Darryn Lobb moved one step closer
to the Shelby Can-Am championship after
scoring another dominant win at Zwartkops while
Toby Scheckter surprised
many with his pace in what was his first
competitive outing for seven years.
In what has been a dominant season, the DK
Woodcraft backed driver has now
won eight races from ten starts this year.
Lobb made his intentions clear on Friday when he
claimed the all important
pole position, a smidgen quicker than 2008
champion Rui Campos (Hugo Boss).
"Pole position is probably more important at
Zwartkops than at any other
track, so all I need is to make sure I get a
decent start," said Lobb who
won the title in 2007.
Brian Algar (Thuthuka Welding) headed row two
and had Alan Eve in the
Sunshine Testing/Phakisa entry alongside while
the top six was completed by
Sean Greve (Vulcania Reinforcing) who shared the
next row with Scheckter in
the Trionz backed car.
In what was almost an incident free race, Lobb
took a comfortable in the
opening race although Campos was less than a
second behind at the flag.
Algar was a solid third, but was under pressure
from Eve while Greve took
fifth as Scheckter didn't break ranks and also
finished in the same position
he started from.
Jean Paul Bredenhann (Bigfoot Express/Panel
Rite) had a lonely race to
seventh place with Bertil Hofmann (GP Energy
Drink) next ahead of Hanno
Pengilly (Azura Retreats) while Thomas Reib (Coolstar
Beverages) was
disappointed with tenth, especially since he'd
won when the series raced at
Zwartkops in April.
As is the norm for the series, race two featured
a partially inverted grid,
the top eight fastest lap times from race one
are reversed.
This time it was Eve who started from pole, and
the experienced veteran
didn't waste the opportunity as he led from
start to finish to score his
first win of the season. Lobb was just over two
seconds behind as Campos was
a similar distance behind in third.
Scheckter held fourth at the end of the opening
lap but ran into gearbox
problems and called it a day after four laps
which left Algar to take the
position. Bredenhann was pleased with fifth
ahead of Reib and Pengilly.
Craig Shorter (Phakisa) was eighth ahead of Dave
Beattie (Dura) and
Capetonian Greg Walker (Bizfone).
Sheckter had enjoyed himself, saying the cars
felt like big single seaters.
"It was great and it will be nice if I can do a
few more races," he said. "I
think he's done a great job considering the car
was only given a quick
set-up on Friday," said Francois Pretorius,
whose crew had the task of
running the car.
The next round of the Shelby Can-Am championship
takes place at East
London's fabulous former Grand Prix circuit on
29 August. |
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