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Subaru rides Phakisa roller-coaster
Subaru's three-car team had a roller-coaster ride at Phakisa, with Dawie Olivier (Sasol Impreza) claiming a race win after all three cars were relegated to the back of the grid for both heats.
Carel Pienaar, Team Principal of SP Race Engineering explained the team's position regarding the rules under which all the cars in the Bridgestone Production Car Championship compete.
"We accept that the Subaru Impreza needs to be restricted... but it's the amount of the restriction where we are disagreement with the Production Car Association. We conducted a lot of testing during the eight-week break which the Association Chairman attended and (he) agreed to our proposal, but failed to communicate it to the other teams and commit (to) the changes in writing. We take the stance that the rules must be out in the open and wanted an official document which was only published after official qualifying on Saturday morning when a compromise was reached."
When the action got under way, Hennie Groenewald (Timken Subaru) made a good start, but halfway around the very first lap his Impreza's engine started to overheat. He pitted to allow the engine to cool, rejoining to gain some valuable championship points, finishing in seventh place in the second half of the first round.
Dawie Olivier had a great start and put his head down, passing Adrian Zaugg and Groenewald, picking off cars as he made his way up to fifth place. Two laps were run under the safety car after an accident.
Olivier started the second phase on the front row of the grid and, from a rolling start, took an immediate lead with da Cunha (Nissan) snapping at his heels. As the laps passed, Olivier pulled away from da Cunha, giving the team a solid win after a dramatic weekend.
Richard Pinard made his debut in his Midas Subaru and with no prior testing , settled in to discover how the Impreza works. He battled with the gear-change and understeer but brought the car home in sixth spot in the first heat and fifth place in the second half of the race.
Round 10 of the series again saw all three Imprezas start from the back of the grid. Groenewald got a good start and quickly passed Tschops Sipuka's Audi and Adrian Zaugg's Lotus but was hindered by understeer before more reliability problems when his car got stuck in fourth gear. The multiple racing champion pitted to see if the pit crew could assist, quickly rejoining with only fifth and sixth gears working.
Olivier was in the thick of the action, with quickly getting onto the heels of Anthony Taylor's BMW after seeing off the Audis. He also suffered reliability problems mid-race with faulty brakes and he fell back.
The understeer on Pinard's car was dialled out for the final round, and the power delivery was more consistent, but mid race, Pinard ran wide and spun across the track into the wall.
Hennie Groenewald described his weekend as one of complexities, referring to the rule issues as well as the Impreza's overheating and handling problems.
Olivier, who ended third overall for the day said: I'm very satisfied with my results today - it's the first time this year that I've finished all three races."
Richard Pinard found his introduction to the Impreza interesting, describing the car as easy to drive.
"We had a few small teething troubles which you expect in a brand new racing car," he said.
