Mixed Fortune For Team OPC

09 June 2008

The OPC of Gary van Heerden had a weekend of mixed fortune in East London this past weekend.  The car showed great pace right from the start of practice on Friday, with times constantly in the top three positions. Gary then qualified the car on the first row of the grid in second place. “We were impressed with the cars performance from the word go, especially because we didn’t really have time to test the car in the short time since the Zwartkops race” said van Heerden. The team did however have time to sort out the braking problem that they had at Zwartkops, this was critical for the high speed East London circuit.

Race one saw the car starting from the first row of the grid and the team were amped for a good result but a botched start saw Van Heerden lose positions and was down to seventh position. Van Heerden managed to fight back to fourth place at the end of ten laps. “It was important for me to stay out of trouble but still make up the positions I had lost and I did exactly that” added Van Heerden.

Race two saw the reversed grid for the first eight positions and a rolling start. This meant that Van Heerden would start in fifth place. A high speed coming together of Nathan and Duminy the first corner required some evasive action from Van Heerden and this relegated him down to ninth place. The fifteen lap race did however take its toll on a whole lot of competitors and after a hard fought dice with Bose, which was made even more difficult by a delaminating tyre, Van Heerden crossed the line in fifth place. “The fact that the OPC remained strong throughout the weekend when many other competitors suffered technical difficulty is a sign of the cars reliability, which is very important in this class of racing” boasted van Heerden.

The team is happy to come away from the weekend with the car in one piece and running strong. “ we now have a months time to really test the car before the Kyalami race” The Kyalami race on the 5th of July will also see the debut of the second OPC race car driven by Reghard Roets.

The team would like to thank their sponsors, Webcom, Soviet eyewear, Rob Green Motorsport, SAX, TSW and Red Bull.