A promising start, a disappointing finish for SAM Racing at Zwartkops
It was not quite the weekend the Nissan Dealer Team had hoped for at Zwartkops Raceway in round six of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship. Multiple pre-event test sessions at Zwartkops had shown that both Marco da Cunha and Darryn Lobb had good pace in their Tubular-backed Nissan 350Zs and team principal Lee Philips was confident of a good showing at the Pretoria West circuit on Friday and Saturday.
On race day, the best result was Da Cunha’s fourth place in race two – a good effort considering he had started the 15-lap race from 10th on the grid after gearbox problems in race one.
Despite showing well in all practice sessions, Da Cunha only managed 7th fastest in qualifying and Lobb, struggling with the set-up of his car, qualified 11th. “We were very disappointed,” said Philips. “Marco was quick all weekend and we were expecting a top three result. We think the track surface slowed down a lot after the Wesbank V8s were on the circuit immediately before our qualifying session, putting down a lot of rubber.”
Da Cunha and Lobb somehow managed to collide with each other in race one after one of the Audi’s had brake failure and spun off the circuit, bringing out the yellow caution flags. Both cars suffered some damage and Da Cunha’s wheel alignment was affected. Later on his gear lever broke and he nursed the car home 10th place stuck in fourth gear.
Lobb, after struggling with the set-up of his car in practice and qualifying, was happier with its race performance and finished 8th. He chased an out-of-sorts Leeroy Poulter in the works Sasol Nissan for seventh place. “I thought I could get past Leeroy and could see that he was battling with his car, but I backed off when the engine temperature started to go up. At least we all finished in the points.”
Lobb should have started race two from pole position (the top eight finishers from race one are reversed for the first four rows of the grid), but a surprise late decision by the clerk of the course saw the grid changed at the last minute and Lobb started from second position with Da Cunha 10th. Nissan Motorsport protested the decision and has now lodged an appeal after the protest was disallowed on a technicality. The results of the second race are subject to the outcome of the appeal.
As it turned out, Da Cunha had a steady and untroubled run, showing the excellent pace he had during Friday’s practice to finish an excellent 4th ahead of Poulter and Sipuka in the two Sasol Nissans.
Lobb’s chances of a good result from the front row of the grid disappeared when he and Poulter clashed in turn one, resulting in damage to the Tubular-backed Nissan’s suspension. Despite this setback, the reigning Shelby Can Am champion maintained second place from the start until lap seven, when was overtaken cleanly by the BMW 330i of Anthony Taylor. He was holding third place when he aggressively was hit from behind by the Audi A4 Quattro of Johan Fourie on lap nine – “Johan just drove into the back of me,” said Lobb – and the Nissan sustained a damaged power steering pipe in the off track excursion. He dropped back to 8th and when he realized he was trailing power steering fluid on to the track – and that he had also suffered a flat wheel – he sensibly pulled off the circuit and into retirement on lap 12.
SAM Racing would like to thank the following sponsors for their continued support:
- Technical Construction
- Exa Motor Group
- Nissan Valid Value
- Nissan Diesel
- Hi Tech Mag Repairs
- Signs for You
- Sasol
- Exa Platinum Rentals
- Sax Shocks
- Top Car Paint & Panel
- GP Windscreens
- NX Gen
- Tri Dent