Our final 2009 Championship race was held at Kyalami on October 17th, and as is the norm for this time of year, we watched the black clouds rolling in on Saturday morning. Here in South Africa, our summer rain is nothing like the European drizzle – we have Thunderstorms! Kyalami is renowned for the rivers that start to run across the circuit when it rains, so we knew we were in for an eventful race if the heavens opened.
We arrived at Kyalami lying 10th in the Championship, and were optimistic about maintaining or improving our position in the last event. We went out for our warm up lap for the first heat, and sure enough, were directed straight back into the pits when a wet race was declared.
The pit lane was total chaos, with only 20 minutes available to change to rain tyres. My team were prepared, though, so out we went again to our 9th place grid position. With over 20 cars on the grid, I knew it was going to be hectic out on the circuit, but I didn?t expect to be taken out on the first lap! Coming up the hill to WesBank corner, one of the drivers behind me saw a gap that wasn?t there, and hit my Mustang on the right rear wheel.
He hit me really hard, and the tyre deflated almost immediately. Fuming, I limped straight into the pits. As we only have one set of wet tyres, we had no choice but to change all four tyres to slicks, which seemed to take forever! I stormed back on to the wet circuit for a few laps, and unbelievably, I got another puncture. End result: points score = 0!
We managed to borrow another wet tyre for the second heat – fortunately, as the rain came bucketing down. I was on pole due to our inverted second race grid, and was determined to make the most of my opportunity to pile on the points.
Everyone battled to stay on the tarmac in the poor conditions, and visibility was almost zero. The windscreens in our V8s steam up very quickly, so driving in the rain is something of a hit and (hopefully!) miss affair. I soon found I had an unexpected problem, though: I have small feet, and pedal position is crucial for me to effectively blip the throttle on downshifts (we run four speed Jerico boxes with straight cut gears). Under wet conditions, I was using far less brake pressure than usual, and was unable to reach the accelerator pedal under braking. Eventually, one of the notorious Kyalami rivers caught me out and I spun off, watching helplessly as most of the field streamed past. Although I got going again and passed several other spinners, at the flag the score was the same: points = 0.
A very frustrating and sad end to our season, then. I dropped two places in the Championship down to 12th, and I felt really bad, knowing how hard the team has worked all year to get as far as we did. We learned a valuable lesson, though: even something as insignificant as pedal position can make a huge difference under race conditions!
The only good news is that we now have one more race this year. The International V8 Superstars (an Italian series) is racing at Kyalami on December 13th, and our WesBank V8 Supercar class will be one of the support races! Hope they remember to pack their rain tyres…
Now is the perfect time to write my first blog, with two weekends of racing heaven ahead that I can write about!
Now for the exciting events ahead. The weekend of the 17th is our final race of the season, and with five drivers still in a position to clinch the title, the racing is going to be intense. A full field of 23 cars is expected on the grid at Kyalami and we have two heats on the Saturday in which to settle the Championship. With an inverted grid for our second heat, it?s going to be edge-of-your-seat action all the way.