A busy weekend for SAM Racing
It will be another busy race meeting for Lee Philips and his SAM Racing outfit at Kyalami this weekend as the WesBank Super Series for national championship circuit racing starts the second half of its 10-round calendar. Three SAM-prepared Nissan 350Zs are entered in the premier class A of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship and there are two SAM single-seaters in the Formula VW national challenge.
"We've had a hectic four weeks since the last round in East London in June" said Philips. "All the cars have had their mid-season strip and rebuild. We've made some changes and have been testing the Nissans at Kyalami and I have to say we're quite excited about the extra pace we've found."
Bridgestone Production Car Championship
The two familiar Nissan Dealer Team 350Zs, backed by the Tubular Group (which includes Tubular Technical Construction) will again be in the capable hands of Marco da Cunha and Darryn Lobb, while a third 3,5-litre V6 Nissan has been prepared by SAM for the experienced Gavin Kelsey and new sponsor Playboy Cosmetics. Kelsey was a top Group N driver in class A in the 1990s and has raced in a number of formulas, including single seaters.
"We’re delighted to have Gavin join the team as a driver" said Philips. "He has been an important part of the technical backup team this year and brings a lot of experience with him, both in terms of production and formula car set-up and driving knowledge."
Da Cunha, a former Formula GTi Challenge champion, missed round four at Zwartkops Raceway in May as a result of MBA study commitments and made a good comeback in East London, where he qualified fifth and finished fifth in the 10-lap sprint race that opened proceedings. He was less fortunate in the longer, reverse grid race two, tangling with the Audi A4 Quattro of Johan Fourie after he had been second behind his team-mate and eventually finishing seventh.
"Marco has been the victim of some incidents not of his own making and is due for the kind of good results we know he is capable of" said Philips. "We recorded much quicker lap times in our recent testing at Kyalami than we achieved there in March, so I am confident – with better luck – Marco will be at the sharp end of the field again."
Lobb, the reigning Shelby CanAm sports car champion, has made remarkable progress in the second Tubular–backed 350Z in his first season in production car racing. He scored his best result of the season in East London to finish second in the 15-lap race two after starting on pole and leading for 14 laps. He had already scored two third places in consecutive race meetings (in Port Elizabeth and at Zwartkops) by taking full advantage of the reverse grid employed for the second race of the day.
Formula Volkswagen Challenge
SAM Racing’s two-car team contesting the inaugural Formula Volkswagen Challenge consists of Paulo da Cunha (younger brother of Marco) in the Tubular-backed entry and Wesleigh Orr in the Global Consulting Solutions example.
Da Cunha has been with the team since the first round at Kyalami in March, while Orr joined the series in round three with another team and moved to SAM Racing for the East London round.
While he was unfortunate to suffer a diff problem on his car in qualifying in EL, starting from the back of the grid, Da Cunha showed a lot of grit and determination to fight his way up to eighth place by mid race and went on to finish a respectable eighth.
Orr did well to qualify second in EL on his debut appearance for the team and went on to take two podiums, a second and a third. This was his best result of the season so far and prompted the former Rotax Max karting world champion (+ European Rok 125cc & European DD2 125cc champions) and current A1GP Team South Africa rookie driver to declare: "Now I am with a winning team that works towards a common goal; with SAM Racing, both Global Consulting Solutions and I can go places."
"Wesleigh was really impressive in East London," said Philips. "We had a couple of technical problems that robbed him of some pace, so expect him to be a lot quicker at Kyalami. The technical team toiled well into Friday night to change Paulo's gearbox, so his gutsy performance from the back of a very talented field was a nice 'thank you'."
Philips is hoping his third car, driven by David Perel in the first four rounds, will return with the talented Capetonian at the wheel once sponsorship problems have been resolved.