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At the halfway point in the 2009 Shelby Can Am
championship, 2007 champion Darryn Lobb looks set to
take the title. Two more victories have taken his
score card to seven wins from eight starts.
Driving the DAW prepared DK Woodcraft car, Lobb
qualified fastest while Thomas Reib (CoolstarBeverages)
was the only other driver to dip below the magical
1minute 40 second barrier. Row two belonged to Alan
Eve (Phakisa) and current champion Rui Campos (Hugo
Boss) as Brian Algar in the Thuthuka Welding example
and Durban’s rapid JP Bredenhann (Bigfoot
Express/Panel Rite) completed the top six.
Race one started with a bang, literally. Going into
turn one it appears as though Campos turned in
without seeing Eve on his inside who had no choice
but to take a tighter line and clipped Reib, who
hadn’t had the best of starts.
With Reib spinning across the track, the rest of the
field had nowhere to go and almost every car
suffered damage with Colin Frost (Strocam) and
Richard Wood retiring. Reib and Algar were the two
front runners who lost most time.
The race had lost most of its attraction as a spread
out field with bits of bodywork either flapping in
the breeze or missing circulated without further
incident. Predictably Lobb ran out the winner with
Eve almost three seconds adrift as Campos got third
ahead of Sean Greve (Vulcania Reinforcing).
Having recovered from a foot injury which caused him
to miss the last round, Hanno Pengilly (Azura
Retreats) dodged the chaos to come home fifth ahead
of Bertil Hofmann in the striking Brawn GP liveried
GP Energy Drink backed car.
Race two was a 15-lap affair and as is tradition, it
was run with the Altech GT field which made for a
great spectacle, especially as the grid is partially
reversed.
Lobb kept everything neat and tidy as he came
through the field to bag the win after taking the
lead from Reib two laps from the end.
After holding second place for most of the race
Campos was a subdued third with Algar not far
behind. Fifth went to Eve and JP Bredenhann rounded
off the top six finishers. Pengilly held off Hofmann
and was delighted with seventh while Dave Beattie
got ninth ahead of Frost.
Beattie was driving the car usually raced by Craig
Shorter after he suffered engine problems on Friday
and Shorter couldn’t make the race due to business
pressure.
Round five of the Shelby Can-Am championship takes
place at Zwartkops, near Pretoria on 25 July. |
