Legends Newsletter 04
A good day with a good response from the public, particularly the Legends Series
The sight and sound of the Thundering Herd is pure magic. They produced spectacular racing. A yellow Barracuda (Jeff Kruger), a big red Galaxie (Lee Thompson). The red/white Nova (Jonathan du Toit) and then the two ultra-competitive Mustangs of Peter Lindenberg and Ben Morgenrood stole the show! Despite restrictors and starting from the back, Ben Morgenrood won from Peter Lindenberg’s Mustang. The problem being with a cool morning, new tyres… there was little respect for the 1.14 cut off time. Yet they all stayed together and produced highly spectacular racing.
Robyn Kruger was gifted pole position in the U2 class with the Alfa GT after the boys Alan Poulter, Vic Campher, Trevor Tuck and Roger Houston broke out. The same happened in race one and race two. On the road, Robyn was fourth or fifth but the break out cars and their respective penalties resulted in a good overall win for Ms. Kruger.
The SKF LITTLE Giants produced a surprisingly thin field. Usually an average of 20-25 cars. In the end there were 16. The racing was good until Josh Dovey’s Healey Sprite picked up an electrical problem, Chris Carlisle-Kitz spun trying to outrun the D-Type of Keith van Heerden. So the Jaguar had two good wins on the day.
The second heat of Legends was a combined event of the big Legends, with the red Galaxie adding to excitement by exploding its engine on the last lap.
U2’s and LITTLE Giants. This produced a good field and plenty of close contact. Not the least of which was Wouter Roos in the U2 BMW and Mel Spurr in the well driven Yellow Consul 315. Citizen’s Andre de Kock in the black Dart made life difficult for Ishmael Baloyi, but it looked all good. Mark van Rooyen’s Alpine is getting faster and faster whilst Les McLeod’s MGB won its class as did Carlos Gameiro in his Alfa Guilia.
The Pre’1966/68 Le Mans Sports & GT and Pre’1974 ISP were a bit thin on the grid. The Pim Pieterse Lola T70 MK3B is a spectacular car and Larry Wilford comfortably won both heats. Jonathan du Toit’s 1965 Lola T70 Spyder fought the slick Porsche RSR of Richard Schukardt from Botswana. This was the race of the Pre’1974 cars of the day. Unfortunately, the orange Porsche faded towards the end.
It was good to have young Phillip Pantazis from Switzerland and the Datsun 240Z racing. The Marlboro Crane Hire cars had James Dalais at the wheel of the blue GT40 whilst Terry Wilford had the Porsche 917 which picked up a gearbox problem. James won his ISP class as did George Avvakoumides. Fritz Kleynhans, and (nice to have him back racing) Nic Parrott in the yellow Porsche 911 all winning their respective classes.
Christiano Verolini had a one-off drive in the TAR Daytona which in race one almost broke out of class B. Unfortunately, a soft touch in turn 2 had him out of race 2.
The driver of the day surely must go to Warren Lombard. His silver Cobra broke its gearbox even before it arrived at the circuit. So they raced a borrowed white Cobra (1965 trim Bobby Olthoff tribute car) and will really old rubber and a spin won class B with a lap time of 1.11 some going!!
Save the date: Tuesday 8th of May – @ Duimpies Hangar – 18:30
1958 / 1974 The Great Years of South African Motor Racing.
1966 Legends of the 9 Hour Production Cars
Pre-1966/68 Le Mans Sports & GT
Pre-1974 International Sports Prototypes
Pre-1966/68 Little Giants Production Sports & GT Cars
Pre-1966 under 2 litre Production Cars
Pre-1971 Campion of Champions Production Cars