A good day for SAM Racing at Phakisa Freeway
SAM Racing came away from Phakisa Freeway near Welkom on Saturday with two solid 2nd place finishes in the Formula Volkswagen National Challenge and a convincing 3rd place in the opening race of round seven of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship.
Wesleigh Orr showed an improved turn of pace, particularly in race two, in the Global Consulting Solutions-backed FVW and took a comfortable 2nd overall for the day behind Cristiano Morgado although ahead of points leader Gavin Cronje.
Team-mate Paulo da Cunha (Tubular VW) finished 7th in both races after starting 6th on both occasions before small driving errors dropped him back a place. "Paulo was consistently quick all weekend and we are very happy with his progress," said SAM Racing team principal Lee Philips.
"Wesleigh drove well and his results were encouraging considering he is a lot less familiar with the Phakisa circuit layout than his main rivals," said Philips. "We were somewhat surprised at the increased pace of Morgado and Cronje in race 1 and made a few changes to our cars between races following some valuable input from both of our drivers. It was a lot closer in race 2 when Wesleigh managed to run immediately behind Morgado, well clear of Cronje. We look forward to our next Formula VW round in Port Elizabeth (on October 4), where we believe we have a very good chance of our first race win. We performed well there in round three in April and it’s a circuit Wesleigh likes."
Orr, who is an official driver for A1 Team South Africa, will be having the valuable opportunity of seat time in the new Ferrari-powered A1GP car before Port Elizabeth, when he participates in the pre-season testing for the fourth A1GP World Cup of Motorsport that starts at Mugello in Italy on September 21.
Marco da Cunha qualified his Tubular-backed Nissan Dealer Team 350Z in an excellent 3rd for the first of Saturday's races and showed good pace in finishing 3rd. He was out of luck in the second race, when a breaker switch on the fuel pump malfunctioned and the 3,5-litre V6 engine died on him on the opening lap. "We're sure Marco would have put in another podium performance had it not been for the fuel pump problem," said Philips.
Team-mate Darryn Lobb struggled most of the weekend in the second Tubular-backed Nissan 350Z. He crashed in qualifying, damaging the car's suspension and setting up a late night session by the pit crew to get the car ready in time for Saturday's races.
"I clipped the tyres placed on the edge of the circuit after dropping a wheel over the curb," said a disappointed Lobb. "This turned the car, sending it hard into the wall. The technical guys did a great job and the car felt really good in the warm-up on Saturday morning. We only started 10th on the grid, so we were always in for a tough ride.
"Race 2 was much better after we made a few adjustments to the car between races. We managed to get up to 6th place from 11th halfway through the race in close proximity to the front pack, but I then lost a bit of ground when I spun the car at the end of lap six and dropped a place. I was happy with 5th at the finish."
"We're quite satisfied with our overall performance this weekend," said Philips. "We adapted well to the new 18-inch tyres that the class A cars are now running and managed to stay on the pace of the factory cars. Marco was just 0,06 sec off the fastest lap of the first race (a new lap record set by Anthony Taylor in the BMW). The extra rubber on the road has given us more overall grip and means we can carry more speed into and out of the corners, but more importantly, has given us good lap on lap consistency. We're looking forward to the next Production Car round at Zwartkops on September 6."