The Nissan Dealer Team’s two Tubular Technical Construction 350Zs, prepared by Lee Philips’ SAM Racing, had mixed fortunes. Marco da Cunha was seventh in race one and eighth in race two, while production car rookie and 2007 Shelby CanAm sports car champion Darryn Lobb was ninth in the second race after beaching his Nissan in the sand trap at the exit of the Esses (turn six) early in the first race.
Poulter and pole sitter Etienne van der Linde (BMW 330i) were side by side through the opening corners of the first lap before the BMW driver opened up a gap as Poulter went wide in turn three and lost ground. He was then forced to fight off former champion Anthony Taylor in the second BMW, but had to give way at the Bowl (turn nine), where Taylor muscled into the favoured line for the Kink (turn 10) and took second place. Johan Fourie, in the leading Audi A4 quattro, got the better of Poulter on lap six with the Sasol Nissan eventually crossing the line in fourth place.
“The BMWs were much stronger than us in a straight line, although I was able to pressure them in the tight bits. I nearly had Etienne on the first lap, but I got on to the slippery stuff on the outside of turn three and lost my momentum. We have the pace for a good lap, but it seems the BMWs have better race pace. The longer the race went the more I battled with grip and understeer,” said Poulter.
Sipuka was shown the black and orange flag warning him he was under observation and immediately slowed and parked his car on the side of the circuit with a differential oil leak on lap six. It was enough to see him classified as a finisher in sixth place.
“I looked in my rear view mirror when I saw the flag with my number on it as I passed the pits at the end of lap five. I saw smoke and realised I had an oil leak, so I stopped as soon as I could,” said Sipuka.
The second race (which featured the usual rolling start and a reverse grid with the first eight finishers from race one starting in inverted order) saw Sipuka lead for the first six laps before he was caught out by sand dragged on to the circuit in the Bowl by an incident involving Da Cunha and Michael Stephen (Audi A4 quattro). He went wide with 2007 champion Shaun Watson-Smith (Audi A4 quattro) pressuring him and left a convenient gap for the Audi driver to take. This gave Watson-Smith the favoured line for the tight Kink and Sipuka was demoted to second. He held on to take a fine second place, much to his and his pit crew’s delight.
Poulter found himself stuck behind Da Cunha for several laps, which allowed Sipuka, Watson-Smith and Taylor (BMW) to get away from him, and had to be content with a another fourth place finish.
Sipuka was a happy man in the post race paddock. “I’m very happy. We battled in qualifying, but I got my chance in race two thanks to the reverse grid and I made the most of it. I was surprised to get caught out by the sand in the Bowl (it wasn’t there in the previous laps and I only found out where it came from after the team told me about Marco and Michael Stephen’s coming together).”
Glyn Hall, general manager of Nissan Motorsport, was philosophical about the day’s results. “We had hoped for better after Leeroy’s qualified a good second (he should have been on pole, but his first timed lap was compromised when a class T car spun in front of him). Third overall for the day was a good result under the circumstances. Tschops did a great job in the second race. He did his fastest lap of the weekend on lap two, which was just a tenth of a second off Watson-Smith’s fastest lap of the race.”
