Aldo Scribante (September 29, 2007)
An incident filled day marked the Bridgestone Production Car races at Killarney in Cape Town on a brilliant early spring day in front of an enthusiastic crowd with a mixed bag of results and some personal triumphs and disappointments.
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| Copyright © Nissan South Africa |
On a day when the all-wheel drive Audis took full advantage of difficult track conditions, Nissan Motorsport's three-car team of Sasol-backed 350Zs endured a difficult day's racing at Port Elizabeth's Aldo Scribante circuit on Saturday.
Defending champion Leeroy Poulter managed a good fourth and first two-wheel drive car in race one, before being eliminated in a multiple crash on the first lap of race two.
Tschops Sipuka had one of his best qualifying sessions of the year, recording a grid time 0,093 sec slower than Poulter. He was a victim of an ambitious move by Anthony Taylor (BMW 330i) in race one and finished a good sixth in race two.
Gavin Cronje, making his debut appearance in the team following the departure of Gary Formato. The former reserve driver for A1 Team South Africa finished eighth in race one and fifth in race two, after leading the second race for two laps.
The former Rotax Max kart world champion said: "This was a big change from what I've been driving lately. We made good progress through Friday's practice sessions and I was a littler disappointed not to have done better in qualifying. I just wanted to keep out of trouble in the race and scoring a championship point was good for the team."
Poulter emerged from a testing 'day at the office' with just seven points (five for fourth place in race one plus two bonus points for a top five finish). "This hasn't done our championship aspirations much good," he said. "The pressure is on now to get good results in the last two rounds of the championship (in East London and at Kyalami)."
Poulter now lies third in the championship with 118 points, 10 behind Watson-Smith and 22 behind Fourie.
Next round: East London, October 20.
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