Toyota privateer Craig Nicholson was more than content with the first race performance of his new Sabat backed Toyota Tazz in class D of the Production Car Championship held at Kyalami last weekend. The vehicle was built in less than two weeks after Nicholson’s previous Tazz was written off in a heavy shunt at PE. –
– “My team did a superb job of getting the car together in such a short time. We were unable to get the car onto a dynamometer before the race and were using a new exhaust; the other one was crushed in the crash. As a result we are down on power, but nevertheless chose to run the car at Kyalami to assess the handling”, said Nicholson, who was surprised when he qualified in a lowly tenth position despite being less than a second off the pole time. –
– Class D is fiercely competitive and Nicholson struggled to overcome his poor qualifying position. After charging hard in the first five laps of heat one Craig had managed to lift himself to 5th position but “cooked” his tyres in the process and then slowly fell back to 10th at the finish. Heat two was a little better, and the man from CAR Magazine managed to pass a few competitors to finish 7th at the flag. –
– Craig was very happy with the new cars first outing in Sabat colours and had this to say of his prospects. “The positions were somewhat disappointing, but we ran within half a second of the fastest lap and had a good race with some of my fellow class D competitors. Most importantly, the car is in one piece and we can now work on the getting some weight off the chassis and power into the engine. I have no doubt that we will have a formidable race car in time for the Killarney meeting at the end of the month”. –
– Some members of the KIC Auto team thought a name change was in order after Port Elizabeth’s misfortunes, and when the car appeared at Kyalami for the first time the name “Crash Nicholson” was emblazoned on the windows. “I guess the name has stuck” joked Nicholson “, but I will be doing my level best not to live up to the title for the rest of the season”. –
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