Round 4 - Phakisa
- 11 May 2010
 
As the Shelby Can Am sports car series heads to Welkom’s former MotoGP circuit in Welkom for what will undoubtedly be an interesting fourth round of the championship, 2007 and 2009 champion Darryn Lobb holds handy lead, but there’s a hungry pack behind him.

Driving the NJOY car, Lobb suffered a rare retirement in race two in Cape Town, but still maintains a 14-point lead over 2008 champion Rui Campos in the Hugo Boss backed car. Five points further back is Alan Eve (Phakisa) while Hillcrest driver Guy Botterill (Yato Tools/Bigfoot Express) is a mere three points adrift despite being shunned by lady luck.

Lobb enjoys the fast sweeps of Phakisa, “It’s awesome to do some real slipstreaming. Another chance to stretch the cars to over 200k's an hour and because there’s some long braking zones into slow corners there’s plenty of opportunity for overtaking which makes for good racing.”

The top six is rounded out by Sean Greve (Vulcania Reinforcing) and Brian Algar in the Etana/Thuthuka Welding example. Both are reliable drivers who are overdue for a win.

Another driver who could surprise is Thomas Reib in the brightly coloured Jagermeister car but he’ll have to keep an eye on Dutch driver Bertil Hoffman (GP Energy Drink) and Hanno Pengilly (Azura Retreats). Both Hoffman and Pengilly have surprised with their pace this year. Business commitments have seen Pengilly move overseas and as a result he was forced to miss round two of the series at Zwartkops.

Durban’s newcomer Andrew Strike (Strike 1 Racing) is another driver who has set tongues wagging after some strong performances, especially at Zwartkops.

Greg Walker from Cape Town has had a difficult start to his season in the Indy Oils backed car and will face stiff competition from fellow Capetonian Doug MacDonald (Fantastic Racing) who has had an impressive start to his career.

Cars competing in the Shelby Can-Am championship are all identical specification, even down to the16-inch Goodyear racing slicks. Tipping the scales at 925 kg with the driver strapped in, the cars are powered by Nissan’s reliable 3.5 litre quad cam V6 engine which has been tuned to develop a reliable 225 kW (300hp).

Reliability is aided by the fitment of a dry-sump lubrication system which prevents oil surge caused by the high centrifugal forces created by the high levels of grip these cars have in corners. Power is delivered via a specially made robust 4-speed gearbox.