In the tradition established by the first three rounds of the 2024 SA Endurance Series, the 4 Hours of Kyalami prodcued a nail-biting finish with overall winners Nick Adcock, Michael Jensen and Charl Visser aboard the Rico Barlow Racing Nova NP02 having to take on a ‘splash-and-dash’ of fuel with only minutes of the race remaining.
Visser, who set the fastest lap of the race, emerged from the compact racer looking both elated and exhausted, saying: “We had to make the stop and I had no idea of how far we were in the lead at the time.”
Nick Adcock was all smiles, adding: “I just love this circuit.”
Second place went to the Into Africa Racing Lamborghini crewed by visiting drivers Axcil Jefferies and Philipp Baron, the pair having led a large chunk of the race until power steering problems forced unscheduled pit stops to top up the fluid and lost them more than minute to the leader.
Their team mates Stuart White and Xolile Letlaka in the second Lamborghini finished third overall just ashy of a minute behind the leader with the Stradale Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 of Arnold Neveling and Charl Arangies in fourth place ahead of the Promigen Audi driven by Karah Hill and Bradley Liebenberg.
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In Class B it was the Damian Hammond/Wayne Roach Samlin Racing Lamborghini that took line honours with the Korridas Racing Volkswagen Golf Gti turbo of Bruno Campos/Marcos Rodrigues/Joao Rebelo Martins winning Class C and the Volkswagen Super Polo of David and Roberto Franco doing the deed in Class D.
Class E, which is also the standalone Backdraft Roadster National Championship was won by another visiting race crew who swopped their little Kia Picanto for a Backdraft after the first practice – Pedro Garcia, Andre Bettencourt and Cristian Bouche flying the Mozambican flag. Gaving Rooke and Richard van Heerde (Dutchmann Browndeck Racing) were second in class with the Tradecore Backdraft of Anthony Hoare, CJ Blackman and JP Briner third.
The Index of Performance, which recognises lap time consistency over the whole race, was won by the Mozambican crew, more than justifying their decision to move to the Backdraft, while Stuart Armstrong and Leo Branders in the Strong Racing Backdraft finished second ahead of the Tradecore trio.
ENTRY AND PRACTICE
With four practice sessions in the run up to Qualifying, there was time for all teams to get a handle on their cars and to make the tweaks and changes needed to ensure a consistent performance throughout the race itself.
As always, there weresome last-minute changes with Karah Hill getting her first drive in the Promigen Audi when her father, Paul Hill, had to bow out because of illness. It was a necessary move in order to allow Bradley Liebenberg the best chance at scoring vital championship points.
Bradley Libenberg and Karah Hill
This meant Jurie Swart, her regular team mate in the Kalex Volkswagen, had to swtich out of the 4-Hour and drive solo in the 1-Hour sprint. With Henk Lategan away testing with Toyota in the offroad Hilux, his place in the Black Bull Racing Porsche was taken by Robert Wolk.
The biggest drama of the Friday morning practice came when the Cobra White of Johan Minaar/Leonard Marshall/Craig Czank had the left rear wheel strip all five bolts and part company with the car on the run down the Mineshaft – fortunately with only some bodywork damage to the car and wide eyes from the entire team.
Another driver to withdraw was Kishoor Pitamber, also not feeling well, while the little Kia Picanto was parked and the team swopped to a spare Backdraft.
In terms of early times there was not much in it with just short of nine seconds separating the top seven runners after the third of five practice sessions – quickest being the Into Africa Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Zimbabwe-born British-based Axcil Jefferies and Austrian driver Philipp Baron on 1min41,999 from team mates Stuart White and Xolile Letlaka some 2,9 seconds slower. Third fastest was the Stradale Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 in the hands of Arnold Neveling and Charl Arangies.
However, practice is playtime and there was the all-important qualifying still to come. . .
QUALIFYING
The Into Africa Racing Lamborghini Huracan piloted by Axcil Jeffries and Philipp Baron topped the time sheets with a cumulative time of 1m41,04 – the grid being decided by the average of each driver’s time.
Jeffries also set the fastest time of the day with 1min41,04 with the Coyote-engined Nova NP02 of Nick Adcock/Michael Jensen/Charl Visser second quickest on 1min42,494 and a mere smidgen ahead of the Stuart White/Xolile Letlaka Into Africa Racing Lamborghini that finished with a 1min42,687, earning a small breathing space ahead of Arnold Neveling and Charl Arangies (Stradale Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3) on 1min44,827.
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Fastest in Class B were Ant Blunden, Ricci Gionnocarro and Jimmy Gionnocarro in the G&H Racing McLaren MP4-12C GT3 with a time of 1min50,296 with Graphic Supply World’s Volkswagen Supa Polo (David and Roberto Franco) leading the Class D charge with a time of 2min00,743.
Class E – the Backdraft Roadster Championship that runs within the SAES Series – saw Gavin Rooke and Richard van Heerde in the Dutchmen Browndeck car head up the class with a 2min03,764 ahead of the father and son team of Harm and Barend Pretorius in the Team Pesty Racing entry less than a second behind.
RACE
While Jeffries and Baron had made the Qualifying all their own, it was not their Into Africa Lamborghini Huracan that made the early running, Stuart White in the sister car taking the lead and piling on the pressure to build a 7-second gap in the first 30 minutes of the race.
Bradley Liebenberg, starting the race for the Promigen Audi team ran in third place some 20 seconds off the leader with Michael Jensen in the Rico Barlow Racing NP02 running fourth overall some nine seconds behind the Audi and reasonably comfortably ahead of the Stradale Motorsport Porsche 911 of Arnold Neveling and Charl Arangies.
In the race for line honours in the Backdraft Roadster Championship, the early running was coming from Pesty Racing (Harm and Barend Pretorius) who were just shy of our seconds up on Dutchmann Browndeck Racing (Gavin Rooke/Richard van Heerde).
This segment saw the retirement of the Mikael Pitamber/Devin Robertson Class B Backdraft with what appeared to be a wheel bearing issue.
Things started to change heading towards the hour mark with Liebenberg moving the Promigen Audi into second place on the road, albeit 42 seconds behind White in the Lamborghini and a scant second ahead of the Nova NP02 with Neveling/Arangies and the Backdraft Carbon Car of Mike Mcloughlin/Steve Clark starting to make it presence felt and running in fifth place ahead of the Jeffries/Baron Lamborghini.
The Ant Blunden/ Ricci Gionnocarro McLaren spun in Barbecue Corner and necessitated a safety car and their retirement from the race.
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The two Samlin Racing Lamborghinis were running nose to tail, the Nathan and Sam Hammond car the final runner in Class A and Damian Hammond/ Wayne Roach the leaders in Class B with David and Roberto Franco (Graphic Supply World VW Supa Polo) heading the chase in Class D and Pesty Racing holding steady at the front of Class E.
It also signalled the end of the 1-Hour Sprint, which was comfortably won by Jurie Swart in the Kalex Volkswagen Super Polo from Mike Verrier (Shelby CanAm VSP), Antonie Marx in a similar car and the Rico Barlow Racing Ligier JS 53 Evo 2 of Juan Pierre Stander.
With pit stops beginning to play a part in the race, the 90-minute mark saw the Jeffries/Baron Into Africa Lamborghini move back into the lead over the Promigen Audi (Hill/Liebenberg) with the Stradale Motorsport Porsche now in third place with White/Letlaka in their Lamborghini fourth on the road.
Samlin Racing still held sway in Class B with the Francos leading Class D but running 10th overall on the road, while there was a change in Class E with Rooke/Van Heerde now leading from the Kia Le Mans Racing Team of Pedro Garcia/Andre Bettencourt/Cristian Bouche.
The Mozambican team had come to Kyalami with a Kia Picanto but changed the entry when they were able to rent a race-ready Backdraft Roadster and looked like they were having a huge amount of fun.
Crossing the halfway barrier saw some stability in the field and, with 60 laps under their belts the Jeffries/Baron pairing stayed in the lead just more a minute up on the Hill/Liebenberg Audi with Adcock/Jensen/Visser NP02 in third but pushing very hard to catch the Audi – just 0,382 seconds ahead of it.
The Samlin cars had again taken up position as the end of Class A and the lead of Class B with Rooke/Van Heerde now on top in Class E.
Over the half hour, the Lamborghini maintained its dominance being 1,min20,26 up on the Nova 02 with the Porsche in third place and the last of late pit stops being completed. Karah Hill took over from Bradley Liebenberg in the Promigen Audi and slipped back to fifth in the process, promoting the White/Letlaka Lamborghini into fourth spot.
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Sixth place was now occupied by the MJR Motorsport Audi R8 LLMS GT3 of Marius Jackson/Gianni Giannocarro, this team having steadily moved up a place from 10th as the race unfolded and were just 500ths of a second behind the Audi.
With the clock beginning to wind down there was some settling in the classes to allow race strategy to play out – sadly for Pesty Racing a drop to the back of Class E with a blocked fuel filter and current championship log leaders, Ppl Group/Adapt Signage (Phillip Meyer/Mark Harvey/Dan Wolson) not having the smoothest of runs following the bodywork rebuild after an incident at the last race at Aldo Scribante.
Jeffries and Baron dropped the hammer heading towards the final hour and set a best lap of 1m41,894 for an average speed of 140,138 km/h to extend their lead to 18 minutes over the Nova 02 trio with the second Into Africa Racing car in third from the Stradale Porsche and Promigen Audi.
The McLoughlin/Clark Carbon Backdraft pitted and lost nearly half an hour replacing bearings with Steve Clark saying: “There were a number of niggles that meant our day just did not go the way we planned it.”
The setting sun and cooling temperatures in the final half hour did little to take the heat out of the pace and, indeed, with the very rapid Charl Visser at the wheel, the Nova NP02 took over the lead when the Lamborghini made a stop to top up on power steering fluid. In the process, Visser put in a lap averaging 142,420 km/h.
SILVER CUP
After two scintillating races the Silver Cup support event saw Devin Robertson (Big Boss Auto Renault) claim overall honours for the day and in Class P from Sav Gualtieri’s Savspeed Auto BMW and Mike McGregor in the Grange Workwear Hyundai – the latter also taking the win in Class A.
Class B went to Tony Szabo (Honda) with Wayne Lebotschy in the Shield Racing VW Golf winning Class C and John McLachlan in the Hamilton’s Datsun taking the chequer in Class D.
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Leon Horn (Ducati Panigale) won overall in the BOTTS category from Frans Fourie (Ducati) and Karl Hauzer, while the Master Class went to Jaco Gous (Suzuki GSXR) from Ryan Futter (Kawasaki ZX10) and Bradley Dawson (BMW S1000RR).
Adolf Boshoff made all the running in the SBK category to take his Honda CBR RR to the overall win from Themba Khumalo (Ducati V4) and Damon Purificati (BMW 2020).
Mitch Mortimer ruled the roost in the Novice category on his Yamaha R6, speeding to the line ahead of Malcolm Govender (BMW S1000RR) and Aadil Adam on a similar motorcycle. The OSB category went to Jordan Kind (Yamaha R1) from Cristian Caravello (Kawasaki ZX10) and Muhammed Esop on a BMW S1000R.
In the 600 class it was Tyler Richardson (Kawasaki Ninja) from Ora Phiri (Yamaha R3) and Tyler Morgan (Kawasaki Ninja 400).
SUPER VEE
Once again the Super Vee did not disappoint and two closely fought tussles saw Lushen Ramchander top the raceday table ahead of Bevan Williams with Franna Jacobs in a fine third place ahead of Jannie Gerber and Grant Will.
There were problems for Peter Hills who should have been at the sharp end of the field and he had to retire after just four laps of racing.
Words: SAES
Images: Colin Windell
