A Bumpy Ride

Reporter: Marc van Niekerk
Sebring International Raceway - one of the oldest race tracks in the USA, started off as a Military airfield where pilots were trained flying B17 bombers. Parts of the track today still use some of the old runways used before 1950. Old concrete slabs taking the brunt of trainee pilots slamming their heavy B-17's down upon them were allowed to live out the rest of their days baking in the sun. Bumpy in places should come as no surprise. Add 22 crazy South African rFactor drivers eager to get the new season underway and one has a recipe of good times ahead.

The new season also introduced a policy change in that drivers now would be allowed to run the full distance without having a pitstop enforced. This was mainly due to the fact that the Panoz offers 5 different tire compounds, giving the drivers to come up with some pretty ballsy strategies and in future hopefully with some inspired ones too. read more...

Zaahir Essa showed during practice that he meant business and smoked the field with a blistering 2:04. Qualifying saw more of the same with Lawrence finishing second and MarcW in 3rd.

Race time would be all about keeping the cars out of the walls, coping with the bumps and pit stategies With Essa having the pace to stop as many times as he liked, it was up to the rest to decide on running either pedal to the metal on grippy rubber, or sacrificing speed and grip, but saving up to 40 seconds in not having to pit.

Essa cleared off in the distance when the lights went green, followed by MarcW, Dewald and Shayne. Lawrence suffered from pc issues and had to pull off the track for a short while hoping the problem would sort itself out. The first non-stopper, MarcvN was running in 5th being harassed by Craig 'Frosty' Hattingh.

Kim had a fun scrap with Marius and Kevin, swapping places a couple of times, while Dean received a stop/go penalty. Rick nearly blew his engine trying to pull away in neutral, but recovered to finish in 9th eventually, while Steve had an unfortunate race incident which ended his race rather prematurely.

Lawrence was on the come back trail and started to make up places from 15th at the end of lap 1. Up front Essa was having his own way while Dewald had to fight hard to keep Shayne at bay.

Most guys opted for a 1 stop strategy and once the pitstops were done for the day, the only change up front was that MarcvN had moved up to 2nd. MarcW immediately set his sights on getting 2nd place back and the battle between Dewald and Shayne continued.

MarcW started to gain and on the last lap managed to squeeze by MarcvN - who by that time was running on his rims. The battle for 4th was decided by 0.1 of a second, Dewald pipping Shayne to the post. Lawrence finished a credible 6th after having to fight his way through the field, followed by Frosty. Charl was 8th and in another tight battle, Rick finished less than 2 seconds ahead of both Leon and Marius.

I case anyone wondered, Essa took the win by a country mile.

Which strategy was the best? The jury is still out, but Mosport will maybe help in finding the answers. Who will stick to their guns and their strategy, or will the 1 stoppers all opt for non stopping and vice versa? The answers will have to wait a while - next stop is Istanbul for some Zonda sprints.