- Xolile Letlaka, Stuart White, Mikaeel Pitamber win SA Endurance Nine-Hours of Kyalami driven by RACE!
- Pesty Racing wins V8 Roadster and Index of Performance National Championships
- Adjust for Sleep team hit with 20 second penalty, losing the race win
- Backdraft trio Robert Maudant, Mark Futcher, Denver Branders win Nine-Hours Index of Performance
Xolile Letlaka and Stuart White won the SA Endurance National Championship after taking victory at the Nine-Hours of Kyalami with Mikaeel Pitamber drafted in as a third driver for the season-ending double-points race. The father-and-son team of Harm and Barend Pretorius won the inaugural V8 Roadster and Index of Performance National Championships in their Team Pesty Backdraft Roadster.
The Nine-Hours of Kyalami, proudly driven by RACE! was a frenetic race from the time the lights went out to unleash the 34-car grid until the chequered flag fell at 10pm.
Charl Arangies, the defending SA Endurance champion sprinted into the lead in his Bobcat Audi R8 LMS GT3 until pitting on lap 36 to hand the car over to his teammate Arnold Neveling who wasted no time re-gaining the lead from the Adjust for Sleep Nova of Nick Adcock, Michael Jensen, Charl Visser and Jonathan Thomas three laps later.
The Nova quartet won Friday’s Three-Hours of Kyalami and fought hard for the 100 points on offer by taking the lead once more on lap 51 when the Audi pitted for fuel. Neveling did a double stint but was forced to retire from the lead on lap 126 with alternator failure, ending a thrilling cat-and-mouse three-way battle.
The Nova was back in the lead with the Into Africa Lamborghini moving into second position, which was sufficient for Letlaka and White to win the championship if they brought the car home. With the Audi’s demise, White took the lead and held it through their next pit stop cycle, when Letlaka took over the driving duties.
Thomas jumped into the Nova and rapidly reeled in the green Into Africa car, setting a new Kyalami lap record in the process and finally took the lead on lap 164. Visser drove the final stint, keeping the Nova in front. With ten minutes remaining, the Proton safety car was called out once more and while driving slowly in convoy, Visser took off a glove to wipe his eyes, an incident that drew the race officials’ attention from the on-board camera and although crossing the line in first place, a 20-second penalty was issued for the infringement, and the Nova was classified second overall.
Taking third overall was the BBR Porsche 911 Cup team of Hein and Henk Lategan, Verissimo Tavares and Keagan Masters. The ultra-reliable Porsche developed a misfire and pitted just before 8pm where the team lost seven minutes while the spark plugs were changed; the BBR team had a sufficient cushion to remain in the final podium step which earned Hein Lategan and Tavares the overall championship runner-up position.
Fourth overall and winning class B was the Samlin Racing Trinity Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo of Sam and Damien Hammond and Wayne Roach. The trio had an on-board jack issue which meant the car wouldn’t lift to change tyres during pit stops in the fourth hour of the race which cost them six laps as the technicians successfully worked to resolve the problem.
With 25 minutes remaining the Trinity Lamborghini made a splash-and-dash pit stop and had to be push-started as the car developed a starter motor issue.
Fifth overall and the class C win went to Samlin Racing’s MKT Tactical Volkswagen Polo SupaCup which ran like clockwork except for a mid-race fuel pressure issue which was traced to a malfunctioning fuel tank breather, which meant the car was short fuelled.
Team Pesty, fighting for two championships, ended sixth overall and had a tense race as their Backdraft Roadster was stuck in fifth gear from hour four of the race. They were involved in a furious battle with the Team Qhubani Backdraft of Fikile Holomisa, Bapi Rubuluza and motoring journalist Setshaba Mashigo, during the opening hour before steadily pulling away before their mechanical issue struck.
The fleet of Backdrafts provided amazing entertainment for the trackside spectators as the equally prepared cars fought amongst themselves. Once the race settled down, the #131 machine of Gavin Rooke and Richard van Heerde built up a decent class E lead despite being tipped into a spin early in the race but maintained their advantage until the engine blew at the six-hour mark.
Six laps adrift of the Pesty car was the Index of Performance winners Robert Maudant, Mark Futcher and Denver Branders who ended seventh overall after a clean run, finishing a lap ahead of the Steve Brooks and Ludovic Caron Backdraft which ended eighth overall after overcoming a broken alternator on lap 46, losing 25 minutes while a repair was done.
Trevor Graham and Dan Hirsch ended ninth overall in their factory-run Backdraft Roadster, recovering well from a 24-minute time loss after two hours due to a faulty fuel pump.
Team Qhubani was justly rewarded with tenth overall after a bruising race that saw their Backdraft tapped into a spin at turn two after being hit by the MJR Audi R8 LMS GT3. The left-rear side-shaft and control arm had to be replaced which took the hard-working technicians just over 41 minutes to get the Backdraft race-ready again.
First-time Kyalami visitor, UK driver Jamie Going teamed up with double Mobil1 V8 champion Julian Familiaris, who received a last-minute call-up to join the driving roster. The team was late going to the grid and had to start from the pitlane but after 30 laps, they had to pit for 27 minutes to fix a brake issue making their 11th overall and 6th in class result even more impressive.
12th overall after switching to a different Backdraft after her Friday race car blew an engine was Fabienne Lanz and co-driver Karshin Naidoo. Naidoo was racing hard and bumped Van Heerde’s car into a spin at turn three which bent a control arm and forced the #27 car into the pits on lap 16.
13th overall and second in class C was the Kalex VW Polo SupaCup driven by lady racer Karah Hill, Jurie Swart and touring car racer Anthony Pretorius. The trio endured a litany of time-consuming problems after a feisty opening stint by Hill. The Polo had a broken sideshaft two hours into the race which cost 47 minutes of repair time, followed by gearbox issues which lost around 15 minutes before a cross-member bolt sheared which took a further 48 minutes to repair; the total repair time lost the Kalex team 63 laps to their class C rivals.
The G+H Racing Audi R8 GT4 of Gianni and Riccardo Giannoccaro and Ant Blunden suffered a burst water pipe as the car came into the pits for a routine stop at 5pm after four hours of racing. A two-hour repair saw the car back on track by 7pm and they duly reeled off the remaining hours to be classified in 14th overall and second in class B.
Scuderia Rossi wheeled out their brand-new Alfa Romeo Guilia for Claudio and Mario Rossi, but they experienced a catalogue of teething troubles which only manifest themselves under racing conditions. Early on the car vibrated alarmingly which after an inspection in the pits, turned out to be a flat-spotted tyre. Two hub bolts sheared, and the car suffered two blown tyres, in all spending 2½ hours of the first four hours in the pits.
One of the hardest luck stories came out of the Adapt Backdraft team garage; Phillip Meyer, Mark Harvey and Dean Wolson were tied on points with Pesty Racing in the overall V8 Roadster championship points table going into the Kyalami double-header. In the early morning warm-up session, the engine blew. Changing the engine took time and they were forced to start from the pit lane. The car suffered fuel spillage from the tank breather and pitted four times to de-pressurize the tank. On the fifth time, the team changed the tank and fuel pump where after the car ran perfectly until 10 minutes from the end of the race when Meyer crashed at Sunset corner, bringing their tough weekend to a dramatic close.
Demonstrating the perseverance of endurance racing, the Mozambique-based Korridas Racing trio of Bruno Campos, Jaoa Martins and Marcos Rodrigues had gearbox issues in Thursday’s free practice session. A new ‘box was installed but after 75 minutes, they lost second gear and after 2½ hours the VW Golf only had third gear which is how they completed the race, losing 2½ hours as they trundled around the circuit.
One of the leading retirements was the Backdraft Slingshot Roadster of Steve Clark and Mike McLoughlin. In Friday’s three-hour race, they had the pulley belt come loose three times due to overheating in the engine bay. Overnight ‘MacGyver’ repairs didn’t have the desired effect, and they retired from fourth overall just 88 minutes into the race.
MJR Motorsport had a stellar line-up of drivers with Andrew Rackstraw, Audi factory driver Christer Jons and Marius Jackson ready to share the cockpit. The car suffered a small fuel vapour fire at the 75-minute mark before retiring with bent suspension after Rackstraw collided with the Qhubani Backdraft.
The #169 Backdraft of Andre Bettencourt, Pedro Garcia and Cristian Bouche had a tie-rod break exiting the mineshaft, a fast, steep downhill section of the track, fortunately avoiding the barriers. Once recovered and back in the pits and repaired, the car was back on track only to retire with a seized motor because of a broken radiator cap seal.
The 2023 Index Champions, Tradecor Backdraft of Anthony Hoare, CJ Blackman and JP Briner retired with accident damage on lap 73.
1-Hour Dash
Heading into rounds five and six of the SA Endurance Interprovincial 1-Hour Dash championship Mike Verrier only needed to bring his Shelby CanAm to the chequered flag in both races which he duly did. In Friday’s race the Capetonian ended in ninth position while his only title rival, Juan Pierre Stander ended one place further back in his Ligier JS 53-Honda. In Saturday’s race, Verrier ended sixth with Stander once again in tenth position, earning Verrier a comfortable championship title.
The first 1-Hour Dash race was won by the thundering Ginetta G57 of Craig Jarvis, 10 seconds clear of Charl Arangies’ Porsche 911 Cup machine.
Third and fourth went to the G+H Transport McLaren team with Ricky Giannoccaro besting Ant Blunden by a lap. Roy Obery and Mo Mia brought their Porsches home in fifth and sixth places respectively.
In Saturday’s 1-Hour Dash which took place in the first sixty minutes of the Nine-Hours of Kyalami, Jarvis once again romped to dominant win over Brazilian JP Mauro in his Bigfoot Express Mercedes-AMG GT3. The big Merc lost two minutes in the pits with a stuck gearbox but had enough of a gap over third-placed Kashen Naicker’s Lotus Elise.
