SOUTH AFRICA – FEBRUARY 2008
International Sports Prototypes
Butch beats the Local Daytona winning hero in thrilling races
This was our fourth visit to South Africa to compete alongside our illustrious racing drivers from UK; David Piper, Mike Knight, Nick Whale in Butch, a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, for the International Sports Prototypes Series which is held in South Africa in February each year. Details of what these illustrious racing drivers have got up to in the past can be found at their website: http://www.racecar.co.uk/isp/
As before the visit was divided into two race meetings 1000 miles apart – one in Johannesburg at a little track called Zwartkops, which resembles a scaled up Cadwell, park in layout and Brands for viewing. Zwartkops is owned by the ever enthusiastic Peter Du Toit who has quite a stable of racing cars to his name. These include the Ford Galaxie and a new for 2008 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne and no less than two Chevrolet Camaros from the 1970s.
As usual things did not go according to plan; this time with Butch’s power steering playing up. The upshot of which was poor times in practice and the prospect of racing without any power assistance – but through the power set- up- a severe upper body workout seemed inevitable.
Practice saw me post a 1.17:036 but was only enough to land me 8th on the grid in the pre 72 TransAm race behind some very tricked up machinery. Ben Morgenwood’s Mustang drove through comers not “around them” on his way to a practice time of 1.11:9. This car has dry sump, moved engine block and gearbox, and widened track—but even this tricked out monster was beaten into second place by Carel Pienaar’s 1972 Chevrolet Camaro- which was apparently built by reclothing a “WestPac” stockcar with Camaro body parts!
The first race quickly became an endurance race with crashes and breakdowns all around me. I had a great dice with a rather waywardly driven Chevrolet Firenza CanAm with Chevrolet small block power. He left the braking later and later when put under pressure by Butch another lap or so would have seen us by him! Still a fourth place was a result given these difficulties, and a race time down to 1.15:169.
In the second race the same CanAm got so excited over some backmarkers who were fighting over themselves over a place that he lost it entirely and spun off on the inside of the last turn. I made for the gap between the backmarkers one a Mercedes Pontoon saloon driven by Max Wakefield an experienced UK driver, so I gave Max less room than the unknown quantity in the other backmarker and headed between them to take an overall third place. This race was also marked by dice I had with Francois Pretorius’ Porsche 911 which was set –up in an extraordinary way. Mid corner the Porsche would sit up and lift its inside front wheel a good foot off the ground! Very disconcerting to follow for the first time. In the second race I managed to drop my time down to 1.14:139, Bob, my co driver, did not enjoy the lack of power steering and asked me how on earth had I managed- answer Adrenaline! Although it is fair to say that he reduced the negative camber and brought the caster back to centre in order to make the steering easier to turn.
CAPETOWN
The Killarney racetrack near Capetown is and always was an entirely different story. This is a track really well suited to Butch’s long gears and top gear torque, but first of all we again had some fixing to do!
I had ordered a new power steering pump from UK and had bought an inline cooler unit in JoBurg from Universal Coolers who import Sabelt coolers and who were located in a most unusual place in a suburb near Zwartkops racetrack. We also fitted the 1” rear spring drop spacers to the rear springs. Both changes were to be significant and got the car going extremely well in free practice on Thursday. So much so that we did not go out on Friday at all, seeing no need to tire the car ahead of the races in the weekend.
The Capetown grid and race position/places are determined by times. So Class A is fastest of the classics (which the South Africans consider as being pre 1977), Class B no faster than 1.28 and Class C slower still etc. My aim was to race against “Supervan” Sarel van Der Merwe in some close racing (again) in his monstrous Ford Galaxie in Class B, as he already had a drive in a very quick slick shod Chevrolet Firenza CanAm capable of 1.22s in Class A. In practice I posted a 1.28:197, which was enough to earn me 4th on the grid. It was important not to “breakout” of our 1.28 limit- and to ensure that the risk was minimised I remained on the little Yokohama 225/60/15 A008Rs that we had brought along for practice and also Bob’s fine car race. Sarel maintained that I was sandbagging, well I wasn’t on those little tyres. There seemed little point of putting on the Hoosier 245:50:15 when the little Yokohamas were doing the job so well. What a joy the Yokos were! So controllable and driftable and in the race only marginally going off in the closing stages.
Race 1 saw me tailing a very quick Ford Escort Mk2 with wide wheelarches, slicks, and a Cosworth engine- what was I saying about the SA attitude to historical accuracy? Whilst I was bunching up on the Escort at the end of the straight Sarel came barrelling by up to the hairpin. So now in third place I really did have some work to do! I eventually caught and passed the big Galaxie on the pit straight and set off in pursuit of the Escort. The Escort blew something terminal in front of me in the kink before the back straight. Luckily I was looking out because I only just caught the slide at the same time as the flags came out. But he kept going for half a lap before pulling over. So I got the win, Sarel started dropping back (brakes?) and consequently I too eased off at the end. It was notable that my win was not altogether popular with the partisan crowd- who had come to see “Supervan” triumph over the overseas visitors. I later went to see the Galaxie. Peter du Toit’s boys had been hard at work since 2007 event. It now sported large Willwood brakes on all four wheels under those 16” wheels shod with very large Hoosiers, the engine was no longer a 427 but a stroked out 460 giving 468 CID that is 7.7 litres in metric money. But we have never had Butch working so well. Butch turned, braked, pulled and behaved better than I can remember. The only concern was a thumping noise underneath that I thought was coming from a UJ or the propshaft.
Race 2 was wet- I mean really wet, not just Isle of Man wet but African tropical thunderstorm wet. We changed to the other Yokohamas- the 0032Rs which we use for wets.
Of course in this race I was on pole with Sarel alongside me having won the previous race. As we set off on our rolling start green flag lap behind a little Honda Civic Type R VTEC pace car, I prayed it would slow down! I couldn’t keep up with the Honda through the standing water and then I remembered that our 0032Rs were well over 10 years old and certainly not at their best. I gained some confidence from the view in my rear view mirror seeing that Sarel was having similar problems. The real worry was the third placed Renault Dauphine driven by local hotshot- Cindy.
This Renault has a rear engine- good power to weight ratio and was clearly going to be tricky to keep ahead of in the race given that our enormous power advantage was for naught in such conditions. I am afraid that Sarel caught me napping at the start- I wasn’t too unhappy at this as I had come to race Sarel and that’s what I was going to do. Surely I could beat him again- after all I had got him in the earlier race? The problem was that Sarel’s Galaxie was really difficult to get past. On the corners he would tank slap it side to side – I would back off thinking I would collect him and then Cindy would be diving left and right in the corners. I would then do a tank slapper- and she would then back off as well. There were rivers running across the track at certain points. But eventually my worn out Yokos began to respond and began to work better having begun (belatedly) to warm up. On the penultimate lap I thought I had him getting a good exit out of the hairpin heading for the inside at the end of the pit straight. But he moved over on me! This was not what I expected given our earlier chat about doing some racing and “putting on a show”! Now there is nothing wrong with this at all- you can’t move back the other way- which he didn’t. Anyway I had to brake early and lost momentum- but I was certainly going to catch him if I could. Now two years ago I caught and passed him on the line on the last lap to take second place from him. I now knew that he knew that I was going to do exactly the same thing again. He had been driving quite a technical race- really slowing down into the corners boxing me up with the nippy little Renault which I very nearly collected.
So stage one was to get a good exit out of the zig zags before the back straight and then to pressurise him in the hairpin by feinting on the inside, he covered me- which was what I wanted as I then took the higher line into the hairpin. It all depended upon whether I could get a better run out of the hairpin and since he was tight I was better placed on the exit. And so it was to be – up on his bumper at the start of the pit straight I shortshifted into top to maximise torque and reduce wheelspin, he overdrove out of the hairpin and fishtailed right- I had the inside on the kink before the straight. I was now gaining on him and yet he continued to fishtail. Butch was planted – we were going to do it. I then hesitated slightly- I wondered whether it wouldn’t be better to make it 1 all and then let it all be decided in the third and last race. Then I remembered him moving over on me and kept the boot in taking the win by 0.047 of a second- that is probably the depth of Butch’s nosecone! As we crossed the line I knew we had done it- but waved Sarel ahead to the front for the slow down lap in front of his adoring fans- he waved me to go ahead but I insisted in pretending that I thought that he had won. Well I didn’t want to spoil his fans day anymore than I had already done!
All the visitor cars had been located in a new pit complex above which was a covered stand that was completely full; the cheers that greeted my arrival will be something I shall never ever forget. Nick Whale of BRDC asked me whether the race was a fix—certainly not I replied—just open and very close racing.
Sadly Butch’s gearbox noises forced our withdrawal from the last race, and Sarel’s’ propshaft let go making the last event something of a non event for all concerned. At the prizegiving Sarel insisted that Bob and I join him and Cindy at his table – he wouldn’t let me even buy a drink. A great sportsman and after experiencing some of the greatest racing ever, we can’t wait till next year.
Our thoughts now turn to the Manx Classic event to be held in the Isle of Man 17-20 April. Last year we won the pre 1971 award.
But I cannot wait for next year’s South African Trip.