The Nine-Hour win by Xolile Letlaka, Stuart White and Mikaeel Pitamber in their Into Africa Lamborghini Huracan GT3 saw Letlaka and White collectively clinching this year’s overall National Endurance Series title. Picture: Dave Ledbitter.
A brilliant battle for the lead was fought right to the end, two South African titles were secured, and a brand new overall lap record for Kyalami set.
Those were some of the highlights for which enthusiasts will remember last Saturday’s Kyalami Nine-Hour.
The event, the final round of the South African Endurance Series, was won by Xolile Letlaka, Stuart White and Mikaeel Pitamber in their Into Africa Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
In the process, Letlaka and White collectively clinched this year’s overall Endurance title.
Second overall were Nick Adcock, Michael Jensen, Charl Visser and Jonathan Thomas in the Adjust for Sleep Nova, leading home the BBR Porsche 911 Cup of Hein and Henk Lategan, Verissimo Tavares and Keagan Masters.
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The Samlim Racing Trinity Lamborghini Gallardo of Sam Hammond, Damien Hammond and Wayne Roach finished fourth overall and won Class B.
Fifth overall and the class C win went to Samlin Racing’s MKT Tactical Volkswagen SupaPolo in a giant-killing performance by Keegan Campos, Nathan Hammond and Jagger Robinson.
They were followed by the father-and-son team of Harm and Barend Pretorius, whose sixth place in the Team Pesty Backdraft Roadster clinched the inaugural V8 Roadster championship.
In the process, they also won the year’s overall Index of Performance National Championship.
It was all the more remarkable since the Team Pesty car was stuck in fifth gear from hour four of the race.
Six laps adrift were the event’s Index of Performance winners, Robert Maudant, Mark Futcher and Denver Branders who ended seventh overall after a clean run.
The overall race was closely contested from the beginning at 13h00, with the Bobcat Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Charl Arangies and Arnold Neveling leading most of the time until forced to retire on lap 126 with alternator failure.
That left the Nova and the eventual race-winning Lamborghini locked in a fight for the lead.
In the process, Thomas took the Nova to a new overall Kyalami lap record of one minute 40,303 seconds, before handing over to Visser for the final stint in the dark.
Visser kept the car in the lead and it seemed to victory, when a Safety Car came out with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Visser then lost the lead in bizarre fashion. While driving to the flag slowly in convoy, he took off a glove to wipe his eyes.
The incident drew the race officials’ attention from the Nova’s on-board camera and although crossing the line in first place, a 20-second penalty was issued and the team was classified second overall.
Another hard luck story came out of the Adapt Backdraft team garage. Phillip Meyer, Mark Harvey and Dean Wolson were tied on points with Pesty Racing in the overall V8 Roadster championship points table.
In the early morning warm-up session, the engine blew and they were forced to start from the pit lane. The car then suffered a fuel leak from the tank breather, which caused four pit stops.
On the fifth time, the team changed the tank and fuel pump, whereafter the car ran perfectly until 10 minutes from the end of the race when Meyer crashed with broken suspension at Sunset corner.
Demonstrating the perseverance of endurance racing, the Mozambique-based Korridas Racing trio of Bruno Campos, Jaoa Martins and Marcos Rodrigues had gearbox issues.
A new ‘box was installed but after 75 minutes, they lost second gear and after two-and-a-half-hours the Volkswagen Golf only had third gear, which is how they completed the race, losing the same amount of time as they trundled around the circuit.
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