South African motor sport enthusiasts don’t often get a chance to see the country’s leading drivers who ply their trade on the international circuits. So it was a rare opportunity for the fans who were at the Phakisa Freeway circuit near Welkom in the Free State last weekend to see former A1GP driver and current GP2 contender Adrian Zaugg in action in the Bridgestone South African Production Car Championship.
And the 23-year-old didn’t disappoint. In his first-ever appearance in a car with a roof – his entire career so far has been in single-seater racing cars – he displayed all the skills that one would expect of a driver who has reached the highest levels of international motor racing.
In South Africa visiting family in Cape Town and taking a short break between GP2 commitments with the Italian Trident Racing team, he was quick to accept an offer to make a guest appearance in the country’s premier circuit racing series.
The one-off drive was arranged by Francois Pretorius, managing director of Motorsport South Africa, who found a willing team in Carel Pienaar’s SP Race Engineering. Pienaar, who operates from workshops in Vanderbijlpark, made available his class A Lotus Exige
An afternoon getting to know the car at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria last Wednesday saw Zaugg quickly get to grips with the super-charged 1.8-litre Lotus and lap the circuit in the fastest times the car has ever achieved.
He continued to post impressive lap times in free practice at Phakisa on Friday and improved as he got to know the car and became more familiar with its characteristics. The team was forced into an overnight gearbox change (which necessitated removing the rear-mounted engine and limited-slip differential) as a result of a broken gear in practice. He did well to finish fifth in Saturday morning’s official qualifying after setting the fastest time in the first sector despite running a higher than normal air temperature in the intercooler air intake, probably the beginning of a problem that was to manifest itself in Saturday afternoon’s races.
Unluckily, any chance of seeing what he and the Lotus could really do under racing conditions was spoiled by the supercharger problem worsening with each race. A friendly tap from Tschops Sipuka’s Audi A4 quattro on the first lap of the opening six-lap sprint race didn’t help and dropped him well back in the field. A lack of boost hampered his fight back and he finished seventh behind defending champion Johan Fourie (Audi), Michael Stephen (Audi), Melvill Priest (BMW 335i), Marco da Cunha (Nissan 350Z), Dawie Olivier (Subaru Impreza WRX) and Richard Pinnard (Subaru).
With just a 10-minute break between the two sprint races and no work allowed on the cars, Zaugg started race two with an ailing car and was forced to stop on the circuit on the final lap with no drive. It turned out that a gearbox mounting had come loose and the engine had tilted forward, loosening the booster pipe from the supercharger to the intercooler.
The hard-working SP Race Engineering team did a great job of securing the gearbox mounting and restoring the engine to its correct position in the back of the car and Zaugg took his place on the grid for the 12-lap feature race in eighth place (based on his second best qualifying time). This time his race lasted just two laps before he was side-lined with an almost complete loss of power resulting from a serious lack of boost from the supercharger.
“We certainly didn’t show our full potential this weekend,” Zaugg said after the races. “I really enjoyed driving the Lotus and we were making great progress until the booster problem occurred. When the temperature in the air intake rose dramatically in the third race I decided to stop and not risk any further damage.
“I’m really grateful to Francois Pretorius and Carel Pienaar for this opportunity and a big ‘thank-you’ to Fynie Swart and the technicians for all their hard work. It was good fun and I enjoyed meeting all the other drivers and their teams. I’d love to come back and race against them all another time.”
Zaugg returns to his European base on Thursday to prepare himself for the next round of the FIA GP2 Championship, which supports the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on August 29.
STORY BY PETER BURRROUGHES COMMUNICATIONS
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