Round 2 of the South African Shelby Can-am Championship, saw the series make their first appearance of 2010 at the short and tricky Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria, where iRacer Darryn Lobb, put in a dominant performance, taking a firm hold of the 2010 South African Championship. After a tough weekend in East London, where Darryn Lobb battled with a car being down on power, things were expected to go much better this time round.
A rebuilt motor, and lighter body work, meant that there would be no excuses this time round. Friday's practice sessions confirmed this, as Darryn, in his NJOY backed Shelby, headed the field in all 3 free practice sessions. In 2 instances, lapping under the 1m3sec barrier for the first time since the series changed body work in 2007.
Due to tyre restrictions of 24 tyres for the 9 rounds of the championship, a new tyre (rears), old tyre (fronts) approach was adopted. Things didn't go according to plan however. A strong wind picked up just before qualifying, changing track conditions dramatically. Darryn set out aiming for nothing less than the pole position at this "tight and twisty" race track.
However, Darryn pitted his NJOY backed car after only 6 laps in qualifying, heading the time sheets by almost 4/10's of a second at the time, and confidant that he had done enough. What transpired next was an improvement in track conditions as the majority of the field, unusually, improved their times significantly. At the end of the session, the 2009 champion was relegated to 2nd position by 0.1s by his team mate Guy Botteril.
"I just pitted too early after setting a half decent lap, the lap I sett was 0.6sec quicker than anyone else had managed all day. Conditions changed and I was caught in the pits, such is racing. We'll just have to make up for it tomorrow!" commented Lobb with a somewhat frustrated look on his face.
But make up for it he sure did. One or 2 small changes to the car overnight and Lobb set the quickest time for the Shelby Can-Am cars in morning warm-up, 0.1s under the existing lap record set in 2007, and 1.1s quicker than the time he managed in qualifying.
This form carried through to race 1, where Lobb was handed the lead when his team mate dropped out with suspension trouble on lap 2. Lobb romped away to victory by over 4secs, and with that, set the fastest lap by a little over 2/10's.
Fastest lap meant an 8th place grid slot for Race 2, which reverses the top 8 based on fastest laps in race 1. A fairly neat start meant Darryn moved up to 6th approaching the end of lap 1, only to be caught up in an accident entering the pit straight. Avoiding contact, the NJOY car went "farming" and regained the circuit dead last. A storming drive then took place allowing Lobb to cross the finish line after 15 laps in 3rd place, 1.4secs behind race winner, Jaki Scheckter.
Jaki is the son of 6 times S.A. Champion Ian Scheckter, and nephew to South Africa's only Formula 1 world champion, Jody Scheckter. 3rd place allowed Darryn to seal 1st overall for the day, together with another fastest lap (by 0.5s), meant Darryn now moved firmly into control of the 2010 championship, extending his lead to 23 points. Round 3 of the championship takes place on April 20th in Cape Town at the ultra fast Killarney Race Track.
Without the support of sponsors, results like this would not be possible. A big thanks must go to NJOY (njoy.co.za), Goodyear Tyres, Smith Sunglasses, Jacques Le Mans, British International Removals, iRacing.com, and last but not least, DAW Racing.
More information at, feel free to visit www.shelbycanam.co.za, www.pro-tour.co.za. Feel free to follow Darryn Lobb on twitter - DarrynLobb99
The new website is nearly finished. This would be the place to show a teaser screenshot, so here it goes:
The new website will have all Darryn Lobb race history information and photos from the last few years. Please come back when we go live, Register and comment on blogs/press releases and photos/videos!
We headed to East London this past weekend for Round 1 of the 2010 National Championships. Due to last minute sponsorship deals, I had to drive a loan as there was no time to get another car ready. As a result, we found ourselves in trouble from session 1 on friday - 0.8s off the initial pace. Our lack of pace, due to lack of horsepower from an "old" motor haunted me all day friday, to such an extent, that I think I actually forgot how to be a race driver.
Added to the struggle, was the fact that we managed to discover a cracked rim on my quali tyres just before qualifying. This meant we weren't able to get the tyre refitted to another rim, and so... we went into qualifying with 3 new tyres, and 1 used tyre. The worst part is the it wass the left front, and the track had 7 right hand turns out of 10 corner! So, battle as I may, I could only manage a 4th in qualifying, 1s off pole! The car was dreadful, slow as hell (track has a 1.5km flat out section so you can just image), and totally off balanced!
We arrived at the track to find more problems on sat morning. The team, for some reason, unknown to me, had not changed my left front, which meant, according to series rules, that I would now have to race on the 'used" left front, and without another tyre, I was left with no option but to skip warm up (warm up wouldve meant an extra heat cycle!!). So we made a conservative decision to just run for points in heat 1. To my luck, my team mate slowed up on the first lap with a broken gear linkage. After 2 laps I lost the toe to the 2 leaders and finished 3.6s behind in 3rd.
What we found in the time betweeen heats, was a worn bolt and plate on the front suspension. With the reverse grid for heat 2 (based on laptimes from heat 1), I found myself in 5th place. An awesome first lap and I crossed the line 2nd. I chased and chased the leader, but just couldnt get close enough in braking zones, not even with the help of a tow/toe. On the last lap, I managed to get good drive out of T3 and "bullied and bumped" my way into the lead to win by 0.3s. The win also gave me overall victory on the day, and the points lead!
A huge thank you must go out to NJOY.co.za, Goodyear, Daw Racing, Smith Sunglasses, British International Removals, Spanjaard, Bigfoot Express, Jacques Lemans Watches, and iRacing. And lastly, a big thank you to Craig from Sunshine Tesing for making his car available to us!
A three week break now means that we will be able to have our car ready for Round 2 at Zwartkops on the 20th March.
See you on Track,
Darryn Lobb
PS. We're creating a better website behind close doors. We'll try to release it as soon as possible!
But of an update today. Was a tough at the office, I'm driving a loan car because we just ran out of time to get mine ready. As result, I didn't get a chance to drive the car before the race meeting. Nevertheless, the car was being prepared by my team from 2009, DAW.
Anyways, car felt fairly good in session 1 this morning, despite a slight wet track from overnight rains. But things didn't get much better unfortunately. A sluggish motor, and a damaged rim just before qualifying, meant P4 at the end of the the 15 min session.
After alot of hard work, I hope we have found some time in the setup, and hopefully, we'll be able to put the NJOY car in a position to fight for victory on race day!
Check in for a race day updates tomorrow!
Darryn Lobb #99
P.S. check out our new subsidiary sponsor - Jacque Lemans watches
"This year, sees me attempt to defend the South African Shelby Can-Am championship that I won for the 2nd time in the last 3 years. At the moment we are right in the heart of the 2010 pre-season, and our plans for my championship assault are looking better than ever.
This year also sees me bidding farewell to one of my loyal sponsors, DK Woodcraft. DK have successfully supported me in both of my national championship victories in 2007 and 2009. On the up-side however, I would like to welcome a new sponsor on board. For those who followed my 2009 season, you would know that I was lucky enough to join up with NJOY, the number 1 selling electronic brand, and with the season starting in just a few weeks, I am proud to announce that NJOY have decided to join up for the 2010 season as the naming sponsor on my #1 Shelby Can-Am. Other good news is the announcement on new and improved sponsorship from both Goodyear, and Smith Sunglasses."
"Our season gets under way at the first round of the Pro-Tour series on the 27th February at the awesome, ultra fast, East London Grand Prix circuit. Stay tuned for more info!"
See you on track,
Darryn Lobb #99
| 1. | D. Lobb | 81 |
| 2. | R. Campos | 58 |
| 2. | A. Strike | 54 |
| 4. | S. Greve | 54 |
| 4. | A. Eve | 53 |
