Post-Race Report - Superhatch 2008 Championship - Rounds 21 & 22 Zwartkops

On yet another hot day, GMS Racing was at Zwartkops for the season’s SuperHatch finale. The last 2 races of the year would decide several class champions so there was everything to play for.

Qualifying
We took the car to the pre-race paddock early to ensure that we were first out hoping to get in a couple of ‘clean’ laps without any slower cars in the way, unfortunately the dreaded miss fire hit us again and Mark only went out last and spent the entire 10 minutes of qualifying trying to find ‘clean air’. He still managed fastest time in class, but the other cars were much closer than normal.

Post-Race Report - Superhatch Rounds 19 and 20 - Zwartkops, Pretoria
This was the penultimate event in the championship and everyone was really trying to get maximum points from both races. Since the previous races we have changed the Motronic engine management system to try and solve the intermittent miss fire that has plagued us for the past few months, unfortunately it is still there and Mark had to make the most of a slightly sick engine.

Mark still qualified 1st in class, and 2nd overall but the opposition was a lot closer than normal and the races promised to be very competitive.

The MINI has been rebuilt since the unfortunate incident at East London and GMS Racing used the SilverCup races at Kyalami as a test session to see if the car was race ready. Friday practice yielded several problems which were fixed but this did mean that we did not have enough time to properly set up the car to run on the Dunlop tyres and smaller 15” wheels that SilverCup demands.

Qualifying
With the unseasonably high temperatures we were not expecting great times but were very surprised that Mark went under 2 minutes on 2 consecutive laps to take pole position.

Post Race Report - Superhatch Championship Rounds 17 & 18 - Zwartkops, Pretoria

With the SuperHatch championship nearing completion all of the front runners were out to maximise their points haul and fast and aggressive racing ensued. The racing was close with battles going on in all classes in both races. The racing was too close for some and several drivers swapped paint during some intense competition. Several ‘off’s necessitated the safety car in race 1 and race 2 saw the most yellow cards ever issued in one race and lots of damaged cars.

Mark managed to avoid all of the carnage around him to qualify on class pole and take both race wins quite comfortably. His nearest rival having become involved in the bumping never recovered to mount a challenge and Mark spent both races challenging the top class A cars.

GMS Racing will next be in action racing the MINI at Kyalami on the 4th October.