Round 3 of the Engen VW Cup championship took place at the Aldo Scribante track in Port Elizabeth and the team was ready for the challenge. The track is notorious for its abrasive surface, so tyre conservation would be one of the factors for success. Friday practice went well with Mark 5th in practice 1, 4th in practice 2 and he topped the timesheet for practice 3.

Qualifying
The usual format of two races was being used so the drivers quickest lap would be for position in race 1 and 2nd quickest lap would determine race 2 position. Mark put in two stunning laps and was quickest for both races thereby getting a double pole. The top 6 then drew for start position with Mark drawing 5th on the grid for race 1 and 2nd for race 2.

Race 1
A great start saw Mark get cleanly off the line and move up to 4th place through turn 1, then getting into 3rd by the end of lap 1. By this time Kelvin van der Linde had taken the lead followed by Kosie Weyers. Van der Linde edged away as Mark was stuck behind Weyers and even though he was quicker than Weyers he just could not find a way to get past cleanly and had to settle for 3rd at the line.

Race 2
Pole man Jordan Pepper made a bad start and this allowed Mark to lead into turn 1. Behind him
it was a freight train with barely a gap between the cars. At the front Mark was struggling with cold tyres and ran slightly wide at the hairpin allowing van der Linde through. He held onto 2nd for several laps before succumbing to Jeffrey Kruger and dropping to 3rd. Then, on the penultimate lap, a challenge from Matthew Hodges saw Mark pushed off the track onto the grass at the last corner, once on the grass he could not stop the car and headed straight into the tyre wall. He managed to get going again and finished 16th. After the race the Clerk of the Course adjudged that Hodges had not allowed enough room for Mark to stay on the track and Hodges was moved from his 3rd place finish on the road to behind Mark in the results. This at least means that justice was served, but does not give Mark back the points that he deserved for the effort that he and the team put in over the weekend.

Team manager, Gary Silverwood, commented “Engen VW Cup racing is, without doubt, one of the most competitive race series in South Africa and probably in the world. With over 35 identical cars in the race it comes down to the driver to make the difference. What a great result for the team, after only 3 events we have shown that we are now one of the quickest cars on track and now just need that little bit of luck to convert our speed into the first win. The race 2 incident was both unfortunate and unnecessary and it certainly cost us a lot of points as well as a top 3 overall result for the day, but that’s racing and we have to take
a lot of positives away from Port Elizabeth. The team will continue to work hard to further improve the car and we hope to be even better at the next event”.

Mark commented “I have always enjoyed the Aldo Scribante track and it was really great to be at the top and take both poles in qualifying. I had a lot of pace in race 1 but could not quite find the passing opportunity to take 2nd. I had a bit less pace in race 2, due to my tyres, but still felt able to maintain 3rd place to the end. The incident on the penultimate lap is really disappointing as it cost both me and Matthew valuable points”.

The next round of Engen VW Cup racing will be at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday 26 May.

Qualifying

Courtesy QuickPic

The new format meant that the fastest lap would determine grid position for race 1 – with the top 6 drawing for position – and the second fastest lap would be for grid position for race 3. Race 2 would see the top 6 from race 1 reversed with the rest starting from the position they finished race 1. Mark put in two really fast laps to qualify 5th for the first race and 3rd for race 3. However, an alleged impeding of another competitor on Mark’s slow down lap saw him demoted to 5th for race 3. In the drawer Mark drew 5th position for race 1.

Race 1
A good start saw Mark get cleanly off the line and in 5th place through turn 1, going into turn 2 he could not get onto the race line and this saw him drop to 7th. He maintained this place for 3 laps and was catching the 6th place driver when his car developed a miss fire. This robbed the car of most of its power and he limped round to finish race 1 in 28th position!

Race 2

Courtesy QuickPic

Since race starting position was the finishing position from race 1, race 2 was certainly going to be hard work. In spite of getting pushed off the track in Cape Town corner and being passed by a competitor under yellow flag conditions, Mark was up to 14th position by lap 4 and was making another overtaking move down
the main straight. The competitor initially took a defensive line down the left side of the track and as Mark moved to the right so did the competitor, pushing Mark right off the track and into the dirt. By the time the
dust had, literally, settled, he was down in 23rd place. Despite clear evidence of the incident on the in-car video, the Clerk of the Course is still waiting for the TV footage before deciding whether a penalty is to be given.

Race 3
Mark started in 5th and maintained this for the first lap before sliding back to 7th. The first 7 cars had opened a gap to the rest and were nose to tail for the next 2 laps then the car running 5th lost 4th gear and in the time it took to get past him the first 4 had opened a gap that Mark could not close and he ended up in 6th at the end.

Courtesy QuickPic

Team manager, Gary Silverwood, commented “we again showed good qualifying pace and our race pace was much better than we had at Zwartkops. The miss fire we had in race 1 was caused by a plug lead coming off, and this is something I have never seen before. This problem effectively destroyed our chances not only for race 1 but, because of the lowly starting position, also for race 2 as well. Our Race 3 placing was where we should have been in races 1 and 2 and but for the plug lead that’s where we would have been. We will keep pushing
though and we are targeting a more consistent result for Aldo Scribante at the end of April”.

Mark commented “another set of missed opportunities. The back-to-back race format really messes up your points haul if you have a problem in race 1. I was happy with my driving over the weekend especially since once you lose the tow from the car in front it is almost impossible to catch them again because of the two long straights that demand slip streaming”
The two non-points scoring finishes in races 1 and 2 has really hurt our championship aspirations but we hope to bounce back at the next event.
The next round of Engen VW Cup racing will be at Aldo Scribante in Port Elizabeth on Saturday 28 April.

Rapid Motion on IGNITION TV
Saturday 10 March: 6am, 1pm, and 8pm
Sunday 11 March: 3am, 10am, and 5pm

With Mark only driving the car for the first time the Saturday before the race meeting and having very few laps under his belt the team was apprehensive about how we would fair at the first event of the year. Our preparation was not helped when the team was issued with the wrong brake pads for the Friday practice sessions. Mark had been running in the top ten all day but was a few tenths of a second off the pace with all 3 sessions being spent trying to sort out braking issues which we only resolved once we got the correct pads. The team’s spirits were lifted when our Q8Oils race suit, ordered from Italy, was delivered in the afternoon.

Qualifying

The 32 cars that lined up for qualifying early on Saturday morning were split into 2 groups with Mark in the first group of cars. After doing 2 slow laps to ‘bring in’ the tyres Mark put his head down and produced 2 very fast laps to post the 2nd fastest time, a great result considering the problems we had had on Friday.

Race 1

It is standard practice that the top 6 qualifiers draw their grid position and Mark drew 3rd. On the way to the start the rev counter decided to stop working and without this Mark had no idea how high to rev the car and subsequently almost stalled as the lights went out. He was swamped into turns 1 and 2 and was running in 8th place as the field went down the back straight. Going into turn 4 the front 2 cars touched and those behind just had nowhere to go and a huge accident ensued with cars spinning and crashing all over the track. Mark was fortunately placed on the outside and took to the dirt and drove up to turn 5 before getting back onto the track. Behind him 6 cars would go no further and retired. This accident brought out the Safety Car and Mark had now dropped to 18th place. After 2 laps behind the Safety Car the track was clear and racing resumed, however some of the drivers in front of Mark were leaving large gaps to the car in front and were caught unawares when the Safety Car went into the pits, this meant that Mark was about 30 seconds behind at the restart. From there he drove hard and managed to pass several cars to end up in 12th.

Race 2

Mark has drawn 6th for race 2 and made a much better start, remaining in this position after lap 1. He seemed to be suffering from a lack of straight line speed and could not mount an attack on the car in front. A retirement meant that he finished in 5th after the end of 12 very hot laps.

Team manager, Gary Silverwood, commented “our race performance had not been helped by the brake pad issue on Friday and while the team had not fully maximised its potential performance in the races at least we finished and got points in both. Considering that we had almost no testing time I am happy with our results although we will need to improve for Cape Town which is in 4 weeks’ time.

Mark commented “considering where we were in terms of lap times late on Friday afternoon to our qualifying and race performance I am reasonably happy with what we achieved and look forward to more testing time and an improved race performance in Cape Town”.

Even with all of the challenges the team faced Mark still ended up in 4th place overall in the points table and this is a good place to improve from.

The next round of Engen VW Cup racing will be at Killarney, Cape Town on Saturday 31 March.

The racing calendar can be viewed here.

The car has now been branded and is, in our opinion, looking absolutely stunning (it looks even better in the flesh).

If you can get to Zwartkops on Friday and/or Saturday then please come and say hello, we would really appreciate your support.

Race 1
Both Mark and du Toit made good starts leaving Mark in 2nd place down the back straight. Mark not able to push du Toit and it stayed like this until the safety car came out on lap 3. At the restart the lack of power saw Brett Garland and Andre de Lange surge past relegating Mark to 4th. De Lange got past Garland to take 2nd. This is how it stayed to the end.

Race 2
It is usual practice to invert the top 5, by class, for the second race, this saw Mark again 2nd on the grid. Mark really struggled off the line at the start and was passed by several cars going into turn 2. By the back straight Mark was down in 5th place and losing ground on the leaders. It was obvious that there was a problem and post-race Mark reported that the clutch has slipped from the start right into turn 2 and was then slipping out of each corner. Mark made the best of a bad situation and eventually got past Hilton van Nieuwenhuizen to take 4th, which is where he finished.

Mark was, understandably, disappointed that the car was not performing to his high expectations but accepted that things like this do happen in motorsport.

Team manager Gary Silverwood was less phlegmatic and took full responsibility for the badly prepared car. “This is our worst result in the last 5 years and the team will go flat out to ensure that the car is fully prepared for the next event”

The next round of SuperHatch racing will be at Zwartkops on 21 March.