The Investchem Pro Tour Raceday at Kyalami on Saturday was full of incident as the weather played havoc with tyre choices and plans. 

As expected Rui Campos (Hugo Boss) won the Execuline Shelby Can Am championship after two well controlled drives, but that wasn’t the story of the race. 

Pole went to visiting Dutch A1GP ace Jeroen Bleekemolen in the DK Woodcraft entry ahead of championship leader Rui Campos (Hugo Boss). Castrol’s Ruan Pretorius headed row two with Jennifer Murray alongside in the Execuline example as  Sean Greve was next in the Vulcania Reinforcing car while a broken driveshaft left Wesleigh Orr (Execuline) starting from sixth. 

The Dutch ace led from the start as Orr quickly made up ground and set about reeling him in. But the much anticipated battle between the A1GP stars ended on lap four when Orr attempted to dive down the inside at Goodyear Sweep (Sunset). The Dutch driver wasn’t about to give up his position and held his ground and with Orr wanting the same piece of tar, both ended up parked in the gravel.  

That left Campos to take the win, and the championship, ahead of former champion Pretorius and Murray in the surviving Execuline entry who drove with her head and resisted all temptation to be drawn into a dangerous battle with Pretorius. 

After an exciting eight laps Alan Eve (Sunshine Testing) was fourth, followed closely by Chris Hart (Plettenberg Bay Hi-Q) as Guy Botterill (Fragram Tools) completed the top six finishers who were covered by just over four seconds.  

Venter romped to a convincing victory in the combined second heat for Porsche and Shelby Can Am contenders which was held on a wet and very slippery track although Orr kept him in sight as he was second on the road and Shelby category winner. During the middle part of the race, when the track was at its wettest Orr closed the gap to Venter, but Venter had things under control and tickled the Porsche throttle just enough to open a bit of a gap again. 

Orr’s performance was nothing short of classy and it makes you wonder why the South African A1GP team doesn’t alternate its drivers like some of the other teams. 

Murray drove hard and had a tremendous tussle with Sean Greve (Vulcania Reinforcing). In the end she got second place which was enough to give her the championship runner-up trophy while Greve was satisfied with his hard earned third.  

Next home was Eve who comfortably clear of Bertil Hoffman (IOU Music) who had a good tussle as he got the better of Hart and Hanno Pengilly who, like Hoffman, thoroughly enjoyed the tricky conditions. They both impressed as they delivered their best performances of the year. 

The race was scheduled for 12-laps but on lap nine the race was red flagged after 2007 Shelby Can Am champion Darryn Lobb spun the Pablo Clark Racing Ferrari F430 coming onto the pit straight and was solidly collected by Bryant vd Merwe (Chemspec Shelby) who was left stranded minus a rear wheel.  

Moment’s earlier Campos suffered a driveshaft or CV joint failure which added to the marshalls problem. There really was little alternative but to halt proceedings to move the stricken cars.

It has been an eventful season which has produced good racing and just enough needle to make it interesting without any real bickering or fighting.