Despite things not going their way brothers Marco and Paulo da Cunha emerged third and fourth overall respectively in the final round of the 2010 Bridgestone Production Car Championship at Kyalami on Sunday.
The weekend did not get off to a promising start with Marco’s #22 Tubular/Exa Motors Nissan 350Z needing a gearbox change between Saturday’s final free practice and qualifying. He battled with a stiff gearchange in qualifying and a problematic clutch and had to settle for a disappointing eighth place on the starting grid for Sunday’s first six-lap sprint race. Paulo qualified 11th in the SAM Racing team’s #23 Tubular/Exa Motors 350Z.
An off-track excursion on the opening lap of race one saw Marco forced to play catch-up after dropping to 11th, while Paulo made up two places to ninth. At half distance Paulo had moved up to eighth with Marco ninth.
While Hennie Groenewald (Subaru Impreza) headed for the first win of the day from pole position, Marco caught and passed Paulo on lap four and went on to finish eighth with his younger brother ninth.
Starting the second of the back-to-back sprint races in the order in which they finished the first one, the two brothers were sixth and ninth after the opening lap, with Marco in front of Paulo. A spin on lap two dropped the older Da Cunha to ninth on lap two, two places behind Paulo. By half distance they were seventh and eighth, then sixth and seventh on the next lap before Marco again passed his brother and went on to finish fifth behind race winner Reghardt Roets (BMW 335i) with Paulo sixth.
The 12-lap feature race saw Marco eighth on the grid and Paulo 10th. By half distance Marco was up to seventh and Paulo eighth, with Roets heading for a second win from pole position. A late battle with former outgoing class A champion Johan Fourie (Audi A4 quattro) saw the pair swop positions a couple of times before Marco made his final move stick and crossed the finish line in a satisfying fourth place ahead of Fourie, race one winner Groenewald and brother Paulo.
Paulo enjoyed a late tussle with Melvill Priest (BMW 335i) which finally went in his favour as he took the chequered flag seventh.
So a frustrating season of ups and downs in an outdated Nissan 350Z (which is to be replaced by a new Nissan 370Z in 2011) saw Marco finish a disappointed seventh in the championship, although a lone sprint race win at Killarney in round two in March was a highlight.
Paulo was pleased to score points in his maiden Bridgestone production car appearance and also looks forward to the possibility of a new 370Z next season.
STORY COURTESY OF PETER BURROUGHES COMMUNICATIONS
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