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Michael Stephen made a great start to his
Bridgestone Production Car Championship quest this weekend (7 March) at
Port Elizabeth.
Michael was the quickest on track during both of
Friday’s practice sessions, making his intention of a race win very
clear to his competitors. He set the fastest qualifying time on
Saturday morning, but a misunderstanding of the regulation saw his
vehicle not meeting the minimum weight requirements and he was
relegated to the back of the class.
As per this season’s regulations, both races began from a rolling start.
There
was plenty of drama at the start of race one, with Robert Wolk (BMW)
putting a wheel onto the grass and losing traction. He came back onto
the track, slamming into the right-hand side of Michael’s Audi and
sandwiching him between the BMW and team-mate Shaun Watson-Smith’s
Audi. The impact was so great, that all four wheels of the Audi were
lifted off the ground. Shaun, Robert and Marco da Cunha (Nissan) were
forced into retirement and a red flag was called. Michael made his way
around the circuit, where his team worked frantically on the grid to
get his car ready for the restart.
There was however damage to
the vehicles suspension and Michael had to go through the race with a
badly understeering car. Despite this, Michael was competitive and
worked his way up to third place to take a podium finish.
With
the new partially reversed grid procedure, Michael began race two from
pole position. He drove a flawless race, leading the field from start
to finish and was never really challenged for the race win.
“I
am ecstatic with the way that we have started the season. It is always
great to win in front of your home ground and I want to thank my
family, friends and fans for their amazing support throughout the
weekend,” commented Michael after the race.
The next round of the championship will take place at Kyalami on 28 March 2009.
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