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In what can only
described as a day of great racing at the Aldo
Scribante circuit in Port Elizabeth the Execuline
Shelby Can-Am sports cars put on two closely fought
races.
Driving the Hugo
Boss backed car, Alan Eve was on form as he was
fastest in qualifying on Friday to start the opening
race from pole position ahead of Rui Campos in the
other Hugo Boss entry. Row two was the domain of
young lions Chris Hart (Plettenberg Bay Hi-Q) and
series debutant, former Engen Polo Cup racer, Guy
Botterill (FragramTools).
Eve led from the
start, as Campos lost ground and it was Hart who
slipped into second place. After following Eve for a
few laps he (Hart) took the lead with a neat
outbraking move at the end of the straight and never
put a foot wrong as he reeled off the remaininder of
the 14 laps to claim his first win in the series.
Campos was under
pressure throughout from the impressive Botterill,
but kept his head to take third. There was a huge
bunfight for the next positions with Brian Algar (Firedart)
fifth while Craig Shorter (Execuline) drove well for
sixth. Durban based Bryant van der Merwe (Chemico)
took seventh ahead of Jennifer Murray (Execuline)
who was on old rubber and suffered with a lack of
grip.
Due to the top eight
fastest laps of the top eight being reversed to
determine the starting order of race two, van der
Merwe had pole and enjoyed a lap in the lead ahead
of Thomas Reib (Intertrans) before being swamped by
the pack.
Once the pack had
sorted itself out, Campos led but Botterill was
keeping him honest. Campos kept calm and the
newcomer didn’t try any rash moves and it was a game
of ‘cat & mouse’ until it ended with Campos ahead.
Drive of the day came from Hart. An opening corner
off-road excursion dropped him to last place and he
did a superb job to take third place with Algar and
Eve few seconds further back as vd Merwe held on to
claim sixth ahead of Reib.
Despite missing
Friday practice and also the qualifying session due
to a gearbox problem, Dave Beattie (Dura) had a race
long battle to beat Murray into eighth while Sun
Moodley (Bigfoot Express) rounded off the top ten.
Issued by Steve
Wicks, for and on behalf of Execuline Shelby Can Am |
