No thanks given in Turkey

Reporter: Marc van Niekerk
Most guys made the trip down to Turkey safely for the first sprint races of the season. The Zonda was built for speed, and speed was what the spectators were going to get. But that was not all...
Early practice saw the usual suspects Zaahir and Lawrence running away from the rest and it came as no surprise when they qualified 1/2 for race 1. read more...

Race 1 - At the start Marc vN slipped past Lawrence with Zee already settling down for another dominating performance. Further back Craig, Dewald and Shayne were tentatively testing the waters to see how close these cars are able to run. Both the battles for 2nd and for 4th were fierce throughout the race with Lawrence grabbing 2nd from Marc on the last lap, and Dewald getting to the line in front of Frosty and Shayne.
Word in the paddock is that possible sabotage was the reason why Rob ran out of fuel.

Race 2 - hectic, wow, bloody street fight were some of the words used to describe the race afterwards. With Zee last seen chatting to a couple of pit babes and mentioning something about having to do some work at the varsity it was up to the rest to fight it out. Lawrence lead the way from pole and would eventually win, but the real race was a 5 way battle for 2nd.

Kevin, Frosty, Dewald, Shayne and Marc ran balls to the wall from the go and positions were swapped continuously. The crowd gasped and gawked and those sitting at T5/6 were even to treated a 4 wide spectacle at some stage - screaming Zondas being raced on the limit with the drivers trying to set themselves up for position A for the next turn - would have been 5 wide if there was enough space, no doubt.

Something had to give and it was Kevin who drew the short straw. Entering the famous turn 8 he tripped over the kerb and the extreme G forced him into a barrel roll, nearly decapitating Frosty in the process. With Marc using the opportunity to slip away quietly from the hectic street fight, it was left to Dewald, Shayne and Frosty to entertain the crowd further. They did just that for the remainder of the race. Hectic.

While the rights to the movie was sold to local producer, the boys were last seen being carried around on the shoulders of an appreciative crowd, signing T-shirts, caps and programs. Let's hope they make it all back in time for Mosport.

Low Flying at Westhill

Reporter: Rikus Jordaan

The second stop on the Winter series took the racers to the Westhill circuit. After a very successful first event where the two cars being fielded this season matched up nicely drivers of the slightly slower UFR where noticeably nervous as the circuit was full of high speed corners where the UFR’s agility would perhaps not match the speed of the XFR.

Throughout practice sessions during the week it became apparent that the UFR was at less of a loss than most expected and that competition for top lap times would be stiff. Attendance at practice looked good and expectations were high for another full field come Thursday.. Read More...

On race day drivers arrived early to squeeze in a last bit of practice before qualifying started. After an intense qualifying session Anton Tcholakov took the pole with Rowan Becker taking the remaining front row spot followed closely by Hansie Myburgh. With the two of the three fastest times coming from UFR’s it was clear that fears of a one way battle where proved wrong and the drivers where eager to get underway.

The sprint race got underway with two drivers unfortunately having false starts, which required them to complete a penalty Drive-through. This saw Rowan Becker dropping down from 2nd to 10th position. The first lap saw some intense action with drivers swapping several positions within the space of half a lap. Most notably Anton Tchokalov dropped from pole position to 16th place and Hansie Myburgh dropped from 2nd place to second last. Some skillful driving from these racers saw them work themselves back up the field. Steven Pelser made use of all this confusion to move up 5 places to 2nd position within half a lap and took the lead on the next lap. The race ended with Steven Pelser winning the race followed by Keith Macfarlane and Gary Klinkert. After their unfortunate starts Anton Tchokalov, Rowan Becker and Hansie Myburgh managed to fight there way back into the points.

The main race kicked off with less confusion than the sprint but saw the previous race winner unfortunately dropping to almost the back of the pack. From the get go it was clear that it was going to be an intense race. 24 laps of this long course meant that there was a lot of time to play catch up for the few drivers who slipped up in the sprint race. It also meant a lot of time to try to not slip up for the front runners. The race proceeded with nothing more serious than a few bumps and spins, which cost positions but lucky not the entire race.

The competition was fierce and drivers where pushing their cars to the limit. It seems that everyone was in a battle for position the entire race, with several battles so intense that positions where swapped numerous times per lap. Despite this Rowan Becker managed to secure an early lead and led the race from lap 2 to the finish. Hansie Myburgh started in 6th and quickly made up the positions to lead the pack at the end of the 1st lap. He however slipped back to 6th place but fought his way up again to end the race in 2nd place. Anton Tchokalov started in 4th place, briefly fell back to 6th place, but managed to work his way back up the field to claim the last podium spot. Honorable mention goes to Pieter Kitshoff who, after having his sprint race interrupted, started from the back of the grid and fought his way past 2/3 of the field climbing an amazing 12 places.

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.

Battle of Britain

Reporter: Marc van Niekerk
Silverstone - built originally as an airfield in 1943, after the Battle of Britain - it was the scene of camaraderie, brotherhood and honour, but it also had its fair share of heartache and loss.

Fast forward to 2007 - a mild summer afternoon in July and the Ghosts of Silverstone were awakened by the roar of vintage 1979 engines. The SARL (fly)boys were here!
read more...

Early practice was dominated by Lawrence in a Lotus, but qualifying saw Leon in a Ligier take pole by 0.1 of a second from Lawrence and the Ferrari of MarcW in 3rd.

Scramble! The lights for the race start went green at 14:00 sharp, and what a race it turned out to be. Leon and Lawrence had an all out battle for the honour of leading, which went to the Lotus driver a couple of corners later.

The real dogfight was for 3rd place, where MarcW, MarcvN, Andre, Dewald and Chris were flying in tight formation trying to outwit each other. Positions during the first quater of the race were won and lost continuously - sometimes one would make up a place during a lap, only to loose it again a few corners later on the same lap. Although the guys were going hammer and tongs, side by side, nose to tail, sometimes with only inches of separation, the result report has shown no contact what so ever occurred during the initial mad dash for position. Feather in the cap for all concerned.

All good things must come to and end sometime and Silverstone was no exception. Up front Lawrence was still under pressure from Leon when a misunderstanding between Lawrence and a straggler saw the Lotus loose a front wheel - back in the dogfight the initial rush of adrenaline had seen off Chris and MarcW. Andre had moved into the 2nd position vacated once Lawrence had to call it a day, closely followed by Dewald and MarcvN.

As the laps started to tick away, Dewald missed a waypoint somewhere and Leon was comfortably cruising to a well deserved win - or was he?

At the start of the 34th and final lap, Leon had a 20 second lead over Andre, but with the knowledge that not all was well in the cockpit. The ground crew had inexplicably miscalculated the fuel needed and coming down Farm Straight the Ligier engine started to splutter, cough and eventually died. One corner and a small straight to go and Leon was driving dead stick. Wingman Rick was close by and as Leon's speed started to bleed off, he tried to push his teammate across the finish line.

Andre came thundering down the straight realising too late that the Ligier combination in the front of his windscreen were going very slow and 20 meters short of the finish line 3 Ligiers combined as one, parts flying every where. When the dust had settled and the video was reviewed, the win was given to Andre by a mere .2 of a second. MarcvN - with debris also bouncing of his Lotus finished 1.3 seconds behind Leon. Dewald finished 4th and Ken in 5th.

Just another day in the lives of the rfactor pilots. As the stunned crowd slowly made their way the the exits, one could see the Ghosts of Silverstone quietly nodding their approval. These boys have what it takes.