Reib’s stunning
comeback |
|
Having cut short a holiday in Italy in order to
do the Shelby Can-Am event at Phakisa, Thomas Reib made it
worthwhile by sensationally winning the 45-minute feature second
race. Qualifying saw championship leader Rui Campos (Q8 Oils) take pole position having pipped Brian Algar (Etana) by a mere 0.035 second. Row two had multiple champion Darry Lobb (Hollard) ahead of the highly experienced Alan Eve (Metal Used Spares) as the top six was rounded off by the Reib (Jägermeister/Liqui Moly) and Ferdi van Niekerk junior (Motorola Cordless Phones). The opening race saw Campos get the jump on Algar at the start and the next 9-laps produced a classic cat-and mouse encounter as Algar was glued to his rear wing throughout proceedings. At the end Campos took the flag half a second clear of the red car. “It was jumping out of 3rd gear occasionally, but otherwise it was a good race,” remarked Campos later. Third place saw another fascinating race-long encounter as Eve claimed the final podium step ahead of a down on power Lobb. Van Niekerk looked set to secure fifth place, but a penultimate lap shake-up saw him drop two places and it was Andrew Strike (Strike 1 Racing) who came home fifth ahead of Reib as an unhappy van Niekerk recovered to take seventh. Race two was a 45-minute affair combined with the Altech GT field and once again proved to be a Shelby Can-Am benefit as the open topped sports prototypes claimed the top eight positions. With a partially reverse order grid the front row was occupied by Reib and van Niekerk and Reib, despite only having raced once this season, judged the start well to stamp his authority on the race. An early spin coming onto the pit straight saw Algar drop down the order and although he recovered quickly his hopes of a win were dsashed. At the front Reib looked comfortable and he seemed to have everything under control as he finished just over two seconds clear of Lobb whose consistency overcame a noticeable power deficiency. Strike surprised just about everyone, perhaps even himself, as he put in his best performance to date to come home third after a faultless performance. Five seconds behind was Sean Greve (Vulcania Plastics) who has missed a large portion of the season due to budget restraints. Fifth was Campos who had a few niggling problems with his car decided to score points rather than take any risks trying to finish higher up the order. Algar recovered to take sixth but was well clear of Capetonian Greg Walker in the Indy Oil liveried car. There was a stunning debut from helicopter pilot Alister Brown who was delighted with eighth with the help of Barry Ingle who played the important role of driving coach and race engineer. With Campos almost assured of the title, there is a month long break before the series regroups for the final two races of the season. |