Mixed results for AUDI Motorsport at Kyalami

The first round of the 2010 Bridgestone Production Car Championship took place at Kyalami this past weekend (20 February) and although Audi Motorsport walked away from the event with a race win, it was far from a dream start to the season.
 
Michael Stephen was immediately on the pace in his Engen Xtreme Audi A4. He set the fourth fastest qualifying time, just four hundredths of a second slower than the rear-wheel drive competition that locked out the first three grid spots.
 
Reigning champion, Johan Fourie (IndyOil) struggled during Friday’s practice sessions when his dash timing display stopped working. This made the results of set-up changes difficult to judge. Things seemed to come right on Saturday morning though and Johan qualified in fifth position.
 
Tschops Sipuka’s return to Bridgestone Production Car racing was particularly difficult. His A4 developed a high rpm misfire that the Engen Xtreme Team struggled to isolate. The crew worked until 2am on Saturday morning, but the problem returned during the qualifying session, leaving Tschops down in eighth position.  
 
The first race began from a rolling start and the Audi quattro drive system saw both Michael and Johan passing Melvill Priest (BMW) by the end of the first lap. The Audi duo fought amongst themselves for two laps before Michael experienced a braking problem that sent him back to sixth place, a position he strategically held until the end of the race. With the top 6 benefitting from an inverted grid, this would mean a pole start for Michael.
 
Johan was a man on a mission and was not happy to settle for third place. He chased down the Nissan 350Z of Leeroy Poulter and eventually got the better of the rear-wheel drive ace on the penultimate lap of the race to take the chequered flag in second place.
 
Tschops continued to have problems with his Audi and didn’t start the first race. The team worked frantically on his car and were eventually able to send him out on lap four of the race. Although not in a position to achieve any points, this did give Tschops the opportunity to test the car and confirm that the problem was now resolved for the next race.
 
The new race day format saw the second race start just ten minutes after the first race ended. The time between races was treated as a parc ferme situation meaning that the cars could not be worked on. The top six finishers from the first race were inverted for the start of race two, meaning that Michael’s earlier strategy placed him on pole position. Johan started fifth with Tschops ninth.
 
Michael had a good start to the race and went on to take the win unchallenged. Behind him however, there was drama aplenty. Johan Fourie’s crew rushed out of their pit with a new tyre declaring that Johan was having a problem with his front left wheel. The race was however only six laps long and bringing Johan into the pits would end any chance of points. Johan nursed his car home in seventh place.
 
Tschops had a better race, making up three positions to finish the race sixth.
 
The third and final race of the day was ten laps long and worth double points. Strategy really came into play and Michael proved himself to be quite the strategist. The grid positions for this race were based on the second fastest qualifying times from earlier in the day. This put Michael fourth, Johan sixth and Tschops ninth.
 
Michael eased into the race, holding onto his fourth position. He kept pace with the competitors ahead of him but didn’t make his move until lap eight. Melvill Priest (BMW) and Leeroy Poulter (Nissan) were having their own tussle for second place and Melvill made a mistake that slowed both drivers down. Michael was watching and waiting in the wings and when the opportunity arose, he grabbed it, passing both drivers. Michael took second place on the last lap to claim his second podium finish of the day.
 
The third race was a disaster for Johan and Tschops. Tschops retired on the second lap of the race, while Johan was forced to make a pit stop on the seventh lap with more tyre woes.
 
Audi Motorsport will be back in action on 13 March at Cape Town’s Killarney circuit.