King of the Hill is heating up – literally and figuratively – today, with Andre Bezuidenhout chipping away at his times to set another fastest run for the morning at 35.566 seconds. “My eye is still on a 34-second time, but we had a problem with a wheel sensor that didn’t work this morning. I’m happy with the car now and we’ll be going for it in the final qualifying session up next. I must just plant it!”
Robert Wolk set his fastest time yet in the 2021 event at 37.182 sec seconds, but a track limit penalty saw his time deleted. “We are making progress every run, and have a couple of other things to try. I think we’ll get into the 36s in the next run, which is where this car should be. It’s just taking a bit of time to get there.”
With Wade van Zummeren using the session to fix the water leak on his engine, Franco Scribante posted a time of 39.522 seconds – just 0.18 sec off his 2019 record run. “We had a couple of boost-related issues this morning where the car would go into limp mode in second gear. We’ve sorted this out now and the car is going well. I’m on the limit already and sliding a lot, so I doubt we’ll be able to go much faster. Because of the track limit markers I’m having to back off the power slightly to make the corner, which wasn’t the case at the last event.”
Dawie Joubert was classified third with his quickest run yet in the Ferrari-powered Lotus, dipping below the 40-sec barrier at 39.888 seconds. “I’m very happy with the car so far. It’s still early days with the new engine and we’re working through some teething issues, resulting in the car bogging down off the line. But it’s giving me more confidence now and I’m happy with the performance. The Ferrari engine is amazing, it’s very smooth and delivers the power nice and progressively. I’m hoping to shed another half a second.”
Wilhelm Baard is still trying to get up to speed after not doing any of the practice sessions yesterday due to a fuel pump problem. “We’re trying things now that we should have tried yesterday, and we still have to make decisions on tyres as we are using completely different tyres this year. I did a 40.1 this morning, but having to deal with massive understeer in Turn 2. There are two things that you have to get right, which is the launch and Turn 2 before the hill. I scrubbed a set of tyres for the Class Final, so we’ll see how it goes.”
____________________________________________________________
Release compiled by Colin Mileman (082-897-6145 colin@milemanmedia.co.za)
____________________________________________________________
Media Enquiries: Robin Emslie
Email: twolakes@iafrica.com | Tel: +27 44 883 1055 | Cell: 083 255 8477
www.simolahillclimb.com | https://simolahillclimb.motorpress.co.za/login