Groenewald aims for season-ending win
Hennie Groenewald heads back to Zwartkops for the final round of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship with a few firm objectives
in mind.
The never-say-die approach of Team Sasol Subaru will be put to the test once more this season in front of what is expected to be a
bumper crowd at the popular Pretoria West circuit.
In spite of the Subaru Impreza STI winning the most rounds of the series (tied on eight victories with Michael Stephen) Groenewald's
championship chances are realistically over.
"Motorsport is strange game. Michael and I each won eight races yet he is fighting for the championship and I am not. A couple
of wins on the day would bolster our tally and demonstrate that our car is highly competitive. The two endurance races didn't go to plan
and effectively scuppered our title challenge," Groenewald reflected. "We had some technical issues when we raced at Zwartkops at
the beginning of the month which the team believes it has resolved so I want to consolidate my third place in the championship and give
the team and our sponsors something to smile about over the closed season."
Groenewald expects the pace to be as hot as the Highveld summer sun, while rain is a very real possibility.
"Anthony (Taylor) was very quick three weeks ago and he's now only 14 points behind me so I'll have my work cut out," said
Groenewald. "If it rains, it could help my cause a bit. The Fourie/Stephen championship fight could also play into my hands as they
race each other and slow each other down. Either way, we're as ready and well prepared as ever."
"I'm always ready for a day in the sun at Zwartkops," said Pinard. The second Team Sasol Subaru driver is relishing a good scrap
in spite of no real changes to his car. "There's no point rushing a new engine build for the last race but Hennie has demonstrated
that my car is as good as his when he won at East London. I'll be spending quite a bit of time with him going over the data to see where
I can pick up a few more tenths."
On a personal level, Pinard wants to run closer to his team-mate's pace.
"If I can get closer to Hennie's times, it will help me stay positive for next year. One concern I have is that we don't have a
spare engine and if the team has any issues, I will step down for Hennie," he said.
For Carel Pienaar, Team Principal and owner of SP Race Engineering, there has been no time to relax.
"We have been hard at work identifying the causes of the problems we had earlier in the month. We re-mapped an engine with a
high temperature profile and ran it on the dyno. Over and above that we have done a lot of analysis around the suspension, steering and
the brakes to try and work around the tyre wear issues we had."