CHAMPIONSHIP WIDE OPEN AS THE SOUTH AFRICAN ENDURANCE SERIES MOVES TO ALDO SCRIBANTE FOR ROUND 3
In terms of sheer drama, elation and disappointment the 5 Hours of Aldo Scribante provided all of that with the race finishing under the yellow flag and the winners across the line, the Into Africa Racing Lamborghini of Stuart White and Xolile Letlaka after having literally ‘gifted’ the victory because of a slow late pitstop by the Promigen Audi of Paul Hill and Bradley Liebenberg, saw themselves demoted to second after being given a 20 second penalty for overtaking under the yellow flag.
Liebenberg stormed into the lead in the early laps of the rain-affected race and built up a nine-lap lead at one point before handing over to Paul Hill who had a couple of moments as the rain moved in during the night section – allowing the Lamborghini to munch away at the gap.
“Lady luck was nearly with us today,” said Letlaka afterwards.
“This was honestly one of the toughest races I’ve ever done,” said White. “At one point I went over the curbs because I simply could not see where the track was.”
Thus, the victory that eluded them at Redstar Raceway went to the Promigen team with Into Africa having to be content with second place overall.
The weather and slower race pace played neatly into the hands of the father and son pairing of Hein and Henk Lategan and with Verissimo Tavares, allowing the BBR Racing Porsche to stay in touch with the leaders and rack up a third place finish ahead of the Slingshot Backdraft of Mike McLoughlin and Steve Clark.
An impressive and steady drive brought the Coastal Engineering Supplies BMW of Albert and Oliver Hintenhaus home in fifth place and winning Class C ahead of Class E and V8 Roadster Series winners – another father and son team – Harm and Barend Pretorius whose car had been stuck in fifth gear since the mid-point of the race.
The Pple Group Backdraft of Phillip Meyer/Dean Wolson/Mark Harvey again won the Index of Performance – a measure of lap time consistency throughout the race – with a 78,74% score to keep them well ahead in this Championship. Second was Browndeck Roofing with Pesty Racing in third place ahead of Boeta Aucamp and Lonika Maartens (Backdraft).
ENTRY AND PRACTICE
The balmy 27-degree temperature that greeted competitors going out for the Thursday free practice session turned dramatically overnight as a cold front swept up the East coast, bringing with it winter chills and plenty of chance of rain.
The first Official practice on Friday morning, run in cool and dry conditions, saw the Charl Arangies/Arnold Neveling Stradale Motorsport Mercedes-Benz AMG set the pace by notching up a 58,449 sec lap to be just 0,357 sec quicker than Chris Visser piloting the Adjust4Sleep RicoBarlow Racing Nova Proto he shares with Nick Adcock and Michael Stephen.
The Marius Jackson/Joseph Ellerine pairing in the MJR Motorsport Audi were next quickest, some 0,598 sec further back and 0,33 sec ahead of the Into Africa Racing Lamborghini shared by Xolile Letlaka and Stuart White with the Bucketlist Racing Audi of Ryan Naicker/Anthony Pretorius rounding out the top five.
With the weather still holding, the next session saw the Nova Proto up the ante by going fastest on a 58,051 lap and the Promigen Audi of Paul Hill/Bradley Liebenberg well recovered from the driveshaft failure at the Zwartkops event slot into second place only 0,451 sec behind with White/Letlaka third ahead of Arangies/Neveling and Mike McLoughlin/Steve Clark moving into frame in the Slingshot Backdraft to be 0,868 sec off the leaders.
There was a bit of a scare for the Naicker/Pretorius Audi when the car had a big off at the Horseshoe but with some rapid repairs work it was back in action for qualifying.
QUALIFYING
With the promotors changing the qualifying format, forcing an aggregate time across the entire team, with every driver to give his best possible qualifying lap. Saw some serious concentration from both drivers and teams alike. The feedback from the teams is they preferred this type of format and the promotors have confirmed that it is here to stay.
Qualifying was closely fought as the earlier practice sessions with the Class A Nova Proto trio of Nick Adcock/Michael Stephen/Chris Visser claiming pole position, having squeezed the lap time down to at 56, 951 second for the 2,4-kilometre Aldo Scribante circuit.
A storming drive brought Letlaka and White in the Into Africa Racing Lamborghini into second place and head of the Hill/Liebenberg Promigen Audi and the similar MJR Motorsport car of Jackson/Ellerine.
Missing from the Class A leaderboard were Mike McLoughlin and Steven Clark who had a fan belt failure on the Slingshot Backdraft and were allowed to start from the back of the class.
Top honours in Class B went to the Bucketlist Racing Audi of Naicker/Pretorius with the G&H Transport Audi of Gianni Giannoccaro, Ant Blunden and Ricky Giannoccaro second fastest in class but split on the grid by the Class C Kalex VW Golf of Karah Hill and Jurie Swart.
Quickest of the Class E Backdraft Roadster’s – which has its own National Championship – was the Browndeck Roofing car of Gavin Rooke and Richard van Heerde with a time 1min09,26 seconds, a mere smidgen ahead of the Pple Group car piloted by Phillip Meyer/Dean Wolson/Mark Harvey with Karshin Naidoo and Mark Owens next up ahead of the Pesty Racing pair of Harm and Barend Pretorius.
The Pesty car missed the earlier practices when a crack in the gearbox was discovered, necessitating a complete change of unit.
RACE
Weather conditions changed dramatically overnight, and race day dawned with extremely wet conditions causing a lengthy morning delay and curtailed warm up sessions while officials kept close track of the dark clouds.
Still wet on the circuit when it came time to race gave teams the headache decision of whether to run slicks or wet tyres – but, significantly, the pole position was empty with the Nova Proto consigned to the pits with a gearbox problem that could not be fixed in time for the start.
As the start lights signalled, Joseph Ellerine found himself pushed wide onto the grass and he spun on the start line, hitting the barrier at the end of the pit lane but amazingly avoiding, and not getting hit, by any of the other cars as he slid across the circuit.
Into Africa Racing grabbed the lead off the line but Bradley Liebenberg in the Promigen Audi was having nothing of that and stormed to the front, holding the position for several laps before pulling in for an early change of tyres.
Letlaka retook the lead and enjoyed the place for a good few lap before being caught by the Lamborghini of Aldo Scribante who was contesting the 1-hour race-within-a-race in celebration of his late father, Celso Scribante.
However, Liebenberg again was putting in storming times and clawed through the field to take the lead again. He started to build a gap on the rest of the field – where the Slingshot Backdraft was busy passing plenty of cars having started from the back of the grid to get up to fourth place as the half hour mark went by.
There was also a lengthy pit stop for Into Africa when a sensor on the Lamborghini started playing up, dropping them back to 13th place just on the hour mark.
As the clock ticked over to the 1-hour mark Liebenberg continued to build his lead and was four laps up on Mike McLoughlin with Ryan Naicker (Bucketlist Racing) in third place followed by the bright orange Pesty Racing Backdraft that was also leading the V8 Roadster class.
Pesty having inherited the position after the Pple Group Backdraft mounted the rear of the Browndeck Roofing Backdraft, spinning the latter out and dropping it down the field with both continuing but now behind Pesty.
After spending nearly 30 laps in the pits fixing the start line damage to the MJR Motorsport Audi it rejoined the race only to have the day get even worse when Joseph Ellerine went off at The Sweep and finished up on top of the tyre barrier – very much out of the race but with no injury other than to ego.
With the 2-hour mark approaching Bradley Liebenberg had notched up 87 laps and was running six laps ahead of the McLoughlin Slingshot that, in turn, was a lap to the good over the Bucketlist Racing Audi with Ryan Naicker at the wheel – being chased down hard by the BBR Racing Porsche of Hein Lategan.
However, chasing hard was Stuart White in the Into Africa Lamborghini and he was busy unlapping himself after the time spent in the pits – getting the job done around lap 100 to move into third place on the road.
Still leading the V8 Roadster class, Pesty Racing was stuck in fifth gear with Team Manager Francois Pretorius saying: “We changed the gearbox yesterday but there is obviously still an issue. We will keep it in fifth and as long as we stay on the road should be able to finish.”
Another early feisty competitor, Karah Hill in the Kalex Volkswagen she calls ‘Hero’, was battling with fuel feed issues and had dropped back in the field but still ran in the lead of Class C.
At the halfway mark in the race the weather had started to turn with the wind picking up and some drizzle falling – as were lap times that plunged by up to seven seconds a lap.
Liebenberg continued to push the Promigen Audi but the loss of sixth gear on the Slingshot Backdraft made it that much easier for the flying Stuart White in the Into Africa Lamborghini to flash past to take second place.
Hein Lategan maintained station in the BBR Racing Porsche in fourth place and two laps ahead of Ryan Naicker in the Bucketlist Racing Audi that was followed by Pesty Racing and Richard van Heerde in the Browndeck Roofing Backdraft.
Oliver Hintenhaus was at the wheel of the Coastal Engineering Supplies BMW he shares with Albert Hintenaus and they were leading Class C.
This point also saw a flurry of pitstops and driver changes – and the return of the MJR Motorsport Audi, repaired after its earlier close association with the tyre barrier along with a bang into the barriers by Fikile Holomisa in the Team Qhubani Backdraft.
However, the good run for Class B leaders Naicker/Pretorius came to a stop with a battery issue on the circuit prompting another Safety Car – during which time Paul Hill, now at the wheel of the Promigen Audi went off on the final corner, narrowly missing the tyre barrier.
Some teams used this opportunity for a ‘free’ pit stop to change back to wet weather tyres, including the G&H Transport Audi of Gianni, Ricky Giannocarro and Ant Blunden and the leading Audi.
With two hours left, the rain really started to come down and the gap at the front had reduced to four laps as White continued to apply pressure on behalf of Into Africa Racing and McLoughlin pitted to hand over to Steve Clark as a safety car condition was called because of the standing water on the track.
Rain returned heading into the final hour with Paul Hill desperately trying to hold onto the lead that had now reduced to one lap with White lapping at anything up to 15 seconds faster than the Audi. Keeping a watching brief on the process upfront, Henk Lategan, now behind the wheel of the BBR Racing Porsche was comfortably in third place ahead of the Slingshot Backdraft and Oliver Hintenhaus in the Coastal Engineering BMW.
A quick spin by Harm Pretorius in the Pesty Racing V8 Backdraft – still stuck in fifth gear – allowed Gavin Rooke in the Browndeck Backdraft to close to within 13 seconds in the Class E chase as the safety car again took to the track while damage to the tyre barriers was repaired on the exit of the final corner.
This also gave Paul Hill a chance to hand over to Bradley Liebenberg, a slow pit stop that allowed White to move into the lead by 1,4 seconds with the race then held up for under the safety car in the extremely wet conditions – for the Audi a déjà vu time as they no doubt recalled a very similar situation at the opening round of the season at Redstar Raceway.
An on track error by White, saw him pass a competitor under safety car, which lead to officials issuing a post-race drive through penalty of 20 seconds, swopping the race results around and gifting the win to Promigen.
So, the first car across the line was the safety car.
