SAM Racing makes fast start to production car championship
The SAM Racing team of Leeroy Poulter and Marco da Cunha got their Bridgestone Production Car Championship campaign off to a fast start at Kyalami on Saturday with a second and a fourth overall respectively for the day’s three races.
Former champion Poulter, driving the Tubular Mobicars Nissan 350Z, was quickest in a closely-contested qualifying and took the coveted pole position for the first of the two six-lap sprint races. Da Cunha, in the Tubular Exa Motor Group Nissan 350Z, qualified sixth. The intense competition was illustrated by the fact that the top six were covered by just seven tenths of a second, with Poulter grapping the hole shot by a mere 12 hundredths of a second around the 4,2-km Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit.
Poulter led from the rolling start but was soon under pressure from Anthony Taylor (BMW 335i), who got past on lap two and went on to take the first win of the season. The Nissan driver, slowed by a clutch problem that hampered his gear-changing from lap 3, held off a challenge from reigning champion Johan Fourie (Audi A4 Quattro) until the final lap, eventually finishing third, half a second behind Fourie and 1,3 seconds behind Taylor.
Da Cunha finished fifth after a race-long battle with Melvill Priest in the new twin-turbo BMW 335i, crossing the line half a second in arrears after 25 km of exciting racing.
The new format saw the second of the two six-lap sprint races start immediately after the first, with no opportunity for the teams to attend to their cars and with the top six finishers from race one starting in reverse order.
Da Cunha started from the outside of the front row alongside Michael Stephen (Audi A4 Quattro) but was passed by Taylor on the first lap and that’s how it stayed to the finish, with Stephen taking the win from Taylor, Da Cunha, Poulter, Priest and Tschops Sipuka (Audi A4 Quattro).
The final race of the day, over 10 laps, was a close-fought affair, with the top four led by polesitter Taylor covered by under three seconds at half distance. Poulter, who started from second on the grid (determined by the second best qualifying lap), successfully fought off a determined challenge from a rejuvenated Priest in the new BMW throughout the race despite again being hampered by clutch problems towards the end of the race (his team replaced the Nissan’s pressure plate after race two).
Struggling with his gear changes the former champion was just piped for what would have been a hard-earned second place by Stephen in the all-wheel drive Audi as the cars flashed across the finish line. Priest was fourth.
Da Cunha, who had started fifth, held off a spirited challenge from defending champion Fourie in the early laps to occupy fifth place throughout the race, finishing a comfortable 2,2 seconds ahead of Lee Thompson (BMW) and 1,2 seconds behind Priest.
“It was a good start to the new season,” acknowledged SAM Racing team principal Lee Philips. “This is a championship that is going to be won by the team that not only has a good car and driver, but also intelligently manages the success ballast rules, reverse grid and tyre allocations. It’s a thinking man’s contest and team strategy is going to be very important. I think we’re in for a great season of racing, which will please the fans and the sponsors. The new race day format of two back-to-back sprint races followed by a later and longer feature race worked very well. Our result today was hard fought, but really satisfying.”
SAM Racing acknowledges and thanks its corporate partners for their continued support: Tubular Group, Exa Motor Group, Mobicars, Atlas Copco, Exa Platinum Rentals, Tri Dent Panel Middelburg, Hi Tech Mag Repairs, Nissan Diesel, Valid Value, GP Windscreens, Rob Green Motorsport, Hydro Shop and Serbco Distributors.