The 2009 Shelby Can-Am ended at Kyalami on Saturday and Dutch star Jeroen Bleekemolen put in a classy display as he took a win with consummate ease. Darryn Lobb gave new sponsor NJOY (an electronic cigarette) a boost when he smoked the field to win the second race and was  the overall winner for the day.  

Driving the car raced earlier this year by Toby Scheckter and backed by GP Energy Drink,  Bleekemolen  qualified a whopping 1.526 seconds faster than outgoing Shelby Can-Am champion Rui Campos (Hugo Boss). Row two saw Alan Eve (Sunshine Testing) a tad faster than Thomas Reib (Coolstar Beverages) while champion elect Lobb (NJOY) lined up fifth ahead of Durban’s Jean Pierre Bredenhann (Panelrite/Bigfoot Express). 

From the start of the opening ten-lap race Bleekemolen showed why he won the Porsche Super Cup title this year as he blasted into the lead and quickly built up a comfortable cushion before relaxing his pace. Campos raised his game and kept the Dutch ace in his sights as he came home second, some three seconds clear of Eve. 

Next was Bredenhann who was chased home by Brian Algar (Thuthuka Welding) as Lobb fought his evil handling car all the way to complete the top six. Having his first outing of the year Donavan Roscoe (Execuline) did well to come home seventh. “I’d forgotten how hard racing is and I’ve already got a sore neck,” he said. 

As is tradition, race two was combined with the Altech GT Challenge with the top eight fastest Shelby lap times from the first race being started in reverse order. Toby Venter in the brutal Porsche started from pole and won easily, but there again the 600hp Porsche turbo does lap almost seven seconds faster than a Shelby Can-Am with a normally aspirated and standard 3.5 litre Nissan engine.  

There was drama prior to the start as Bleekemolen suffered a broken gear linkage as he arrived on the grid after his warm-up lap and his race was over before it even started. 

From the rolling start there was immediately drama when Roscoe was unceremoniously sent into the barriers at turn 1 and then Sean Greve (Vulcania Reinforcing) was nudged off at turn 2.  

This brought out the safety car was while the wreckage was cleared and racing resumed after two laps. This time it was Lobb who took the Shelby victory, but only after a last lap fairly brutal do or die move on Eve as they came to lap a Ferrari, “he left the door open, I took the gap, ” remarked Lobb casually. “I didn’t expect that, and it cost me second in the championship,” said Eve. 

Reib put in a good drive to take third ahead of Capetonian Bertil Hoffman (GP Energy Drink) who scored his best result to date and Campos was right behind him. But forth was enough for Campos to claim second in the championship despite not having won a race all year. After a season from hell, Dave Beatie (Dura) had an excellent race to come home sixth closely followed by Algar and Durban based Andrew Strike (RST) who also scored his best result of the season. 

Although Greg Walker (Bizfone) didn’t have a particularly happy event, he and Darryn Lobb were victors of the British International Removals team prize.  

All in all it was a good year for Shelby Can-Am. Lobb was in a class of his own, but there were good performances from some of the rising stars.