| The Extreme Festival made its way to the Phakisa Freeway in the Free State this past weekend where SuperHatch took part in the annual 200km race along with the 111 Sports & Saloons. |
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| Each year when we go to this race or in previous years, it was the Phakisa 2 hour which SuperHatch raced in, G and I team up together, but since he has his new ‘suspension’ the doctor advised him that he needed to wait another 3 weeks before he could race, so we made the decision for me to do the race on my own. |
| 200km around Phakisa is approx. 1 hour and 40 minutes. |
| Thursday afternoon as I wanted to ensure everything was in place for the event itself and in order for me to do a few laps, as Friday I would not get out on track whilst busy with the office duties. |
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| I did 8 laps and the car felt good, we had some tyre ware and that was all, so a change of wheels, and an hour later I did another 6 laps and everything seemed fine. The car got jacked up and put on tresils, and everything checked over and over, the brakes were not in great shape and Phil gave us a set of discs for the little black number, while Louis gave us a set of EBC brake pads, the SuperHatch family spirit is always special but at away races it just seems to be better. |
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| Friday afternoon, I got to do the last session of the day, which was a good thing as the light was very low and this is how the race would be ending the following day at the same time. |
| There were a few small niggles that had crept in, but G and Gift ensured they were all sorted before the day was over. |
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Friday evening saw the traditional big braai take place with just about all the competitors joining in and everyone getting together with a massive amount of spirit. |
| Saturday was an early start for me office wise, but track wise we only qualified at 12h30, I had managed to put the car 2nd in class C for SuperHatch which meant 25th overall. |
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| Race time 16h20… and everyone was ready and excited, we had our pit stop planned and off I went to line up on the grid. With a rolling start, which is something we aren’t too used to, but we all bunched the cars up nice and tight and as we got onto the main straight, the lights were on… |
| … just a few split seconds later they were off… and off we went, into turn 1 all nice and clean and I had made 2 positions taking two of the 924 Porsches, and the cars were just staying super close and nicely bunched together, within 4 laps I was getting into a nice comfortable zone and setting a pace I could maintain, as I went into the fast sweep off the back straight, Darryl in the 111 Golf tried to pass me and lost control into the second part of the corner, forcing me to take the ‘off’ track route and go all 4 wheels onto the grass and thankfully he missed me, but a number of cars got through and now I had to try make up the ground again. |
| I put my head down and did just that, I got into a 3 way battle for a while with another 924 Porsche and a mk2 Golf, which continued for some time, the Golf and I got past the Porsche and we continued our battle for 27 laps, at which time I went on for my pit stop. |
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G had given me the signal… (for the 1 hour mark) which I totally got confused with being my pit stop, so as I entered the pits, I switched off and I couldn’t see any of my crew, then there they were, busy with one of the other cars pit stop, it then dawned on me what I had done wrong, and that I had come in 2 laps to early…. I got out the car cleaned my windscreen as per the rules of the race and went and got myself some water out the pit, Phil saw that the guys were busy and came over, while Gareth asked which wheel I wanted checked, the two of them got going on my wheel change and Gift came over to do the re-fueling, while G and the rest finished the other pit stop, then he came over and made sure all was well with our stop, I was already strapped back in and was waiting for the go ahead that the fuel was done as the wheel was back on and we were ready to go. There it was a knock on the roof and off I went to re-join the race. |
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And again I was in the mix and non-stop racing ensued. 5 laps from the end the safety car was deployed and as I entered the fast sweep off the back straight, Nic’s baby blue kadett was on its side facing the traffic, Marius had been driving, but he was next to the car and we all knew all was ok. |
| The race ended in the dark, behind the safety car. |
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The results are what we have all been waiting for:
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- 1st in class C – SuperHatch for the day
- 5th on Index of Performance
- 11th Overall on the road
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| What a great result, and a car in perfect working order, we could not have asked for a better result. |
| Thanks to all the guys that got involved and assisted wherever they could, and especially to G for the awesome car. |
| And to all the sponsors who make it possible THANK YOU |
| The next round is at Kyalami on the 24th of May. |
See you all trackside.
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For more information and pictures please contact:
Mel Spurr
Cell: 079 469 7511 | Email: members@zoc.co.za
Pictures courtesy of Racepics.co.za |
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