SRA Endurance Race

Kyalami 24th March 2007

Rant:
Again the organization was a complete screw up. The race program was pie in the sky. They allocated 20 min to each race. 20mins to clear the track, get the cars out on the parade lap, organize the grid and race 8 laps! This meant that from the start the day was behind schedule and matters just got worse as we went on. Kyalami could not arrange a piss-up in a brewery.
Rant Off:

Cliff notes:

I had the car sideways in:
Turn 2
Nashua
Esses
Wesbank
Bowl

I spun it at:
Nashua
Wesbank
Bowl

The detail:
(as always I cant remember the exact sequence of events, so if I got something wrong sorry)
I honestly did not have 1 clean lap the entire weekend and my laptimes showed it. The fact that I used seriously shagged tyres for the event did not help either. Qualifying was compromised by a pair of blocking Cobra's and a red flag but I managed to get 1 half decent lap in 2:10.xxx (shockingly slow since my PB at Kyalami is a 2:03)

Our race was scheduled for 6-7pm, but the crap program meant we only got onto track round 7:10 in complete darkness. Just before the race we had an impromptu safety briefing to inform us the marshal posts have no lights and it could result in us not being able to see yellow/red flags (surely the SRA should have picked this up beforehand?) In reality I did not have any problems seeing any of the marshal posts. The race started with us doing 3 laps behind the pace car and that confused everybody but we finally got underway with everybody taking it easy.

Immediately I picked up a dice with a sports 2000 who was quicker on the straights but holding me up in the corners, on lap 2 I made an optimistic dive into Wesbank but lost it under braking for my 1st spin of the night. I lost a few places while recovering and slotted in behind Gavin in the yellow Locost.

This started the best dice of the evening as we duked it out for a number of laps - this time I had a power advantage over him, and he was quicker in the corners. During this battle I got caught out watching the cars in front and missed the turn in for sunset! Not sure how but I managed the slow car down enough to allow me to tiptoe round the outside of sunset through all the marbles. No harm done I made up the time lost quickly. I finally got past Gavin by forcing him to go defensive into clubhouse and getting the run on him to the esses going around the outside. A great battle with both of us giving each other room. Next up was the Sports 2000, I got a run on him to Wesbank, but was forced to take the outside line, and he kept his place.

Coming on the pit straight he drifted wide and again I got alongside him going side by side through 1 but he got half a car ahead and I had to tuck in behind him into turn 2. Next lap he went even wider onto the pit straight and this time I got past him.

The next few laps I settled down to a rhythm but then I started loosing grip getting it sideways just about everywhere until I spun it in Nashua. I think here Gavin got past me again. The grip levels deteriorated further and I considered coming in suspecting a puncture, but I saw Gavin was having similar problems so kept on going – I had cooked the tyres with our fight in the opening laps.

We caught up with Tony (2l Zetec 7) that was going exceptionally slow through the corners. Gavin dove him at Wesbank and I tucked my nose in behind him. Coming down the mineshaft Tony tried to pull in behind Gavin but couldn't because I was in the way. I just kept my foot planted and Tony had back off for the sweep at the bottom of the mineshaft. Shortly thereafter Gavin pulled in for his pit stop.

Car 9 was being black flagged on the pit straight and I started seeing smoke in sections and suspected he might be leaking oil, suspicion was confirmed when the back stepped out without warning at the bottom of the mineshaft under braking. Luckily I did a very neat 90deg spin and stopped before the apex facing the chicane, so I simply hooked 1st and drove through the infield!

By now every corner was extra slippery with the black flag still out for car 9 (Cobra). About 40mins into the race the safety car was put out to try and get the leaking cobra off the track. In this time I dove into the pits to serve my mandatory 3min pit stop (sorry to Stu for making him get into his race suit in case I needed fuel). After my pit stop I was not allowed onto track because the CoC had called chequered flag - bloody Cobra had dumped so much oil on the track while ignoring the black flag that race was ended early.

All in all HUGE fun, and to be honest I enjoyed it more than the typical 8 laps sprint races we do.