Wait steals the show at Phakisa Freeway
After a successful and exciting round held at Zwartkops in February, the drivers of the Tsebo Outsouring Porsche Challenge were ready for the high speed phakisa Freeway circuit.
Newcomer, Richard de Roos, had never turned a wheel at Phakisa and Jacqui Harvey (Adapt Advertising) had only 5 laps prior experience at this challenging circuit. Friday saw the unfortunate demise of 3 cars, namely current champion Ray Wise, Gerhard Lottering and Mark Ellis whose engine let go in the first practice session. Ray's chances of retaining the championship were given new hope when his wife, Marita, handed over her race car in order for him to compete.
Race 1 saw and impressive tussle between Richard de Roos and Marius Prinsloo (Flora Motors) with the pair racing bumper to bumper and swapping positions on numerous occasions. They were however being chased down by the usual contenders of Melt Malan, Hennie de Klerk (Treasury One), Marius Wait (Physique Science) and Mark Harvey "Wallbanger" (Adapt Advertising). Melt Malan tore through the field crossing the finish line to take the win, followed by Harvey Wallbanger and Roy Obery (GWM Edenvale). Marius Prinsloo unfortunately exceeded his handicap time and was excluded from the points, as was Ray Wise (CBC Fleet Insurance), and Richard de Roos.
In race 2 the handicap system worked perfectly with the entire field competing for position on the back straight on the last lap. Jacqui Harvey drove an excellent race but could not hold off the likes of Marius Wait, Hennie de Klerk, Harvey Wallbanger and Roy Obery, the latter making a last minute dive past Jacqui through the treacherous back sweep. Wait and De Klerk were exceptionally fast taking first and second place followed by Harvey Wallbanger in third. Melt Malan retired due to a broken fan belt.
Round 3 takes place at Midvaal Raceway in Meyerton on Saturday 5 May.
The drivers and fans of Porsche Club Challenge would like to thank Tsebo Outsourcing Group (www.tsebo.com) for their valuable support and sponsorship of the Phakisa event.
The Porsche Challenge racing series runs on a handicap format for 2012 as it has since 2002. This means the slowest cars start first and the faster cars start further back. The cars will start the race spread out but as the laps go by the cars becomes more and more of a tight mix of fast and slow. A traffic jam of 4 or 5 cars into a corner is nothing uncommon in this series resulting in some spectacular, close racing.
Drivers have to nominate a lap time they believe they will not go faster than. This process is done prior to the first heat and second heat. If they drive within this nominated time they finish the race and qualify in the results. Should the driver go faster than his nominated time he is disqualified from the race and results for that heat.
This format leads to close and exciting racing where overtaking is plentiful. If the handicapping is accurate all cars should theoretically all cross the finish line together.
2010 saw the inclusion of non-924 Porsches in the open class allowing cars such as the 944, historic 911, 914 to join in the action.