The 1st ever Phakisa 200

SuperHatch and 111 Sports & Saloons joined forces and the Extreme Festival played host to the first Phakisa 200 event which is not open to all sorts of sports cars and so on like other endurance races, this is just for tin tops with a time cut off of 1:52.000. [singlepic id=4159 w=320 h=240 float=center]
And for SuperHatch the points that are up for grabs are well worthwhile… 5 points for being there, one set of points for finishing order within your class and another set for the index results… so consistency is key along with the package for sprint races and of course in a long distance race – let’s not forget the pit stop.
 

Qualifying/Warm up

Goldwagen
aka signage
All Toy Spares
ASAP New and Used Spares
ATS Motorsport Supplier
Campos Transport
Car Care Clinic
The Car King
Jagi
JSRacing
PTA Noord Toyota
Renexcon
Spurr Racing
wynn's
The Big Z - Zwartkops Raceway
The qualifying for the Phakisa 200 was at 1pm Saturday and most SuperHatch drivers ensured that they did the qualifying if they were sharing with a non-member for the race so that if they got the quickest lap the point would go to them.
[singlepic id=4191 w=320 h=240 float=center] Class A: saw Hilton van Nieuwenhuizen (ASAP Peugeot) that set the pace with a 01:59.437 for him and Brett Garland to be on pole for SuperHatch and 7th on the grid, the only SuperHatch car to get under the 2 minute mark in the Qualifying session. Next was JP Nortjie & Andre De Lange (Toyota RunX) and 10th on the grid, from Geoff Tugwell & Mark du Toit (VW Golf mk1), 11th on the grid, the twin brothers Jaco & Pierre Lubbe (ASAP Peugeot 207) lined up 5th for class A and 13th on the grid, Mel Spurr and her partner Gerhard Lottering (ASAP, Wealth Avenue, Harness co, Castrol Opel Corsa) was 5th in class and 15th on the grid.
Class B: quickest man out there was Nic Martin taking his first pole this year for him and co-driver Louis Scholtz (RDG Opel Kadett), from the AC Honed group VW Golf mk1 of Andre Calitz and George Slabbert (17th on the grid) after Baloyi & Quan-Chai were found to be underweight and put to the back of class B, then taking the 3rd spot for the B’s and 18th on the grid was Morne Human in the Action Ford Fiesta from Jaco Kriel & Werner Pieterse (CIR Auto Customs & Impact gearbox, Opel SuperBoss) 4th in class and 20th on the grid and 5th in class & 21st on the grid was the Konig brothers Jono and Stuart in their Northern bolt & tool, VW Golf mk1.
Class C: saw the Journo Marius Roberts set the pace for himself and his co-driver Shaun Besteman (Tyre Shield Opel Kadett) and put the car in 14th overall, from brother and sister team mates Louise van der Walt & Jacques Joubert (Car King Ford Fiesta) who were 16th on the grid. The father and son team of Jacques van der Zee & Peter Hills (Tugwell Design Citroen C2) 3rd and 19th overall, 4th in class & 22nd overall went to the Ford Fiesta of Tony Hyams & his friend Juan van der Walt, and 5th in class and 26th on the grid was the Uno’s for Africa/BP Spares Fiat Palio of Vernon Visagie and his friend & sponsor Francois Joubert.

Race

[singlepic id=4197 w=320 h=240 float=center] With this being an endurance race it is certainly not won in the first corner and everyone knows that and the positions stayed very much the same for the first few laps while everyone settled into their ‘groove’, Brett and Mark were in a full on battle as if it was a sprint race with JP holding off Pierre and Mel who were all grouped together just behind the front 2, JP had a spin in lap 5 and Mel sympathised with him and they had to play catch up, while Brett & Mark just kept on at one another for their entire stint which lasted for 20 of the 45 laps.
The drivers started handing the cars over to the co-drivers, some as soon as within the first 35 minutes. Andre took the RunX up a few places and showed why this is his ‘home’ track, Gerhard while chasing Hilton tried too hard and put a con rod through the block of the Corsa, Jaco ‘kissed’ the wall and Mark & Geoff battled with the pit stop, all to result in Hilton getting the flag for him and Brett, from the Lubbe twins and De lange & Nortjie with the RunX debut in SuperHatch taking home the 3rd place.
In class B, the battles were just as close and hard fought with Ish and Ryan making sure they capitalised on their misfortunes of the morning weighing session and got to the front in very little time, as did Nic & Louis also ensuring that they were always in the hunt, with very little between then and the ‘manual’ pit stops being the biggest equaliser in this event, this is where we saw yet another battle won and lost. The husband & wife team of Linda & Gerhard Henning in the Toy Spares Golf mk 3 made sure that even though they had started quite a way back, it didn’t hinder their performance in the race .Andre & George were also smooth and consistent for the entire 200km’s with no mistakes, Chad Ten and Marius Wait were in the TAR VW Golf mk1 and also had a great performance in the race after what was a low qualifying place, the Konig brothers had a quiet and successful outing and Jaco & Werner starting experiencing alternator issues towards the end, only Morne had a DNF in class.
Class C, was a fast and challenging race up front, with Jacques making an early break and getting ahead of everyone and pulling a gap, but unfortunately the glory was all short lived with the lower control arm/ball joint breaking in the fast sweep onto the back straight in lap 12. [singlepic id=4220 w=320 h=240 float=center]
Shaun got a good lead then for him and Marius and Jacques and Peter were just staying super constant and ensured that their pit stop was flawless this giving them the win by staying out of trouble, something that Marius didn’t manage after a slow moving vehicle in the fastest part of the track caused an accident between himself and one of the 111 competitors, causing them both to have to pit to ensure they could carry on, Tony and Juan got stuck in the kitty litter with 2 laps remaining and Vernon and Francois also kept it nice and clean, as a result finishing in 3rd. Alta had a accident which caused her to retire on lap 25.
 

Results:

  • Class A: Hilton & Brett (Peugeot 206), Jaco/Pierre Lubbe (Peugeot 207) JP & Andre (Toyota RunX)
  • Class B: Ishmael & Ryan (Honda Civic), Nic & Louis (Opel Kadett) Linda & Gerhard (VW Golf)
  • Class C: Jacques & Peter (Citroen C2), Marius & Shaun (Opel Kadett), Vernon & Francois (Fiat Palio)
To emphasise the consistency of the SuperHatch competitors, we took 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th and 10th places of the top 10 places in the overall Index of Performance classification.
The next round of the SuperHatch championship is back at Phakisa on the 13th of July for 2 sprint races.

See you all trackside.