader Melvill Priest (Revlon 24-Seven) who had started from pole position. Although near the end he did get to within a few car lengths, Lobb eventually decided it would be more sensible to settle for second place. “I also wasn’t sure how many laps were left as the pit wall was so crowded I couldn’t see my signalling board,” he explained. Thus the race ended with Lobb only three quarters of a second behind Priest, but almost four ahead of Tilanus who had been under constant pressure from former champion George Ferreira (PAK 2000). A steady race saw Alan Eve (Shell/Odes Autobody) take fifth not far behind Ferreira. Donovan Roscoe (Optimum Racing Developments) was a distant, and very lonely sixth. A lap two accident, which brought Dave Beattie (Bidsvest) and Francois Gerber’s (Autohaus) race two an end, split up the field as the followers were delayed taking evasive action. The only other retirement came on lap eight when Volkswagen’s rally star Gugu Zulu, having a guest outing in Richard Wood’s car, pulled off when a stone stuck in the accelerator pedal assembly! Lobb had no doubts about race two and won a thriller thanks to an ultra late braking move on Priest at the top of the hill on lap one. Cold tyres or not, Lobb dived down the inside and left his braking almost impossibly late to lead the field across the line. Priest was later passed by Tilanus and Ferreira and then his motor began to misfire so he pulled into the pits to retire. Meanwhile Tilanus had closed up to Lobb, but it seemed as though Lobb had something in reserve and the reigning champion never got much closer than a few car lengths as they finished with less than a second between them. At two thirds distance he lost his advantage due to the safety car coming out after Durbanite Ben Havenga crashed heavily, but he held his lead at the restart and never looked threatened. Tucked in their slipstream were Ferreira and Eve with Gerber keeping them honest. Less than three seconds blanketed the top five cars. Beattie bagged the points for sixth after a good battle with Roscoe. Eighth went to Neville Jordan (Vodacom) who fought a race long battle with Zulu while Harry Roscoe completed the top ten. |
