In 2003 Rob Sayell was given the oppoerunity of a lifetime to take his car to South Africa for a 4 week race tour. Anne & Harry went with him and is was a truly amazing experience we will neer forget.
Round 1 Speedspot Mahem Nr Pretoria 8th February
The track at Speedspot, Mahem
and a typical South African Midget belonging to Seun Van Rooyen
The South African Team for the 3 meeting series were initially:
SA46 (Captain) Theo Brussow
SA3 Seun Van Rooyen
SA44 Nic Lybranat
SA5 Jan Kemp
SA26 Vic Hodkinson
SA77 Karel Stols
SA27 James Myburgh
SA07 Quinton Saayman*
Reserve SA45 Gerhard Leibrandt
The UK Team were given a SA car and driver
as their reserve SA11 Johnny Archer.
The reserves raced at each meeting so basically just added an extra driver to each team.
*Quinton Saayman (who ran the most powerful car in the team a Rotary engine thought to be
2.7 litre with 358bhp) decided to go Sprint Car racing when the third test took place and
was replaced in that and the Champion of Champion's meeting by SA15 Riaan Du Plessis.
The Series was over three rounds the first and third at our "home" track of Speedspot Mahem, near Pretoria the second in the series at Dunswart Oval raceway near Johannesburg. Each round result stood alone so effectively it was "best of 3".
The UK
Team comprised :
10 Rob Sayell
12 Chris Phillips
16 Andrew Bilby
21 Jonathan Pooley
25 Gary Granger
33 Gordon Pooley (Team Captain)
61 John Bilby
77
Neil Clarke
Round 1 was on 8th February. The weather had been good all day but as evening approached the weather turned wet. Wet being the understatement. After the racing got underway a huge storm raged. The UK team being sited in the track centre were literally soaked to the skin with lightening flashing and were allowed to use their wet tyres. The SA rules allow the use of wets but the drivers simply don't use them and tended as a result to spin whilst trying to get their 2000 + cc of power down. This has two effects, because they have to be push started, each time a SA car spins the spun car is allowed to rejoin whilst the rest of the field closes right up in single file and circulates patiently behind the pace car. The number of laps therefore in the wet tends to be considerably more than normal dry heats. The second effect is that despite the availability of quite a lot of shelter a lot of the crowd simply goes home when it rains including those in the "dry" grandstand.
The teams were divided up into two groups each
group having two heats before an all-in final. The grids positions for the first heat were
chosen by the respective captains (Gordon Pooley being the UK captain) and the grid
reversed for the second heat. Points were determined by the number of cars in each heat,
therefore if there were 8 cars the winner scored 8 points if 10 he scored 10 points and so
on. Our two groups were :
Group A) Gordon Pooley, Chris Phillips, John Bilby and Andrew Bilby
Group B) Rob Sayell, Neil Clarke, Gary Granger, Jonathan Pooley and Johnny Archer
Had the SA cars not spun or if they had been able
to rejoin without the help of a push start
the competition would have undoubtedly been much closer but the result was that the Brits
being much more used to racing in wet conditions and with the aid of wet tyres managed to
take the top points with the crowd that remained less than happy with the situation some
actually booing the winning UK drivers.
In group A Gordon Pooley won both his heats scoring a total of 16 points, Chris Phillips scoring 12, John Bilby 11 and Andrew Bilby 8. In Group B Rob Sayell won the first heat with Neil Clarke 2nd and the roles reversed in heat 2. Overall group B scores were higher due to there being 10 cars not 8; Rob scored 19 points, Neil Clarke also 19, Gary Granger scored 15, Jonathan Pooley 7 and Johnny Archer 4. Going into the final therefore the South African team trailed 70 points to the UKs 111. Not surprisingly the UK team were told "no wets" for the final and the race was on!
UK luck held however and the feature final was run on a dry track. Unfortunately the race had barely begun when Gordon spun and within seconds SA 5 Jan Kemp had climbed up the back of Rob Sayell's car coming to rest on top of the engine. The race was stopped whilst the number 10 wrecked car was removed and the final restarted with the UK team two cars down. The high powered Quinton Saayman went on to win with team captain Theo Brussow runner up with James Myburgh third and much to the commentator's delight a fourth SA driver Gerhard Leibrandt 4th. Andrew Bilby came home a valient 5th, and Johnny Archer 7th Neil Clarke 8th. The UK Team finished on top with the final points score UK 173 : SA 158. The winning team were presented with a glass trophy each by promoter Rudi Myburgh.
Official race results and a photo on separate page Click Here
Round 2 Dunswart Near Johannesburg 15th February 2003
Loading was quite
a big job with an assortment of tow vehicles, low loaders and trailers used to get the 8
cars plus spares, drivers, pit crews and wives to Dunswart, especially as most of us were
still singing at the Bundu Inn at gone 3am. The trip was fraught with two vehicles
breaking down en route including the VW Combi we were in towing Chris Phillips car.
Ultimately we were towed by another vehicle slowing progress (one of the faults being the
air conditioning belt - a bit of a blow in the heat) and by the time the team arrived the
pits and much of the grandstand was already packed. Gordon
Pooley learnt in practice the dire consequences of looking down at the brake bias valve
rather than where he was going when he drove smack into a spun Chris Phillips. Wheels and
suspension flew in all directions with both cars badly damaged but a team of determined
drivers helped by their SA rivals set to and both cars were repaired in time for the first
race.
Rob Sayell talks to Theo Brussow (SA Team Captain) at the end of the Dunswart meeting
The UK Team found the track to
their liking, similar to Ringwood and felt that the racing itself was much closer. The
format was the same as for round one with cars divided into two groups for the
heats. One of the South African drivers (SA45
Gerhard Leibrandt I believe) was banned for the rest of
the meeting after hitting Neil Clarke in one of the heats and later Gary Granger was also
banned for "contact" during an undertakling collision. Neil Clarke 's car
suffering a broken gearbox mounting when hit up the back. Overtaking up the inside
was allowed but only after some debate amongst the team captains. The onus was on the
inside car to make a clean overtaking move – if the outside car came in and contact
made then the car on the inside was deemed at fault and penalised accordingly. This may
seem odd but you need to consider that the SA cars do not run mirrors and visibility with
high panels around the cockpit is much reduced, they are, its seems, not used to cars
being able to get up the inside presumably relying on extra power to go round the outside.
Given the vast power and size differences overtaking round the outside would by and large
have been a long shot for the UK drivers.
At this meeting the UK drivers
were educated in what can only be described as the SA Team’s better understanding of
team racing. Naively we had understood team racing to involve not holding up your quicker
men and not to make life too easy for the opposition without actually baulking, tactics
had not really been considered beyond fielding our fastest cars up front. You had to watch
the SA Team in action to appreciate the mastery of the game at this meeting, which
involved getting your quicker men to the front who then ran effectively side by side,
slowed up the field, boxing in any opponent with a two in front one at the side formation
allowing the slower cars to catch up and then when enough have come through the field to
speed up again.
Ultimately SA cars won each heat
but there had been some good battles for the remaining places. Rob Sayell had two close
third places actually overcoming attempts to block him out with some frighteningly close
wheel to wheel duels. Young Midget novice
Jonathan Pooley who had raced a Midget only once prior to the tour been so nervous prior to the meeting he almost
pulled out. But proved the most improved UK driver over the night, having an excellent set
of races with a 7th, 4th and 5th in the heats. By the end
of the night the SA Team had gained the points advantage for the round and were
magnanimous in impending victory, the UK Team being told they could put their cars up
front on the grid for the final. Sensing a touch of revenge the UK team fielded Rob Sayell
up front with Andrew Bilby and Jonathan Pooley to act as wing men. Sayell shot off the
line and basically fled whilst Bilby and Pooley toured gently round side by side with
Phillips and John Bilby doing their best to hold off the marauding South Africans. Sayell
had a good half lap lead when disaster struck as Phillips spun and was collected by two
South African cars bringing the race under caution and closing the field right up. On the
restart Quinton Saayman passed two cars
almost before they’d finished waving the green flag and despite a good effort Sayell
was soon also out powered. But Sayell earnt the crowd’s grudging admiration by
staying ahead of Brussow despite the latter’s best efforts for many laps with Pooley
Junior similarly beating the best of the rest for 4th. It was a nice touch that
the runner up team was also given trophies thus it was that the UK Team did not go home
empty handed. After the meeting the UK cars were swamped by spectators all wanting to look
at what were now clearly being understood to be underpowered cars that were nonetheless
proving their worth against the SA Team. The
visiting drivers also appeared to be gaining respect with several more SA drivers joining
the UK guys for the customary barbecue by the lake the next day.
Round 3 THE FINAL Speedspot Mahem Nr Pretoria 22nd February
South African friends Eliczia and Nicolette flew the flag for the UK!
The final round of the Series back at Mahem on 22nd February saw the teams level pegging at one round each. News on the preceding Thursday that Quinton Saayman had booked to go Sprint car racing pulling out of the competition came as a body blow to the home drivers and excellent news to the UK Team. Saayman was probably the only driver car combination considered to be unbeatable with over twice the power of even the quickest UK cars and it cannot be ignored that had he not let the SA team down the result overall may well have been reversed. SA15 Riaan Du Plessis replaced Saayman but was a poor substitute albeit through no fault of his own simply having a less competitive car and no track experience of the UK cars.
The UK team went into the final
with a lead of 10 points. Theo Brussow
started on pole with Sayell on the outside, the rest of the field alternating with one car
from each team. Brussow took the lead with Myburg out dragging Sayell to the first corner
dropping him to third. Gordon Pooley who had started third then also passed Sayell briefly
but he retook the place two laps later with these placings staying pretty much the same
for the remainder of the race. Brussow was delighted with his win but then came the
agonising wait as the points for the 15 finishing drivers were calculated. The commentator
kept the crowd guessing but ultimately announced the “surprise” result. The UK
team scored 93 points in the final to the SA team’s 72 and with the overall score for
the round was UK 181 and SA 150 – the UK Team he announced in a shocked tone
had taken the Series!
The South African Team were gutted but eventually accepted defeat if not gracefully then at least magnanimously and clapped the team as the trophies were presented. Marilese provided food and the celebrating began!
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