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Round six of the Bridgestone Production Car
Championship took place at Zwartkops Raceway this past weekend (15
August 2009) and Michael Stephen put in a solid performance to stay in
contention for the Class A championship.
Michael showed good
pace throughout Friday’s practice sessions and delivered the second
quickest lap time during Saturday morning’s qualifying session.
Although
he did not have a particularly bad start to the first race, Dawie
Olivier managed to get the jump on Michael and stole second place from
him on the first lap. Michael chased briefly but Olivier managed to
open and maintain a gap. This left Michael to take third place in an
otherwise uneventful race.
“The Audi was going strong, but
around lap 6 or 7, the car experiences a notable power loss. I was able
to adjust my driving to compensate for this, but didn’t have the pace
to stay with Priest and Olivier,” explained Michael.
As is customary in Production Car racing, the second race began from an inverted grid. Michael started from sixth place.
Michael
held his position off the start and was promoted to fifth place when
the race leader (Robert Wolk) retired from the race with a broken
side-shaft. He raced with teammate Shaun Watson-Smith for ten laps, but
couldn’t find a way past Shaun’s defensive driving. On lap 13, Shaun
retired with a broken engine, leaving Michael to defend fourth place
from a hard charging Marco da Cunha (Nissan 350Z). Michael was able to
secure his position and took fourth place.
After two consistent performances, Michael finished second overall for the day and made up a point in his championship campaign.
“The
results weren’t as good as I was hoping and aiming for, but I am still
in the title chase and all hope is not lost. I am just going to have to
work harder in the upcoming races, but believe that the team and I can
do it,” surmised Michael.
The next race will take place at Welkom’s Phakisa Freeway on 5 September 2009.
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