Interviews with Charles McKowen and Philip Woodhouse

Our intrepid reporters tracked down two of our recently crowned champions, Charles McKowen (LFS Series) and Philip Woodhouse (V8 Series). You can read Charles' full interview here and Phil's one here. Stay tuned for more interviews as the rest of the champions are crowned.

California Crunch

Reporter: Marc van Niekerk
The GP 1979 boys flew off to some hot sunny weather, golden beaches and even hotter company for the 4th race of the series. Practice time was put on hold until the very last opportunity for most. Everyone was in for a rude awakening when confronted with the track conditions on race day. Low grip street course surrounded by car killing walls made all wish they had spent less time on the beach for this 40 lap race.

Qualifying saw Marc vN take pole, with Andre second and comfortable series leader Dewald, in 3rd.

At the start Andre and Dewald got away fast leaving the rest of the field to squabble and try to settle down for a long afternoon. The attrition rate was high as expected and by lap 10, Long Beach had claimed half the field with only 7 drivers still circulating. Up front Andre had been under pressure from Dewald and Marc was slowly making his way up to Dewald's rear wing after getting by Leon.A small slip-up saw Andre in a Ligier - who had settled into a consistent pace - slowly escaping the grasp of Dewald who suddenly had to contend with Marc. The battle for 2nd place between the Ferrari and the Lotus became a battle of wills - both drivers pushing hard, yet mindful of the fact that the smallest lapse of concentration or miscalculation on a difficult track would end their race. As the lap counter slowly ticked down to zero, Andre drove the perfect race - fast and consistent. He ended up being the well deserved winner by 8 seconds - leading all 40 laps.

Dewald never wilted under the pressure and finished 2nd with Marc taking the last podium spot. Newcomer Leon had a quiet race for most of the afternoon and took 4th place, showing that he has what it takes by managing to finish yet another race. Ken finished in a credible 5th place after suffering an accident late in the race.

The next race in Dijon marks the halfway spot for the season. Do not miss this one!

French Resistance

The Touring Cars were at Magny-Cours this week and the drivers put on a show not to be forgotten. In qualifying Dave showed his double win at Monza was no fluke by blitzing the field, but 2nd to 6th were separated by less than 0.2. A technical issue saw the qualifying results scrapped and the first race started with random grid positions.

Dave got his customary great start and immediately started to open a gap. Behind him Chris managed to slot into 2nd followed by Kim, Shayne and Andre. Shayne and Andre mugged Kim early on and all 3 closed down Chris to start an intense battle for 2nd place using all the road and abusing the tyres. Shayne managed a great pass in T2 to take the place, but Chris and Andre were right back in the fight with a layer of paint separating the 3 cars. Chris finally managed to get back into 2nd then put his Accord into the wall exiting the last turn taking him out of the fight. Shayne, Andre and Kim, all in similar SEAT Leons carried on the fun until the end of the race, which was won by Dave with Shayne 2nd and Andre 3rd.

Race 2 was a different story with Arno getting his Peugeot 407 into T1 in the lead from pole, followed by Chris and Dave. Chris made a move into the Adelaide hairpin for the lead but before 2nd could be sorted Shayne arrived with locked wheels and collided with Andre who then slid into Arno. This let Chris and Dave followed by Kim get away from the pack early on. Chris was driving a defensive race, using the low speed advantage of his Accord to counter the slight power advantage of Daves BMW. Dave made 3 attempts to get past at Adelaide, finally making the 3rd one stick and was then able to open a small gap - it looked as if he was going to be able to cruise to a 4th successive victory until an uncharacteristic spin at 180 allowed Chris to close right up. Chris could smell a win and tried everything to get past, but Dave held it together until the end to take a well deserved win ahead of Chris and Kim.

There is now a 2 week break before the drivers again meet, at the classic Touring Car track Brands Hatch - an event not to be missed!

Close shave at Imola

With a field full of nGT Porsches, the single Ferrari of Pedre and solitary support class Gillet Vertigo of Chris looked very much under German assault. Roger showed strong pace early on and led the nGT field away on their hour long battle around the Imola circuit. As the crew stormed into turn 1, Kim seemed to be suffering from a fit of some sorts and proceeded to hop uncontrollably over the inside of the corner into oncoming traffic. Contact was made, but not enough to hamper anyone's chances...except for Kim himself who fell to the back of the field.
Roger led the way early on, followed closely by Charl, Arno and Dewald. Unfortunately for the "Mooning" leader, lap 6 saw him fall out of the lead into 4th and in subsequent efforts to make up for lost time, he eventually retired from the race on lap 16 with suspension failure. Just before the round of pitstops, Arno conceded 2nd position to Dewald, but managed to retake his position by leapfrogging him in the pits. Charl made the best of his stop and exited with a lead of about 10 seconds, as Arno and Dewald started to launch a dual effort to reel in the flying Smit. Although Charl maintained a solid pace, the pace of the chasing duo was enough to render his lead non-existent with only a couple of laps to go. Dewald passed Arno on the penultimate lap and shot into 2nd with hopes of snatching the lead in similar fashion. In one of the closest finishes in recent times, Charl managed to barely hold on to his victory(his first race back after extended holiday) with a winning margin of 0.1 seconds over Dewald in 2nd, who in turn held off Arno...resulting in the top 3 drivers finishing wihtin 1 second of each other. Such a close finish over a hour long race says much for the competitive nature of this series.