Pengilly takes
Welkom win |
|
Hanno Pengilly made his trip back to South Africa
worthwhile when he emerged as the big winner of the opening
round of the Shelby Can-Am championship at Phakisa, Welkom on
Saturday. A late entry to the field was 2010 champion Darryn Lobb in the Indy Oils backed car usually raced by Greg Walker and it wasn’t a surprise to see him heading the timesheets after qualifying. Brian Algar was alongside, just over 3/10ths of a second slower in the Etana Insurance entry while Rui Campos (Hugo-Boss) and Sean Greve (Vulcania Reinforcing) occupied the second row. Completing the top six were Pengilly (Azura Retreats) and Durban’s Andrew Strike (Strike 1 Racing). The opening race saw Lobb romp to an uncontested win although Campos was less than two seconds behind despite having fought an entertaining battle with third placed Algar. Greve had an uneventful race to claim fourth ahead of Strike who was pleased with an equally easy run to fifth place. Pengilly wrapped up the top six after an eventful race that saw him kept busy with a difficult car. Race two’s inverted grid was partially responsible for an opening lap incident that eliminated Algar and Greve and saw Lobb lose a few laps as he was forced to pit. On the run down to turn five Algar had the better drive from turn four and passed Greve cleanly on the left, but at the same moment Greve, who was alongside Lobb, moved over. Contact was made and in an instant Algar was spinning across the bows of Lobb who made solid contact. Algar and Greve retired on the spot while Lobb was forced into the pits to change a wheel. “I passed Greve cleanly and he hit me on the rear wheel, I don’t know what happened,” said a visibly upset Algar afterwards. All that left Pengilly to take a well judged win after a faultless drtive despite coming under pressure from Campos. Third was an elated Strike with former kart star Justin Allison doing a good job in keeping him honest. Fifth went to Ferdi van Niekerk (Duo Plus Modems) with Shelby debutant Nicholas Walker impressively claiming his first top six finish. Round two of the popular sports car series takes place at Zwartkops near Pretoria on 19th March. |