ht mar 2013

Historic Racing South Africa

The Historic Times

March 2013 Volume 14 issue 03

The older I get, the faster I was!

The views and articles published in The Historic Times do not necessarily represent the views of the Historic Racing South Africa

Dave Charlton 1936—2013 David William Charlton[1] (27 October 1936 – 24 February 2013) another of South African great racing drivers has sadly departed from our world.

Dave was born in the UK but lived most of his life here in South Africa where he participated in 13 World Championship Formula One Grand Prix, debuting on 1 January 1965. He also competed in many non-World Championship Formula One races, winning the South African Formula One Championship six times in succession from 1970 to 1975.

Charlie as he was affectionately known was aged 76.

Cost R10

Charlton drove the McLaren M23 of car number 23 during the 1974 South African Grand Prix.

www.historicracing.co.za

2

Dear Members and fellow Committee Members.

That time of the year again! Election of all Category Chairpersons completed with some new and some known faces in the mix. In this regard we welcome Peter Jenkins as Chairperson of S&GT and Vice Chair-person Mike Altona. Howard Nel is the new Marque Cars Chairperson. Jacques Celliers will continue as Sa-loon Cars Chairperson with the assistance of Dennis McBeath as Vice Chairperson. Congratulations to all of you and thanks for stepping up to the challenge. A

well balanced spread of enthusiastic Members! Welcome.

Our first championship race is on Saturday and entries are on the low side with fifty or so in Saloons as I write this. Times continue to be tough for all of us and with three race meetings in six weeks, the strain can be a little overwhelming to say the least.

Great news is existing cars are changing hands to new Members and other beautiful new cars are being built by the sellers as they strive for something more substantial. We have had email enquiries relating to cars that are available and in this regard I urge you to use our website facility or the magazine if you do have one for sale. Po-tential buyers can then be diverted to these facilities

Rules for 2014 will be available shortly for your assessment and input as previously in-dicated at the Noggins. All input relating thereto will be requested to be in writing in order to facilitate an informed response. Having read the Drafts, I can assure you there is nothing to worry about! A set of rules to preserve what we love most.

It has been a most interesting 4 months in the Chair and I have indicated my intention to stand at the AGM. Thanks to All of you for your support during this past period. I really do appreciate it.

See you at Kyalami! Ciao All.

Warm Regards Nick Sheward

Perhaps the drafts could be added to the next edition of the Historic Times so the members could absorb the content in relaxed time to be able to offer valuable input or to just say well done to the technical guys for putting them together, Editor.

CHAIRMAN’S CHAT

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Nick Sheward Chairman (083) 299-3090 [email protected]

Tracy Cilliers Secretary (082) 330-3446 [email protected]

Jacques Cilliers Chairman Saloon Cars (084) 951-7414 [email protected]

Peter Jenkins Chairman Sports & GT (083) 459 4765

Nick Sheward Chairman Classic Thoroughbreds (083) 299-3090 [email protected]

Howard Nel Chairperman Marque Cars (083) 608-6896 [email protected]

Hedley Whitehead Treasurer (082) 448-8269 [email protected]

Historic Times Editor (non committee) 083 601 7511 [email protected]

Website; www.historicracing.co.za

COMMITTEE DETAILS

5

By the time you read this Terence and Geoff will have only a few more sleeps until they commence their JoLon Imp journey! At Kyalami on Saturday we have been invited to take the JoLon Imp around the track and we will use this opportunity to present the monies collected for the Johannesburg Society for the blind. Over and above the monies collected by us for the Johannesburg charity, Tony Taylor has committed R1 extra per paying spectator for the day to the Johannesburg Society for the Blind also.

A big up to Tony for organising this for us. And in conjunction to the community efforts we are supporting, namely the Sight challenged and the plight of the Rhino we have invited the Minister for Health and the transport minister to join us for the occasion as well as a representative from the Parks Board so that they are reminded about the challenges of the sight chal-lenged people on our roads and of course the slaughter of our wonderful Rhinos. Health has replied to our invite but not yet committed to attend, we await re-sponse from transport and San Parks. Now since all the talking has come to an end and our journey is about to begin we would like to challenge each one of you to pledge an amount of money for every kilometre we cover on our quest to present a South African built Imp at the Imp 5o in Coventry. Perhaps a 10 cent for every kilo covered for those who would like to assist. We expect to cover between 12,000 and 16,000 kilometres depending on our final route.

Continued on page 15

JoLon Imp 2013

http://jolonimp.wordpress.com/

2 guys & 14, 000 gruelling kilometres in just 40 days!

6

I rather push a Ford than drive a Chev!

7

SECOND HAND SLICKS FOR SALE. CALL SHARON POULTER

082 357 2058

P u m a f o r S a l e R 65, 000 New car, with all the goods, BMW wheels and brakes, twin braking system, oil cooler, special shocks, anti roll bar, Z bar, twin Cobra seats, plexiglass windows etc.

2.2 ltr motor, billet crank corrilla rods, Engle cam Chrome moly push rods, hi volume oil pump, stinger exhaust, twin 40 IDF Web‐bers, specially modified crank case, modified big valve heads, bal‐anced etc., comes with extra Puma body and chassis, gearbox, suspension, tyres etc., lots of photos, to show progress during the build,

Will consider selling motor separately

contact Bruce 0829525724

C l a s s i c s C l a s s i f i e d s

FIVE (HARDLY EVER USED) DUNLOP RACING SLICKS

SP SPORT 190 / 535 R 13

Price highly negotiable

083 601 7511

8

For sale: 1973 Mercedes Benz 280 Plus a four wheel trailer R65000.00

Contact number 0828950474

Regards

Mike Leonhardt

082 895 0474


Wanted.

I am a young student look-ing for a cute Beetle for transport. Must be in clean condition and reliable.

Call Caitlin 082 666 0766

For Sale

4 Minilite rims 114 pcd. R2 ,500

5 8 inch Dunlop slicks (almost new)

R850 each.

083 601 7511

Give away

17 inch semi slick tyre (used)

083 601 7511

Collect Randburg area

For free advert in our classified section contact Terence with the details of your requirements by email [email protected]

Escort Salisbury Limited Slip Diff with 3.9 Ratio for sale.

R 5200.00

Phone John Reidy

082 789-6555

[email protected]

9

140 z DATSUN

Rolling chassis including the following;

FRONT

Suspension fully rosejointed and adjustable

Brand new Bilstein struts

Fabricated suspension arms

7 series BMW discs and callipers

Power rack and pinion steering

Adjustable anti roll bar

Front spoiler

Ford Radiator

Intercooler (built to spec depending on final layout)

REAR

Double “a” trailing arms including rose joints

Coil over shocks

Formula Atlantic rear wing

INTERIOR

Custom built instrument panel

Aluminum panelling

GENERAL

6 X Dymag Magnesium rims 16’ X 10” (Ford pattern)

Alfa Limited Slip Diff 4.3::1 Ratio

RUNNING GEAR

L16 Nissan Motor including

Modified head including specially ground turbo cam

Cosworth turbo pistons

Nismo competition rods (good for 9, 500 rpm)

O ringed block

Modified oiling system

Modified crank

Lightened steel flywheel


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(due to the layout this motor MUST run a dry sump system) Dry sump tank included—no pump or pulleys—

GEAR BOX

Getrag close ratio gearbox (1:1 fifth gear)

Mated to Nissan bellhousing, No slave cylinder

2,8 Skyline pressure plate

Button clutch

Custom built propshaft (Getrag—Alfa Diff)

MISCELLAENOUS

Spare Cosworth pistons X 2 (new)

Throttle bodies with ram tubes (new)

500cc injectors (new)

Nissan intake manifold (long version)

Electromotive Tec II engine management system incl installation and instruction manual

Custom built turbo exhaust manifold

Turbo Mitsibishi TDO 6

Turbonetics Wastegate (new)

Recirculating valve (Porsche)

Assorted instrumentation

Spare turbo cam

011 792 2995

083 601 7511


For free advert in our classified section contact Terence with the details of your requirements by email [email protected]

11

The account to which contributions can be deposited is as follows; Account name; THE IMP SHARE TRUST

Account number; 623 680 46 308

Account type; CURRENT ACCOUNT

Bank: FNB

Branch; CRESTA

Branch code; 25 49 05

At this stage both Geoff and I would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to those of you who have already deposited your contributions and also a massive thank you to our friends who assisted in making our hopelessly un-roadworthy Imp roadworthy and ready for the ‘GROOT TREK’.

Terence Tracey

JoLon Imp 2013

http://jolonimp.wordpress.com/

2 guys & 14, 000 gruelling kilometres in just 40 days!

Continued on page 19

“Pardon me old chap, could you point us in the general direction of

London Town”?

The EMGEE

WORKSHOP INCORPORATING ROLO MOTORS

12

MG, Mini & British Sports Car parts, repairs, restorations and

race preparation.

Three decades of high quality craftsmanship and service.

011 789 7127

[email protected]

13

The African 6 Hours - Preview And Practice Report

An In-Depth Look At The Field

We’re a little late bringing you Janos Wimpffen’s initial observations from South Africa, owing to his discovery that the internet is not yet a mainstay of daily life in this part of the Republic – and completely absent from the circuit and his hotel! Thanks to some detec-tive work, however, he has managed to find a working connection. Alas, it has not yet proved possible to send images, and they will follow in due course.

Welcome to Welkom! Located a few kilometers from the small modern city of Welkom is the Phakisa Freeway circuit—pronounced “Pa-kisa” by the way. We are about 100 km north of Bloemfontein, the capital of Free State, the country’s judicial center, and a ma-jor university town here in the central part of South Africa.

Free State is relatively flat, very agricultural part of the country and like most of South Africa lies along a high plateau, much of it at about 1000 meters in elevation. This high average elevation is one of the reasons many race teams and car manufacturers prefer South Africa as a venue for testing, giving good readings of air intake and aerodynamic measures that can applied in selected ven-ues across the world.

Phakisa is about 300 kilometers from the major metropolitan area of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Therein lies a bit of rub about this weekend. Kyalami, certainly the most well-known African circuit, is in the metro area and is hosting the first round of this year’s Pro Tour. The Pro Tour consists of a mix of single-seaters (F VW and FF) plus production series such as VW Polo. The headliners in-clude V8 (S. Af’s version of the Trans-Am) and the Shelby Can-Am center seat sports cars. These have all drawn away from the schedule conflicted Phakisa event being held the same weekend.

Nevertheless, the African 6 Hours remains an important race and represents South Africa’s reemergence onto the international endurance racing scene. The entry could not be more varied. It is open to all types of closed wheel cars that are nationally recog-nized: GT, prototype, touring, and even historic. It is organized by Classic Car Events, South Africa’s premier sanctioning body for historic races, rallies, and tours—Roger Pearce is their director, while former Motor Sports Association CEO, Francois Pretorius, is the chief steward. These two wonderful enthusiasts combined with the delightful camaraderie of all the entrants are reason alone why motor sports in general and endurance racing in particular should be on the rise. It has a place in this totally sports mad coun-try. Browse through the TV stations and it is hard to find a non-sports channel. There is rugby, golf, rugby, football, cricket, and rugby.

Everything about this event is low-key. Most of the entrants know each other well enough that there is no end of good-natured jok-ing up and down pit lane—it is going not just between competitors, but between them and the officials, marshals, friends, and fami-lies. This laxity extends to the schedule. There was to have been a 5-hour practice session today starting at 12:00. But as all the marshals seemed to be in place earlier, the pit lane was opened at about 11:45. About half-hour later it was noticed that only one car, the #26 Scribante Porsche 911 RSR, had a transponder mounted, resulting in no one else being timed. So the session was halted and instructions were given that none should leave pit lane without a transponder. Near the end of the session it was de-cided to lengthen the period by 30 minutes, giving one of the teams (the #86 Lola) some extra time as they had mechanical prob-lems earlier in the day. The officials thought ‘why not—we’re having jolly good fun, let’s not stop now’. The marshals were promised extra beer.

This is all taking place under clear skies and about 30-31 degree temperatures—a nice summer weekend is in store. Racing in South Africa traditionally avoids activity on Sunday. Thus after Friday’s long free session, timed practice commences mid-morning Saturday with the 6 Hours flagged off at 13:00.

AFRICAN 6 HOUR ENDURANCE RACE FEBRUARY 23, 2013.

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The 4.26 kilometer circuit is quite unique. It double backs on itself twice and is enclosed within an American style oval.

The oval was used but once—some years ago for an American Speed Association stock car race. The road course is rather bumpy, thanks in part to being located in a region known for mild seismic activity and sinking soils. Indeed the garages are at a level several centimeters below pit lane. Your average LMP car would tag the bottom in making that transition. Another unique fea-ture includes some of the infield amenities. Teams camping at the circuit is a long tradition at Phakisa and their tents dot the area. Also available, but seemingly not in use, are several rustic cabins which would look at home in the Eifel. This is gold mining coun-try, with mounds of tailings and a 4500 meter shaft located across the road. Appropriately, Phakisa Freeway is on the site of the former Goldfields Raceway.

This configuration results in two parallel straights, both located in front the pits. There is a long sweeping left hand pit exit followed by two decreasing radii right-handers with a medium length chute between them. After a fast left kink it opens onto the back straight, directly parallel to the oval. The pattern of rights but with shorter chutes between them is repeated and then comes the actual pit straight. A top time is considered to be in the 1:38 range.

We’ll introduce the field in the order that they finished Friday’s free practice. However, not much should be staked on the times. Although the session was quite long, the day began with few teams present and ready to go. They tended to trickle in and set up as the day progressed and many packed up to start their barbecues long before the checkered flag.

#98 Ecurie Zoo Pilbeam-Duratec MP98 Duncan Vos / Graham Vos Class R 1:39.933

English built and partly English run here, this car was built for the short-lived British VdeV series (which has since morphed into the SPEED EuroSeries). This is the car’s first appearance in a major South African event. They spent most of the session preparing the car and recorded the fast lap near the very end of the afternoon.

#11 Sean Grave Shelby Can-Am Sean Grave / Thomas Reib Class P 1:40.554

By contrast to Ecurie Zoo, Grave’s team set their time very early and then worked on race setup. The Shelby Can-Am cars are cen-ter-seat tubeframe spec-built prototypes first built for a short-lived series in the 1990s that was intended as part of a ladder program in American racing. They were then sold en masse to a South African organizer and have been run quite successfully here ever since. The original Dodge motors have been replaced by Nissans, intended to provide more bottom end grunt. Starting this season the cars are equipped with newer narrow profile bodywork, designed to mimic LM P2 cars.

#69 Harp Motorsport Juno-Duratec S2000 Francis Carruthers / Nick Adcock / Johan Englebrecht Class R 1:45.567

#86 Harp Motorsport Lola-Mazda T86 Rudi Patoir / Dawie Joubert / Andrew Moffit Class S

1:46.989

The 2-car Harp team is perhaps the most professional operation here with Joubert being a particularly accomplished national level driver. Both cars are tried and true sports-racers, although the Mazda rotary powered car had a mixed practice session with some problems. The team’s tire choice is unusual—Argentine brand NA Carrera. Teams are free to choose tire brands although Hoosier is providing tire service to all. The American brand is seeking to make inroads in the local market.


15

#4 Kidscape Racing Porsche 993 RSR Andre Bezuidenhout / Theo du Toit Class V 1:49.454

Running for a charity, the broad winged yellow car is by far the fastest, prettiest, and best prepared of some six very vintage 911s.

#26

Scribante Racing Porsche 911 RSR Dino Scribante / J. P. Bredenhann Class V 1:51.169

As with many of the 911s, this early 1970s car started life as a more humble version of the 911 line and has been steadily aug-mented over the years. This car was one of the few to steadily improve their times during the day. It was all or naught as the en-gine blew and the car is gone.

#19 Charl Arangie Porsche 944 Turbo Charl Arangies / Harry Arangies Class V 1:51.474

This is by far the faster of the two front-engine Porsches and is one of the better prepared of all the vintage set.


16

#75 Scribante Racing Porsche 911 RS Lee Scribante / Colin Ellison Class V 1:52.269

Painted in blazing magenta, the team’s second car is the most striking in the field. It started life as a 911 SC and has been built into a replica of an IROC Porsche, complete with whale-tail. Dino Scribante and J. P. Bredenhann have joined Ellison to drive in the race with the demise of the team’s #26 car. Lee Scribante will stand down.

#911 MI Equipment Porsche 911 RSR Frank Nöhring / Michael Tischner Class V 1:52.394

Followers of the VLN series and the Nürburgring 24 Hours will recognize the drivers as long time competitors there. German expat Stefan Puschavez invited them to bring some international flair to the race. In return Stefan will get some rides in the VLN 4-hour events.

#194 Nucleus Supply Porsche 911 RSR Peter Jenkins / Mike Altona Class V 1:54.321

This is another 911 that has undergone several facelifts, mostly in the engine compartment. It now sports a newer 3.6 liter motor, replacing the old 3.2.

#5 Signkor Racing Birkin 7 John Glover / Derek van der Merwe / Jeff Gable Class Y 1:55.630

There are seven (plus two practice cars) representing the wonderful world of Lotus 7 racing. Within a paddock that is already known for being very friendly, this group is like a loving family party. By example, one team’s gearbox broke, a rival gave them a spare and said simply, “here’s our address, ship it back when you have the time.” This bunch pits together, eats and drinks to-gether, travels together, have ribald club meetings together—let’s just leave it at that.

The #5 car is one of three “pure” Birkins. That is, unlike some of the others it was not built from the ground up but instead comes from one of the more prolific Lotus 7 look-alike constructors. Power comes from a Toyota motor. Glover is a veteran of a Spa-Francorchamps 25 Hour race, Gable is a rarity of being an under-40 year old Lotus driver, and van der Merwe is not related to South Africa’s most famed sports car driver, Sarel.

#15 Fred Phillips Panoz GTLM Dave Alhadeff / Fred Phillips / Jao Lambert Class V 1:56.022

Once a standby in the ALMS, the deep-grunting Ford powered car has found a new lease on life. The Cape Town based team has the reputation of being the hardest partiers in the paddock. That’s a tall mountain to climb.

#119 MI Equipment Porsche 911 RS Stefan Puschavez / Sean Pearce Class W 1:56.996

This is perhaps the most original of the 911 set. The team owner has been busy preparing the guest car and thus has spent little time behind the wheel. Sean is the son of race director Roger. Pearce turned in some fast laps near the end of the day to show the car’s relative competitiveness.

#16 Signkor Racing Birkin 7 Anton Miller / Neil de Later / Anton Guse Class Y 1:57.180

The second of the Birkins also uses a Toyota motor. They expect to go over an hour per stint and are banking on fuel economy over speed. Their young driver lineup are all Lotus Challenge series champions.


17

#18 Commrish TVR Chimera Darryn Lobb / Ashley Lobb / Christopher Corna Class V 1:57.454

The Lobb brothers are highly accomplished in various series including the South African V8. They relish the opportunity to drive together. The Rover V8 powered car has recently been rebuilt and had has not been run since a crash in 2011. Darryn downplayed their chances but the car did well, having only arrived late in the afternoon and turning but a few laps in practice.

#83 Mixtec Locost Willie Lochman / Tim Clamp / Jonathan Clamp Class X 1:58.258

Tim Clamp is one of the oldest drivers in the field and son Jonathan one of the youngest. This is third of the Birkins in the field.

#101 Hennie Trollip Haynes Speedster 7 Hennie Trollip / Jimmy Dunn Class Y 1:59.810

Trollip built this Toyota powered car from a Haynes How-To manual. He has more experience than most in endurance racing.

#8 Estelle Vermooten Locost Estelle Vermooten / Michael Schlater / Gerdus Smit Class Y 2:01.299

The grid’s woman owned, built, managed and driven car was built as a kit around a Ford-Rocam motor. The two men actually have more Lotus experience than does Estelle, a gymkhana specialist.

#20 Stephen Racing VW Golf Geoff Stephen / Neil Stephen / Fabienne Lanz Class X 2:01.549

Swiss driver Lanz adds some international flair to the fastest production car in the field. The two-liter car is a veteran of similar, but shorter events, in South Africa.

#22 Backdraft Racing Backdraft 4000 Tony Martin / Franco Scribante Class U 2:01.621

This is a “Cobra” “replica”—with the emphasis on the quote marks in both cases. It looks like a Cobra after a long diet of fatty foods and poor old Carroll is rolling in his grave on this one—it has a turbocharged Toyota under the hood—no Ford power here.

#6 Signkor Racing Lotus 7 Replica Sean Hurley / “Klippies” Krige / Norman Witt Class X 2:01.646

This is a home-built BMW powered 7 look-alike. It was designed by Neil Le Blank. Witt is the owner of the Signkor team and has experience in the Belgian Fun Cup. Hurley has a similar background, going well back into the 1970s with runs in Triumphs as well as Lotuses. “Klippies”=Afrikaans for stones and is also the name of a South African brandy. Mr. Krige earned the nickname as the result of an off-road excursion during the club outing. Like many others here, his adventures earned him a nickname and his is per-haps the only one today that can be reprinted on a family web site.

#7 Frankies Soft Drinks Toyota Corolla Bruce Avern-Taplin / Mike Schmidt Class Y 2:01.810

This was built from a blank shell by Avern-Taplin. Various set-up problems meant that only completed a few laps in practice.

#33 ADL Roofing VW Golf Kevin Paynter / J. P. Nortje / Andre de Lange Class X 2:02.255

This VW is both quite stock and quite hammered from ample years of use. The team claims to be the favorite in the class.


18

#58 Andreas Letnik Porsche 928 Andreas Letnik / Neil MacLeod / Glen Clark Class U 2:003.043

Sadly, this front-engine Porsche blew its motor near the end of practice and has withdrawn.

#25 Rod Schaffer Lotus 7 Replica Rod Schaffer / Rob Hewitt Class Y 2:10.871

Louis O’Brien of Durban built this Toyota powered Lotus and sold it to Schaffer. At 65 years old he may be one of the oldest drivers here, but how many senior citizens have (recently) completed 8 marathons, 9 endurance canoe races, and 3 iron mans?—that’s endurance!

#23 Backdraft Racing Backdraft 4000 Mike McLoughlin / Jon Wilson Class U 2:23.074

This is an N.A. Toyota powered version of the –ahem—Cobra.

#2 Nick Parrott Racing BMW 330d Robbie Smith Class V no time

#1 Nick Parrott Racing BMW 330d Robbie Smith / Mike O’Sullivan / Nick Parrott Class V no laps

The completely road spec #2 car went out for a few laps and bent a valve. It had no transponder and thus no time was recorded. The #1 car came from a Britcar team and was just unloaded from the docks a few days ago. It went out in an extra Saturday a.m. practice and promptly started spewing diesel smoke. The team’s days are clearly numbered.

#55 GT Racing Ford Escort Brendan Smith / Barry Sprigs / Peter Twiss Class W no time

This is another quite stock production car. It only managed a few in-and-out laps during practice.

#910 Classic Motorsport Porsche 910 Steve Pickering / Rohann Theron Class R no time

Yes, it is a 1960s vintage 910!—chassis 029 was found by Pickering moldering in the jungles of Zambia. It apparently, maybe, had a Springbok Series history. Pickering had thought that he bought a 906 at first until he started slicing away at the grime. Still less than pristine, it is having trouble getting up to speed, but at least makes up in the noise department.

#9 Goetzee Racing Datsun 1200 Johan Goetzee Jr., / Sr. / John du Toit Class X no time

The team unpacked this 40 year old plus car late yesterday. The original 1200cc engine has been replaced by a two-liter. They are running on Nankang tires—I don’t really want to know where or what they are made of.


19

Join us on 17th March for the first Formula 1 Race of the season. Enjoy breakfast while being entertained by Bernie’s mad circus from down under!

Grid positions will be allocated from 07h00 on Sunday 17th.

Green beer will also be available!!!

Bookings essential!

SHOP G 24, BRIGHTWATER COMMONS,

REPUBLIC ROAD, RANDBURG

011 886 9988

20

The African 6 Hours – Race Report

Victory To The Vos Brothers

Temperatures were up to about 33 degrees at the 13:00 start and the local circuit commentator, named simply Elvis, was excited (think John Hindhaugh with a South African accent, longer sideburns, perfect shades, and a blue suede shoes attitude).

Twenty-four cars made the start with the #1 BMW, and #910 910 missing the call to the grid. We knew about the diesel’s issue and the 910 seemed to be having trouble getting the precise fuel pressure through its old fashioned mechanical injection. The #6 Lotus withdrew just before the start – problems with the ECU.

Duncan Vos (#98 Pilbeam) maintained a very slight edge over Dawie Joubert (#86 Lola) and these two soon seemed to settle into a proper endurance race. By Lap 4 there was a yawning nine plus second gap to third place, Franco Scribante in the #22 Back-draft. Very close behind was Francis Carruthers in the #69 Juno. Also in this second group was Andre Bezuidenhout in the best of the Porsches, the #4 993 RSR.

A short gap followed and then came the shocking-magenta Porsche Dino Scribante (#75), with the #911 911 of Michael Tischner nipping behind. On Lap 3 Rohann Theron finally sputtered out with the 910, only to return one slow lap later. The injectors were readjusted and he ventured back out, for one slow lap. It went back out for two slow laps, and returned again, they worked . . .you get the pattern.

Next to pit was Darryn Lobb when the #18 TVR slowed dramatically heading into the back stretch. There was fluid leaking from Rod Schaffer – more exactly, from his #25 Lotus. Another Lotus, #101 with Hennie Trollip driving, was among the early pit callers; the clutch was gone and they retired. Another making a clearly unscheduled call at the 25 minute mark was Geoff Stephen in the #20 Golf. The #55 Escort of Barry Sprigs retired when it dropped a valve.

The first of the leaders in was the #75 IROC Porsche of Dino Scribante. Coming at 40 minutes, this may have been semi-scheduled. Something had broken on Johan Goetzer, Sr.’s #9 Datsun and it was stranded on course.

At 45 minutes, these were the standings:

1st, Duncan Voss, #98, Pilbeam

2nd, #86, Joubert, Lola, -13 seconds

3rd, #22, F. Scribante, Backdraft, -1 lap

4th, #69, Carruthers, Juno, -28 seconds

5th, #4, Bezuidenhout, Porsche 993, -3 seconds

6th, #19 C. Arangies, Porsche 944, -1 lap

7th, #194, Peter Jenkins, Porsche RSR, -45 seconds

8th, #911, Tischner, Porsche RSR, -2 seconds [closest race]

9th, #5, Jeff Gable, Lotus 7, -59 seconds [going faster now]

10th, #16, Neil de Later, Birkin, -1 lap

11th, #15, Jaco Lambert, Panoz, -8 seconds [at 58 minutes stopped, first of definite scheduled stops]

12th, #83, Willie Lochman, Locost, -10 seconds

13th, #119, Sean Pearce, Porsche RS, -22

14th, #33, Andre de Lange, VW, -43 [handed over to Kevin Paynter at 1 hour]


21

15th, #8, Michael Schlater, Locost, -26 seconds [in at 1-hour, handed over to Estelle Vermooten]

The Lola and the Juno came in together at the 1-hour mark while the Pilbeam remained out and built up its lead. The #22 Backdraft pitted for the second time, as did the #25 Lotus with Schafer going very slow with an intermittent fuel surge problem. The Backdraft had had alternator problems and would continue running, changing the battery regularly. The #7 Toyota was moving slowly for a bit but then regained speed. The 910, meanwhile, was going about its test session with Steve Pickering now driving. A good Porsche, the #4 Kidscape team car, made its stop at about 70 minutes, Theo du Toit taking over at the wheel. The TVR was once again slow, however, now with Christopher Corna aboard. It had overheating problems before, but now the differential appeared to be broken and they soon retired.

Duncan Vos finally came into the pits at the 80-minute mark for a routine stop. Oops, no it wasn’t’ - the rear wing had come loose. They had built up a three lap lead which was now all for naught. They re-entered down in ninth place with the German Porsche taking the lead. Thanks to the earlier stops of the other two sports-racers the #911 911 had moved into second place overall. The #194 RSR was second, the #5 Lotus a nice third, the Kidscape Porsche fourth and the #83 Locost fifth, until it made its first sched-uled stop, elevating the Juno another spot. The Lola was further back, thanks to a longish stop.

Behind them, the rest of the field was somewhere near Botswana. The #20 VW’s wheel bearings were behaving like Golf balls and the Datsun was wrestling with a timing issue. The team had disconnected the power steering on the Panoz – its fluid was boiling. The #7 Corolla was smoking badly (again), while the 910 was running smoothly for a change [if you call being passed by a VW Golf on the fast straight smooth]. It turns out that their fuel problem came from crossing the intake with the outlet lines – d’oh! The Co-rolla’s issue involved a cracked oil cooler which was being cut out of the system.

Approaching 100 minutes the two Puschavez team cars had yet to stop, as had the #5 Lotus. Finally the leading car of Tischner came in, handing over to Frank Nöhring. Their stop went very well and the team was able to maintain the lead, otherwise a Lotus 7 would have become the overall leader (instead we had a nearly 40 year Porsche atop the chart)!

The #19 Porsche Turbo was losing oil, while the #23 Backdraft retired with a blown piston. The #119 Porsche stopped at nearly the two hour mark, leaving only the #5 Lotus not having pitted.

Nick Adcock was now driving the #69 Juno, which had gained the lead through the pit stop cycle and had completed 60 laps. The #5 Lotus was second but made its stop at the 2-hour mark. This elevated the Pilbeam into second with Graham Vos setting the race’s fast lap at 1:44.744. The car remained nearly a minute down on the leaders, but catching fast. Du Toit was next, about 30 seconds further back in the #4 Porsche. The erstwhile leading #911 was a lap down, followed a few seconds behind by the troubled #22 Backdraft with Tony Martin now driving (it had another bad stop, a backdraft of 10 liters of fuel spilling everywhere and the team incurring a penalty). The #194 Porsche of Mike Altona was a further lap down. The Porsche 944 was still in the mix, moving up a spot when the #119 Porsche stopped and Stefan Puschavez took over. The #83 Locost was two laps further down followed by the #16 Birkin – good Lotus fight between them.

The Juno made its second stop at about the 2:25 elapsed time mark, allowing the Pilbeam back into the lead. Unfortunately, the Lola had retired after Andrew Moffitt had the apex seal on the rotary give way. The distributor drive snapped on the #9 Datsun and the team was waiting for a welcome replacement to be delivered from the Welkom Nissan agent. The #33 Golf’s problems involved a loss of fifth gear and a broken oil sensor line. The second Backdraft car retired with a burnt piston, while the #911 was penalized with a drive through for a push start. The Mixtec Locost (#83) was gone with a blown motor.

This left 19 cars still running – with only about half in good health – at the halfway point, and there were gaps everywhere. Graham Vos still led, now with a five lap gap over the Juno (which had to make a further stop – a penalty for pit lane speeding). At almost the halfway mark Vos reset the fast lap at 1:44.119. And it was getting hot – marshals reporting 38 degrees!

The #5 Lotus was running very well and had graduated to second overall with the extra stop of the Juno. The Kidscape Porsche was running like a clock and was third.

#5 also led Class Y over the other Loti-like cars, #16 and #8, and all three had been running rather well. Dragging behind were the #7 Corolla, #25 Lotus, #16 Birkin, and #9 Datsun – all with several delays each. Class V belongs to the Kidscape Porsche, ahead of other Stuttgart products, numbers 911, 19, 75, and 194. The first and only remaining non-Porsche was the Panoz.

The only two cars in Class U were gone (the Backdrafts) and similarly Class S would have no finishers with the Lola gone – it was the only starter. Class W had only the quite healthy #119 Porsche, while Class X was now led by the #33 VW after the retirement of


22

the #83 Locost. The #20, although further behind, was still in the running.

These were the fast laps by class at this point: Class Y, #5 Lotus, Jeff Gable, 1:55,338; Class V, Andre Bezuidenhout, #4 Porsche, 1:48.679; Class W, #119 Porsche, Stefan Puschavez, 1:58.884; Class U, #22 Backdraft, Franco Scribante, 1:43.399; Class X, #83 Locost, Willie Lochman, 1:57.424; Class S, #86 Lola, Dawie Joubert, 1:46.218.

At the 3:21 elapsed time mark we had the first neutralization (done with a Code 60 system) when the #7 Toyota pulled off course. It lasted less than two minutes and was mostly needed to get the recovery truck across the track. The problem was merely a broken driveshaft and the car was retrieved from the dead car park and repaired.

Here are the 2/3 point standings with gaps to the car ahead:

1st place, #98 Pilbeam at 124 laps

2nd place, #69 Juno, -5 laps

3rd place, #5 Lotus, -1 lap

4th place, #911 911, -2 laps

5th place, #4 Porsche, -1 lap

6th place, #16 Birkin, -1 lap

7th place, #75 Porsche, -1 lap

8th place, #19 Porsche 944, -1 lap

9th place, #119 Porsche, -41 seconds [same lap, wow!]

10th place, #194 Porsche, -10 laps [it lost time replaced a driveshaft – not used to 6 hours events, the historic Porsche started the race with a reconditioned unit.]

11th place, #8 Locost, -1 lap

12th place, #33 VW, -10 laps

13th place, #15 Panoz, -4 laps

The remaining runners were more or less wounded.

About Hour 5 you ask? Simply the most stable hour of the race – the rash of retirements and delays had slackened and all the gaps were either growing or stable. The only exception regarding positions was that the pace of the #4 Porsche moved it ahead of the #5 Lotus for second place. An exception regarding problems was the #25 Lotus, which stopped on course and was flat-towed around on the oval. This part of the circuit is rarely used and the two truck drivers had great fun hauling the little car, probably running faster than it had all weekend. The #20 Golf was a late retirement with a broken halfshaft.

The gap between the Pilbeam and the Juno grew to 10 laps. With just a tad over an hour remaining the Pilbeam made its last stop, dropping its lead back into single digits. The brothers Vos have much to be proud of in their almost trouble free to the flag, and younger brother Duncan was able to add the African 6 Hour crown to a long list of titles that include several national touring car titles. As the race wound down, even the commentators had slowed their pace – indeed Elvis had left the building.

Kidscape’s last stop reversed the third-fourth place order again, with the #6 Signkor Lotus back in the last podium spot. Ahead of them the Harp Motorsport Juno remained solidly in second and made its last stop with 30 minutes to go. Although there was only a one-lap gap to the battle for third, the sports-racer was running seven seconds per lap quicker than then the little roadster. How-ever, the #4 Porsche was similarly seven seconds per laps faster than the Seven.

Much kudos to the little #5 of Jeff Gable, John Glover, and Derek van der Merwe, nonetheless; the locally built car was better than


23

the Birkins but nevertheless the Lotus replica had done better than most of Colin Chapman’s entries. The last remaining big battle was for fifth overall and second in Class V. #911 started the hour seven seconds ahead [what is it with seven second gaps?] of the rapidly gaining #75 Scribante Porsche. This quickly eroded and #75 took the spot.

The fight for third remained interesting to the end. The #4 Kidscape Porsche made its last stop with the #5 still circulating and inher-iting third. It didn’t last, and with 15 minutes to go the much faster Porsche was through.

The finish of African 6 Hours coincided almost exactly with the African Sunset, which took place over the outer oval wall, past the pits – of course, it’s to the NW here in the Southern Hemisphere – the disc actually dropping a few minutes before the checkered flag. The low angle of light was the last challenge for drivers, particularly as they headed into the last set of kinks before the pit straight.

In true endurance racing fashion, several walking wounded cars were reanimated on the penultimate lap. By now it was quite dark and while headlamps were required, no one exactly had high candlepower bulbs aboard. Into the gloaming came the smoke shrouded # 7 Toyota. It came to a complete halt on the straight some 50 meters from the finish line. As the winning Pilbeam swept past the Toyota tried to crawl forward by whatever was left of internal combustion, electric starter, and sheer will and the cheers of the crowd—but alas, he couldn’t make it.

Utterly unknown to me until the checkered flag, there was an Index of Performance being contested. The # 5 Lotus was a deserving winner—first time for a Lotus since the infamous Le Man debacle.

It was a fun and worthy event. With a little tweaking South Africa is back in the endurance racing big time. This was the first African 6 Hours. It won’t be the last.

Janos Wimpffen

(With thanks to David Richardson for his help with pit-running and to Francois Pretorius and Roger Pearce for their assistance throughout the weekend.)

GRATEFUL THANKS TO JANOS WIMPFFEN FOR HIS INDEPT AND ENTERTAINING REPORT, CHECK OUT HIS WEBSITE FOR MORE RACING NEWS. http://www.dailysportscar.com/

To the eagle eyed among the readers, you might pick up a slight detail or three that may not be entirely correct in the reporting but a great journo will never allow details to get in the way of a good story. Editor.


The Britcar 330 Diesel racer of Nick parrot cockpit left with Nock carefully attaching the appropriate stickers under the watchful eye of Parrot junior.

24


Happy and helpful volunteers making the event the wonderful success that it was.

Mike O Sullivan in a hopeful mood pre-race at the lathe fuel rail in hand!

Nick and Mike examining the engineering on the faulty fuel rail of the errant 330 Beemer.

25


Youth programme youngsters toiling away under the Britcar BMW that unfortunately never really got going.

More gallant work under the hood of the 330 diesel racer in a vain effort to resolve the fuel supply problem.

26

To help me on my way to London in my JoLon Imp, Franco Resca has come to the party in a bright way by arranging a fine sponsorship of our car by Streamlight who have supplied us with a wonderful array of ex-tremely versatile lights as well as a solar charger for the roof of our car (shame, Franco, I doubt it will be much use in England, in fact nobody will even know what it is not to mention what it might be for!!)

Not only do we expect these lights and equipment to be of graet use to us on our trip but they have prpved to be invaluable while we were preparing the Imp for the long journey ahead.

And Franco has mentioned he will offer meaningful discounts to all MSA members on production of their competition licences.

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and takes his Streamlight ashlight on his many hunting trips. Many of their law enforcement sales managers are gun collectors,

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that set Streamlight apart. We Listen. We Learn. We Get It.

Streamlight warrants their products to be free of defects, including LED, for a lifetime of use. ey will repair, replace or refund the

purchase price, at their option, any Streamlight product that does not work as a result of a manufacturing defect for as long as you

own it. is limited lifetime warranty excludes abuse, non-rechargeable batteries, bulbs, chargers, switches, electronics and normal

wear and tear. Rechargeable batteries, chargers, switches and electronics have a two (2) year warranty with proof of purchase.

It’s no wonder that Streamlight is recognized around the world as the leading provider of premium portable lighting solutions.

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Perhaps an apt parking for the Imp in its present state!

LET THERE BE BRIGHT LIGHT

27

Personal and early life

Villeneuve was born in Richelieu, a small town in the largely French-speaking province of Quebec in Canada and grew up in Berth-ierville.[3] He married Joann Barthe in 1970, with whom he had two children, Jacques and Mélanie.[4] During his early career Ville-neuve took his family on the road with him in a motorhome during the racing season, a habit which he continued to some extent during his Formula One career.[5] He often claimed to have been born in 1952. By the time he got his break in Formula One, he was already 27 years old and took two years off his age to avoid being considered too old to make it at the highest level of mo-torsports.[6]

Niki Lauda said of him, "He was the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula 1... The fact that, for all this, he was a sensitive and lovable character rather than an out-and-out hell-raiser made him such a unique human being".[7]

His younger brother Jacques also had a successful racing career in Formula Atlantic, Can Am and CART.[8] Gilles' son, also named Jacques, won the Indianapolis 500 and CART championships in 1995 and became Formula One World Champion in 1997.[9]

Early career

Villeneuve's 1973 Magnum MkIII Formula Ford car, with which he won the Quebec Formula Ford championship.

Villeneuve started competitive driving in local drag-racing events, entering his road car, a modified 1967 Ford Mustang. He was soon bored by this[10] and entered the Jim Russell Racing School at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant to gain a racing licence. He then had a very successful season in Quebec regional Formula Ford, running his own two-year-old car and winning seven of the ten races he entered.[11] The next year he progressed to Formula Atlantic, competing there for four years, running his own car again for one of those seasons. He won his first Atlantic race in 1975 at Gimli Motosport Park in heavy rain. In 1976, teamed with Chris Harrison's Ecurie Canada and factory March race engineer Ray Wardell, he dominated the season by winning all but one of the races and taking the US and Canadian titles. He won the Canadian championship again in 1977.

Money was very tight in Villeneuve's early career. He was a professional racing driver from his late teens, with no other income. In the first few years the bulk of his income actually came from snowmobile racing, where he was extremely successful. He could de-mand appearance money as well as race money, especially after winning the 1974 World Championship Snowmobile Derby. His second season in Formula Atlantic was part-sponsored by his snowmobile manufacturer, Skiroule.[12] He credited some of his suc-cess to his snowmobiling days: "Every winter, you would reckon on three or four big spills — and I'm talking about being thrown on to the ice at 100 miles per hour. Those things used to slide a lot, which taught me a great deal about control. And the visibility was terrible! Unless you were leading, you could see nothing, with all the snow blowing about. Good for the reactions — and it stopped me having any worries about racing in the rain."[13]

Formula One career

After Villeneuve impressed James Hunt by beating him and several other Grand Prix stars in a non-championship Formula Atlantic race at Trois-Rivières in 1976, Hunt's McLaren team offered Villeneuve a Formula One deal for up to five races in a third car during the 1977 season.[14] Villeneuve made his debut at the 1977 British Grand Prix, where he qualified 9th in McLaren's old M23, split-ting the regular drivers Hunt and Jochen Mass who were driving newer M26s. In the race he set fifth fastest lap and finished 11th after being delayed for two laps by a faulty temperature gauge. The British press coverage of Villeneuve's performance was gener-ally complimentary, including John Blunsden's comment in The Times that "Anyone seeking a future World Champion need look no further than this quietly assured young man."[15]

Despite this, shortly after the British race McLaren's experienced team manager Teddy Mayer decided not to continue with Ville-neuve for the following year. His explanation was that Villeneuve "was looking as though he might be a bit expensive" and that Pat-rick Tambay, the team's eventual choice for 1978, was showing similar promise.[16] Villeneuve was left with no solid options for 1978, although Canadian Walter Wolf, for whom Villeneuve had driven in Can-Am racing, considered giving him a drive at Wolf Racing and also recommended him to the Ferrari team's founder, Enzo Ferrari. Rumours circulated that Villeneuve was one of sev-eral drivers in whom the Italian team was interested, and in August 1977 he flew to Italy to meet Ferrari, who was immediately re-minded of the pre-war European champion Tazio Nuvolari: "When they presented me with this 'piccolo canadese', this minuscule bundle of nerves, I immediately recognised in him the physique of Nuvolari and said to myself, let's give him a try."[17] Ferrari was satisfied with Villeneuve's promise after a session at Ferrari's Fiorano test track, despite the Canadian making many mistakes and setting relatively slow times, and Villeneuve signed to drive for Ferrari in the last two races of the 1977 season and the 1978 sea-son.[18] Villeneuve later remarked that: "If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari..."[13]

Villeneuve's arrival was prompted by Ferrari driver Niki Lauda quitting the team at the 1977 Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport having already clinched his second championship with the Italian team.[19] Villeneuve retired from the race after sliding off the track on

HRCR Calendar for 2013

Date Venue M G S C

20 Feb Piston Ring Category AGM’s

23 Feb Phakisa (invitational)

16 Mar Kyalami

13 Mar Piston Ring Club AGM

16 Mar Kyalami

13 Apr Zwartkops

01 Jun Phakisa

27 Jul Zwartkops

17 Aug Kyalami

21 Sept East London

19 Oct Kyalami

09 Nov Zwartkops

Legend: M = Marque Cars G = Sport & GT S = Saloon Cars C = Classic Thoroughbreds

07 Dec Kyalami

ht mar 2013

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