Reporter: Marc van Niekerk
Watkins Glen was the last race of a long, competitive and hard season for the GP'79 drivers. To top it off 2 drivers, Marc van Niekerk and Marc Wright, were still in with a chance of catching Dewald Batt in the championship battle.
Being in the good old US of A everyone had to put up with the citizens, fireworks, flyby's, pom-pom girls and what not before the race proper could get underway. Being the final race of the series, most drivers actually enjoyed the distractions, most notably Craig Hume and his Renault. With the Green Piece contingent still stuck at the over-efficient airport security he could show off his ride with pride to all the locals who believes that bigger is always better. read more...
Until the party almost came to an abrupt end when one huge Texan, simply known as Bud wanted to buy Craig's car there and then. Cash. Real Dollars. I kid you not. Even offered an oil well to boot. When it was pointed out to Bud that being yellow does not necessarily mean it's a Chevy and that the 220 fuel tank capacity is measured in litres rather than gallons, he still refused to relent. Only when Ken Hunter illustrated that the rear wing is in fact not a gun rack did Bud back off. Reluctantly.
The pit-lane was eventually cleared and all concerned could start to focus on the business at hand. Zaahir Essa took the customary pole with championship contenders Batt and Wright dishing it out hard for 2nd place on the grid. Van Niekerk opted to take a pass on qualifying after his engineer advised him that his welded together rear suspension would in all probability last 10 laps at the most.
The race turned out to be a typical last race of the season. With the exception of the championship contenders, most guys were focussed on the after party and ended their race prematurely in order to get the best seats at the bar. Essa was leading with Batt staying in touch with Wright for the first part, later overtaking him. Essa showed he was human after all which gave Batt the lead and when Wright suffered connection problems, the championship was all but Dewald's. Except that van Niekerk was still running and in 2nd place. Any slip of concentration by the leader could mean falling at the last hurdle.
Dewald managed to absorb the pressure and kept it all together taking the win and with it a well deserved championship.
And Craig? Well, seems like the mysterious white powder never really got flushed from the system. Intermittent misfiring and 4 pitstops later he managed to bring the Renault home in the final podium spot. Getting the worst spot at the bar and no sale of the century to Bud. But nobody can take away the shiny new trophy in the closet.
It was a great bunch of guys running in a great series. Thanks to all who competed and did their contribution to make it fun. Till next time.
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