Fourie conquers Phakisa
Johan Fourie (IndyOil Audi) headed to Phakisa for round five of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship in search of Free State
gold.
Not only did he find gold in the small mining town of Welkom, but his Audi team outperformed the competition to take home some nice
silverware too.
Friday's practice sessions hinted at the onslaught to come, with Fourie and Tschops Sipuka (Engen) both setting some very impressive lap
times. It was Michael Stephen (Engen) however that blitzed the competition to take pole position in Saturday's qualifying session, eight
thousandths of a second ahead of Fourie. Sipuka qualified in sixth position.
The first race had an exciting start, with Fourie and Stephen side by side through the first corner, but Fourie had the better line and
took the lead. He was in no mood to play games and opened a sizable gap before the safety car was deployed for a three-car accident in
another class.
Very little changed when racing resumed on the last lap, Fourie and Stephen taking Audi to its first 1-2 finish of 2010.
Sipuka found himself in a very competitive midfield tussle with GP2 driver Adrian Zaugg, before the Audi and Lotus touched going into
turn three and resulted in the Lotus spinning off the circuit. Sipuka continued to race, not knowing that the shunt had caused damage to his
car's radiator. The engine overheated and Sipuka was forced into retirement.
Sipuka had to sit out the second sprint race, while Stephen and Fourie took up fifth and sixth place on the grid respectively.
Fourie had a good start and the determined Capetonian was up to fourth place by the end of the first lap. He continued his charge through
the field, crossing the finish line in second place. Stephen was also well placed, but feeling the extra success ballast in his Audi. He
took the flag in fourth position.
The grid for the feature race was based on each drivers second-best qualifying lap. This saw another all-Audi front row, with Fourie
taking pole and Stephen second. Sipuka took up the seventh grid slot, after an impressively quick engine change by his team.
Stephen tried to make a dive for the race lead into turn one, but Fourie wasn't interested in any competition and closed the door on Stephen
before romping away into the distance to take his second victory of the day.
With every passing lap, Stephen's Audi seemed to be delivering less and less power and the engine eventually cut out on the eighth lap
causing Stephen to retire from the race.
Lady Luck continued to frown upon Sipuka, with his race ending due to a puncture.
All in all, Audi had a reasonable weekend, taking home two wins and two seconds. These results see Stephen and Fourie tied for third in
the points standings and both are now in a position to attack for the 2010 championship.
The next round of the championship will take place at Zwartkops in Pretoria on 11 September 2010.