Ruan comes of age
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Pole position and two race wins, in his Biogen sponsored Shelby Can-Am, is how Ruan Pretorius made his mark at the penultimate round of the Vodacom Power Tour at Phakisa Freeway on the 29th October. His only mistake throughout the weekend was relinquishing the lead of race 2 to Neil Lobb (Caltex Havoline ) on the first lap but quickly made amends by retaking the lead and steadily pulling away from the field to stamp his authority on the race. Now that he has opened his winning scorecard there will be much more to come from this young racer. While Ruan was making his mark on the race meeting Neil Lobb made his mark on the National title by scoring enough points to take his second championship. The envisaged fight for the title between Donavan Roscoe ( Stanley ) and Neil Lobb (Caltex) saw Neil gain the upper hand after qualifying by piping Donavan by 0.17 seconds while both were overshadowed by Ruan. Veron Pappas (Bearing Man) was fourth ahead of Alan Eve (Direct Couriers) and a charging Dave Beattie. Surprise of qualifying was Clare Vale (The Truck Man) with 9th and 8th respectively in the two heats. Some hard work behind the wheel of the Revolution Racing TVR was paying dividends with Clare lapping some 3 seconds faster than her previous best at this circuit. Team mate, Darryn Lobb (DK Woodcraft), didn’t make qualifying after the team were unable to repair damage to his car, the result of contact with some unforgiving Armco during the third practice session. Joining him on the back row of the grid was Richard Wood (Almar Packaging) who arrived too late to qualify. The first race was marred by a potentially serious accident between Revolution Racing team mates Clare Vale and Darryn Lobb. Approaching turn 2 for the first time Darryn went down the inside of Clare and as he braked the rear of the DK Woodcraft Shelby stepped out and mounted the rear wheel of The Truck Man car. Darryn’s car proceeded to slide over the cockpit of Clare’s car narrowly missing Clare’s helmet. Both cars were instantly retired. Up front Ruan was opening a gap on Neil and Donavan in turn was closing fast. Behind the leading trio Veron Pappas was maintaining fourth while Rui Campos (Boltt/Grindrod) had found a way past Dave Beattie and Alan Eve. Donavan caught Neil with two laps to go and an enthralling battle developed with Neil taking second just 0.2 seconds ahead of Donavan. An excellent job was accomplished by the Revolution Racing crew by repairing both Darryn’s and Clare’s cars in time for the start of the second race. Neil went into the second race only needing 1 point to win the championship but any thought of a safe race was quickly expelled when he dived down the inside of Ruan into turn 1. The two cars fought an exciting dual for a number of laps with the visibly faster, Ruan Pretorius, finally finding a way past and ,again, pulling out a lead which he held to the flag. Not so smoothly for Neil Lobb as he managed to out brake himself while under no pressure and as he rejoined the circuit he was passed by the duelling Alan Eve, Donavan Roscoe and Rui Campos. This superb three way battle just became four way! Alan Eve proceeded to demonstrate the width of a Shelby Can-Am while Donavan did everything possible (short of using Production Car antics) to find a way passed. Rui wasn’t too sure whether to concentrate on challenging Donavan or blocking Neil and all was set for the best 2 laps of 2005 but, alas, Neil made his second mistake of the race and spun off in a big way. He regained the circuit behind Dave Beattie and Darryn to finish seventh. Alan managed to fend of Donavan for second and Donavan kept Rui at bay to take third. Franz Pretorius did all he needed to, to seal the Veterans Championship in his John Abott Motorsport entry while Clare Vale finished in 11th. Clare had moved up to a splendid 6th but ran wide in the Hairpin and dropped down the order. The championship might be settled as far as first place is concerned but with only 7 points separating Donavan and Ruan for second and 1 point separating Darryn and Rui for fourth, with Veron 16 points adrift, there will still be plenty of hard racing taking place at Kyalami on the 26th November so …………. See you there! |