Many hours of toil paid dividends at AA Kyalami last Saturday when the Sabat Bosal MINI Cooper S of Craig Nicholson secured it’s maiden win. B 23 took the flag a mere 0.03 of a second ahead of the similar Castrol backed Cooper S of Shaun van der Linde. Shaun turned the tables in the second heat with a fine display of super fast driving but Nicholson was nevertheless thrilled to have broken his duck and taken the first win. –
– The man from CAR Magazine could not remove the grin from his face as he related the story. “ What a thrilling race, I managed to get past Shaun after a class A competitor towed me up to his bumper. Shaun and I then had a great dice and I managed to get by him going in to the esses. The Castrol car was always faster than mine, but I managed to keep him behind me for the last few laps. I thought it was all lost when Shaun passed me on the last corner but he was forced to turn in from the dirty side of the track. I already had my front wheels hooked up and was able to out drag him to the line. I had no idea I had won until my team confirmed the result, a mere 0.03 of a second separated us at the flag.” –
– The team has been fettling away at the car for the last month and performance gains had been made since the previous round at Killarney. Significantly, a new sponsor has joined the team in the form of Bosal exhausts. Not only has the new sponsor brought some very welcome additional budget to the team, but they are also assisting with the development of new exhaust systems for the car to further enhance performance. Bosal has a long and proud history in local motor sport and Nicholson is looking to make the association count in his favor. –
– After the first heat win, Craig managed a second place finish behind van der Linde in heat two. “ We wanted to consolidate our points position having not scored at the first round, so we decided to run a conservative strategy for race two and get to the finish line in one piece. To be honest I could not match Shaun’s pace anyway, having just gained 40 kg of success ballast. The van der Linde’s have definitely figured out how to use their Bridgestone Tyres a little better than I have at the moment. We need to be more competitive in the second heat on older rubber, so there’s work to do in that area.” Said Nicholson. –
– After struggling for so long Craig attributed his win to teamwork and good sponsors, as he relates “ Sabat have backed me for more than two seasons now and it is wonderful to finally repay their faith. Similarly, a lot of other companies like Federal Mogul (Ferodo, Champion) and Castrol have been instrumental in supplying me with brilliant product, all of which helps tremendously if you want to run at the front. My team has also been exceptional and all my success is due to the technical skills of Vic Maharaj, Nick Thornton and Jakes Hamman. My manager Lee Philips has also transformed the team by allowing me to worry just about the racing aspect while he takes care of team management and logistics, I am very grateful for his efforts”. –
– Nicholson is now within striking distance of second place in the class B championship and will look to consolidate his points tally. “ I can’t imagine the Ford Focus of Clint Weston will struggle in Port Elizabeth as it did at Kyalami so we will need to improve. Phil Kekana is also showing signs of being able to run at the front in his Toyota Run X, so I am sure he will also be a threat at the Aldo Scribante circuit.” Said Craig-
–
