Morgenrood unstoppable

The SA Sports and V-8 GT’s rolled onto the Phakisa Freeway on Saturday, 3 August and lived up to the expectations of fans, delivering two wildly exciting, high octane races, which again highlighted how the nimble Nissan Sports Shelby’s are the perfect foil to the brute strength of the monster V-8’s.

Viewed as the perfect Shelby track, the Phakisa Freeway provided the perfect opportunity for the single seater Shelby’s to take the fight to their more powerful but heavier foes.

Predictably, Randfontein racing legend Ben Morgenrood in his insanely fast Indy Oil Mustang showed the rest of the field (whose average age is less than half that of Morgenrood) how its done by taking the pole position on Saturday morning.

Less predictably though, Morgenrood had some unexpected company in the form of no less than three Sports Shelby’s in the form of Ferdi van Niekerk, Rui Campos and Craig Shorter, who filled the next three positions ahead of the next V-8 GT with Romano Sartori behind the wheel.

Franco di Matteo was the first to fall out on the weekend after having fallen ill on Friday night.

Behind Sartori, another stampede of Shelbys, driven by Alan Eve and Brian Algar filled the grid.

At the start of the first heat, Morgenrood took off with the rest in hot pursuit with Ferdi van Niekerk sticking close to the legend in the monster Mustang, closely followed by Rui Campos.

Craig Shorter was holding his own in fourth with Terry Wilford having to pull out all the stop to stay ahead of Alan Eve.

It was fast and furious right down the field and in keeping with what has become the trademark of the series, the action did not let down until the last car had crossed the finish line.

Up near the front, Campos was slowly gaining on Van Niekerk as they both tried desperately to not lose sight of Morgenrood, managing to dive on the inside of Van Niekerk’s Motorola Shelby at the Coca Cola hairpin.

Van Niekerk was forced onto the marbles in order to avoid contact and spun on the next corner.

Not one to be so easily defeated, he managed to rejoin the race, only losing one position during the ordeal.

Morgenrood was followed over the line by Campos and Shorter.

Sartori had fallen behind and only managed to finish in seventh position.

The reverse grid on the second heat saw Brain Algar share the lead with Sartori.

Algar had not raced since April, having decided to take a short Sabbatical, but he showed no sings of nerves as he led the field into turn one followed closely by Sartori in his AMC Mustang GT.

The more powerful Mustang would not be contained by the Shelby though, and Sartori managed to push through to the front halfway through the first lap.

The pair soon settled down in front with Van Niekerk in close attendance with Alan Eve hot on his heels until contact with Terry Wilford damaged his rear suspension and he was forced to retire with less than one lap completed.

Wilford held his own in fourth position with Shorter doing a great job in fifth.

Behind them a terrific scrap developed between Alister Brown, Andrew Strike, Rui Campos, and Barry Ingle, with Ray Wilford also in the mix.

Terry Wilford, meanwhile, was forced to call it a day with a broken accelerator cable.

Morgenrood had no such problems though and was his usual relentless self, chasing down the leaders with everything that the big Indy oil Mustang could give.

Algar had managed to retake the lead from Sartori with Van Niekerk holding strong in third position, when the luckless van Niekerk was forced off the grid with a blown engine on the back straight bringing an already frustrating racing weekend to a smoky end.

Morgenrood made short work of Sartori and then set his sights on Algar, who put up a superb display of driving in his comeback race.

The Shelby, however, was no match for Morgenrood’s Indy Oil Mustang, leaving Algar no choice but to settle for a well deserved second place with Sartori following hard and finishing in third, Shorter in fourth and Campos finishing in Fifth position.

Larry Wilford brought up the rear for the top six with Gerald Chapman, in his first race for 2013 finishing in seventh position, giving Peter Jacquet Racing the top four spots in the Shelby rankings.

At the top of the SA Sports and V-8 GT rankings, Morgenrood leads comfortably over Rui Campos.

The next round of the championship will be held at Zwartkops Raceway on 31 August where the ever enthusiastic crowds should be treated to some more spectacular racing action.