Evapco SA (Pty) Ltd Historic Racing South Africa take on Redstar Raceway for the 3rd round of the Historic Inland Tour.
Article by Stuart Konig
Photo Credits: Paul Bedford
Evapco SA (Pty) Ltd Historic Racing South Africa (HRSA) displays why it is the premier series of Historic Motorsport in South Africa with new cars to the series and some of the closest racing seen to date.
On Saturday HRSA got two class A entries from a pair of beautiful Porsche 996 911 racing cars. One being an RSR and the other a GT3 cup car. Nicky Dicks driving the Curvent International RSR and Andre van Vuuren in the Curvent International GT3 Cup car put on a spectacle with the pair of 996s that both looked stunning and sounded incredible. Both cars, from the late 90s, have prominent international racing histories with the RSR of Dicks having competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was incredibly special to see these motor vehicles on track and to see them getting put through their paces by their drivers. After swopping positions throughout both races it was van Vuuren that won both heats by 3 tenths of a second in Race 1 and 2 tenths of a second in Race 2 – some very close racing.
Class B had an entry from Andre van der Merwe in his Evapco SA (Pty) Ltd Porsche 911 RSR. In Race 1 van der Merwe developed a vibration on the rear of the car. He was able to complete the race and the vibration was found to be a flat spot on the tyre. The only spare tyres available to the 911 were some older slicks with compromised grip. Despite this, van der Merwe was able to keep it all together and once again complete Race 2 in 3rd position overall and 1st in Class B.
Class C saw entries from Andre ten Napel in his TNMC Medical Devices VW Scirocco, Stuart Konig in his Northern Bolt & Tool VW Scirocco and George Avvakoumedes in his Liqui Moly / Euro Shop Equipment Porsche 911. After qualifying 1st in Class C, ten Napel drove faultlessly to record a double victory on the day. Konig, who tried an alternative tyre brand suffered severe understeer in both races and after lap 5 in both races fell off the proverbial cliff and could not maintain the pace set by ten Napel.
Avvakoumedes had a fuelling issue in qualifying and was only able to get 1 lap in before retiring from the session. Despite with pit crew searching high and low for any potential issues in the fuelling system, the issue once again raised its ugly head in Race 1 forcing Avvakoumedes to retire from Race 1. In Race 2 Avvakoumedes started from the back of the field. Despite his best efforts and the struggling Scirocco of Konig, Avvakoumedes was just not able to catch up to the back of Konig completing Race 2 in 3rd position.
Class D was contested by Jonathan Konig in his Northern Bolt & Tool VW Scirocco, Gavin Lundin in his The Lube Guys Datsun 1200 GX and Travis Jensen in his Hamilton’s Racing Datsun 1200 GX. Qualifying saw Konig taking 1st in Class D, despite this Lundin managed to get ahead of Konig in the early stages of the race. Konig managed to claw his way back to the bumper of Lundins car where the pair tried everything possible to gain an advantage on the other. After 10 laps of racing, we saw the closest finish seen to date with Konig pipping Lundin on the finish line to take victory by 7 Hundredths of a second – extremely close and more importantly clean racing from the pair. Jensen, who finished shortly after the leading pair, was just not able to get involved with the fight for 1st and completed Race 1 in 3rd position. With that, race 2 was poised to be an exciting one. On this occasion however, Lundin made a phenomenal start and created a meaningful gap to Konig after the first few corners. Lundin was able to maintain his lead to the end of the race to take victory by a few seconds. Sadly, Jensen suffered a mechanical failure with a T-Piece connection from his oil pump failing. This resulted in a loss of oil pressure and the dropping of oil on the track. Thankfully quick thinking from Jensen resulted in minimal oil being dropped on the circuit but more importantly no damage being done to the Datsun after he immediately shut off the car when the oil pressure dropped. Sadly, Jensen was not able to complete the final race of the day.
Class E was as competitive as ever and was contest by Sean Hepburn in his AA Datsun 1200DL, Nigel Townshend in his MK1 Ford Escort, Grant Cramer in his Jensen’s Towing Datsun 1200 GX, Deon Schwabsky in his Vexalabs Software Technologies Ford Escourt and Michael Lundin in his The Lube Guys Datsun 1200 GX. Qualifying saw a convincing performance from Hepburn who claimed 1st in Class E in qualifying. As usual with Class E, position changes happened frequently throughout the race. When the flag came down after Race 1 it was Townshend who took victory closely followed by Hepburn, Cramer, Schwabsky and Lundin who had a terrible qualifying session after some bolts found their way loose resulting in Lundin not being able to post a time. Race 2 saw another strong performance from Townshend in his spotless Escourt closely followed once again by Hepburn, Cramer, Lundin and Schwabsky.
Class F saw an entry from Caig Harris. In race 1, Harris was going well until lap 7 where he struggled to maintain his pace, he was able to get the car around the circuit and finish but due to his varying lap times his chances of scoring well in the Index of Performance Championship were severely compromised. In Race 2 Harris showed more consistency but once again struggled with pace, he managed to completed Race 2 however and picked up a bit of a race at one point with Class G man Riaan de Ru.
Class G, going into this weekend, was contested by Championship leader Mike Bishop in his Gasoline Denim Co. Renault Gordini and Riaan de Ru in his Ford Prefect. Qualifying saw de Ru getting the better of Bishop to qualify 1st in Class G. In the early stages of Race 1, the pair were very close and the battle for 1st place was picking up. Unfortunately, on lap 6 Bishop suffered a mechanical failure resulting in his retirement from the race, leaving de Ru to take the race win. Sadly, Bishop was not able to get his car repaired for the second race leaving de Ru to once again take another victory on the day.
Evapco SA (Pty) Ltd Historic Racing South Africa once again showed why it is the premier series of Historic Motor Racing in South Africa, with a diverse field of cars and plenty of racing action satisfying spectators both young and old, HRSA had it all.