Race Report Phakisa 200 km Endurance
I am pleased to report that the Shield Golf delivered an amazing result, winning Class B be and narrowly losing out on winning the Overall 200 to Graham Nathan and Wouter Roos in a class A GTI (Our Shield Golf finished within 2 minutes of Nathan and Roos on the same number of laps) – (the Shield Golf is an absolute little monster).
Heading out to Phakisa has always been fun, however over the years it’s become more of a mission as you need think of so many additional items to bring along like the kitchen sink as the facilities have deteriorated to an all-time low with no running water and limited electricity – even the toilets are now portable.
Scrutineering
Thankfully was a breeze as the team spent the last few weeks going through the car in the evenings and on weekends to ensure all was in order, which included a final tune up at 8v Performance for the endurance .
Phakisa is well known for being an abrasive circuit and extremely hard on tyres, mainly due the years of lack of maintenance to the circuit and in some way has become virtually uneconomical to race on and in some way unsafe. I put on a good set of used tyres that at any other track would have been good enough to qualify on, race two Heats and possibly be good enough to do some practise and testing on afterwards. Friday practise session, I took the Golf out in the morning and did a few laps not trying to break any records to ensure the car was all good. Tyre wear looked as expected and thought best to park the car for the day to save the tyres for Saturdays qualifying and a short sprint race, before the main event at 3pm which would require a new set of rubber all around.
Qualifying
Went well on Saturday morning and managed a 1.58.0 which was good enough for 1st in class B and 5th on the grid.
I switched the used tyres around to maximise the best set for the front for traction and thought we would be okay for the sprint race which went well until I picked an electrical problem due to a simple pop rivet coming loose and needed to pit before the chequered flag.
Wow – I was blown away as the electrical fault more than likely prevented me from having a serious accident as the tyre had degenerated to the canvas.
With no time to spare I jumped into action to start prepping the car, sort out the last-minute instructions for pit crew with regards to the compulsory stop and fitted new rubber all around.
Hopefully ensuring that all the gremlins which had crept in during the sprint race were wall sorted out before the 3pm start.
Phakisa 200
Results from the sprint race determine your starting position for the endurance which due to the electrical issue encountered meant that I started third last on the grid… (fortunately I had 200 KM to make up for it). Key for success in any endurance race is to get into a rhythm and stay out of trouble , which can be challenge starting in the back of the pack and having to weave your way up the field .
The Shield golf by lap 10 had settled into a solid rhythm and found myself running up near the front of the field. Normally I share a pit team with Adrian Dalton, who are well trained and understand the dynamics associated to the endurance pit stops and refueling procedure who unfortunately could not make the event at the last minute .
Due to circumstance I had to round up a new team managed by Andy Gossman and his crew who were looking after 4 cars on the day, this was not ideal but I had no alternative as I had to schedule the fuel stops to agreed laps which is bit risky .
Fortunately and by some luck my fuel stop was timed to perfection as it was on the same lap as a safety car deployed, which then put me on par and challenging for the overall lead after the stop.
With roughly 30 minutes to go I never had sufficient time to try reel in the leader and ended up a respectable 2nd overall and 1st in Class B .
