At the halfway point in the 2009
Shelby Can Am championship, 2007 champion Darryn
Lobb looks set to take the title. Two more
victories have taken his score card to seven
wins from eight starts.
Driving the DAW prepared DK Woodcraft car, Lobb
qualified fastest while Thomas Reib (CoolstarBeverages)
was the only other driver to dip below the
magical 1minute 40 second barrier. Row two
belonged to Alan Eve (Phakisa) and current
champion Rui Campos (Hugo Boss) as Brian Algar
in the Thuthuka Welding example and Durban’s
rapid JP Bredenhann (Bigfoot Express/Panel Rite)
completed the top six.
Race one started with a bang, literally. Going
into turn one it appears as though Campos turned
in without seeing Eve on his inside who had no
choice but to take a tighter line and clipped
Reib, who hadn’t had the best of starts.
With Reib spinning across the track, the rest of
the field had nowhere to go and almost every car
suffered damage with Colin Frost (Strocam) and
Richard Wood retiring. Reib and Algar were the
two front runners who lost most time.
The race had lost most of its attraction as a
spread out field with bits of bodywork either
flapping in the breeze or missing circulated
without further incident. Predictably Lobb ran
out the winner with Eve almost three seconds
adrift as Campos got third ahead of Sean Greve (Vulcania
Reinforcing).
Having recovered from a foot injury which caused
him to miss the last round, Hanno Pangilly (Azura
Retreats) dodged the chaos to come home fifth
ahead of Bertil Hofmann in the striking Brawn GP
liveried GP Energy Drink backed car.
Race two was a 15-lap affair and as is
tradition, it was run with the Altech GT field
which made for a great spectacle, especially as
the grid is partially reversed.
Lobb kept everything neat and tidy as he came
through the field to bag the win after taking
the lead from Reib two laps from the end.
After holding second place for most of the race
Campos was a subdued third with Algar not far
behind. Fifth went to Eve and JP Bredenhann
rounded off the top six finishers. Pangilly held
off Hofmann and was delighted with seventh while
Dave Beattie got ninth ahead of Frost.
Beattie was driving the car usually raced by
Craig Shorter after he suffered engine problems
on Friday and Shorter couldn’t make the race due
to business pressure.
Round five of the Shelby Can-Am championship
takes place at Zwartkops, near Pretoria on 25
July. |
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