It had been almost eight weeks since the F2 teams had loaded their containers in Goteborg, Budapest, Milan and Riga for the trip to the Free State in South Africa and now with a mix of eagerness and nervous anticipation they couldn’t wait to test the water.
Of all the eighteen competitors who had signed on, the driver, who was actually in touching distance of winning his third world championship title, was showing the most nerves. “Yes, I’m a little bit stressed out” admitted Erik Stark. “The way the timetable has been changed means that if we have a problem in the time trials and can’t fix it then we have the most to lose.”
He needn’t have worried because it was soon ‘business as usual’ at the front of the grid when Stark posted the only sub forty-eight second lap around the five pin course during Free Practice. At least now he’d get a good nights sleep. Another driver was soon to be the talk of the paddock and that was Attie Tromp. Having come through the ranks of South African National Championship he was now putting his Molgaard hull to good use, setting the third quickest time, whilst his fellow countryman Wynand De Jager sat this one out. De Jager, the local hero, had every reason to feel confident having had access to his BaBa hull some weeks before the other drivers had even set foot on the banks of the Vaal River. Johan Osterberg had come close to matching the time set by Stark and went away feeling confident of meeting his goal he’d set for the weekend.
With the funeral of Nelson Mandela taking place two days later it meant that the Free State Grand Prix and the fate of the 2013 World Championship title would now all be concluded in just one day, early nights all round for the drivers, whilst the mechanics headed to ‘The Shack’ for some well earned refreshment.
As the teams headed for an early breakfast, some drivers were concerned that the cross winds might just cause some issues, others were more concerned about the sudden loss of horsepower. “I really didn’t think we would lose this much power” said Stark. “I thought it would be similar to racing in Auronzo, Northern Italy, but I’m down about twenty-five to thirty Kmph.”
Propeller choice had suddenly become ultra critical for the time trials leaving several teams pondering over this critical decision, for others it was fairly straight forward. “The smallest prop we have is far too big for this course” said Mette Bjerknaes. “On the positive side though, next month I will get the Moore hull back which I’m so looking forward to, as for this race, let’s just see how we get on.”
After just four laps Osterberg had posted an impressive time of 45:75 seconds, could he finally break Stark’s strangle hold on pole positions this season, the answer was ‘close but no cigar’ as this time his fellow countryman just edged him out with a time of 45:53. “To be honest I’m still learning every race” said Stark. “We tested six props because even though we’ve run them all before you just never know how they will cope with the conditions. I’m actually using one of my oldest props, it’s actually one and half seconds quicker than my best prop.”
With the conditions in the second sessions proving to be trickier to handle, most of the drivers opted to only go out for a few laps. Unfortunately for Rupert Temper it proved to be a costly decision as barely into his first lap the gear-case spat out the prop-shaft along with a brand new prop, at least the Austrian had the comfort on knowing his time set in the earlier session was quick enough for fourth place on the start grid.
As the drivers lined up on the start grid the race organisers knew they had a one and half hour time slot going out live on the South African sports TV channel, everyone had their fingers crossed hoping for no last minute dramas. As the Premier of the Free State, The Honourable Ace Magashule made his way along the start pontoon speaking to each driver the spectators and race teams soon all stood for a minutes silence in honour of Nelson Mandela.
With the opening ceremony concluded it was time for the main event, the inaugural UIM F2 Free State Grand Prix to get under way. As the lights went out it was Stark who made the perfect start he was followed into the first turn by Erik Edin, who had muscled his way past Osterberg. Temper had also taken advantage of Osterberg’s poor start and was up into third place. It wasn’t long though before we saw the first retirement of the afternoon, when Tobias Munthe-Kaas pulled back into the pit lane. “I had to stop because of a problem with my engine trim” said the young Norwegian. “Chiara Rossi had a similar problem earlier today and the team changed her relays before the start of the race, just my luck that it happened to me during the race. I just couldn’t handle the boat with the trim stuck in the out position; I had no choice but to come in.”
It was proving to be a tough afternoon for the Norwegians because just a few laps later Bjerknaes was back in after her radio communication packed up. “All I could hear was her race engine” explained her Team Manager. “She couldn’t speak to us nor hear anything we said to her. The rules state that it’s mandatory for her to have radio comm.’s for safety reasons, so we had to bring her in.”
As the race continued the water conditions had really started to rough up, this was due to the river banks being lined with a concrete wall pushing the wash back onto the race course. As the boats bounced around the top turn Edin’s Molgaard landed awkwardly resulting in his canopy cover flying off. With little protection for the driver the UIM Commissioner along with the Officer of the Day took the decision to bring the young Swede in. With no replacement cover available Edin’s race was over.
With conditions at the top end of the course becoming a handful more and more drivers were struggling as the race went on. Bimba Sjoholm was finding the three buoy combination at the top end of the course not at all to her liking, by the end of the weekend her personal tally of buoys destroyed would come to four. Another driver to fall foul of the tricky turn was De Jager, who whilst battling for fourth place span out and dislodged a buoy. He was later given a one lap penalty for the infringement which would drop him down to tenth place overall.
Having safely re-attached the wayward buoy racing recommenced and Stark was quickly back in the ‘zone’ just doing what he needed to do to stay ahead of the fast charging Osterberg who had past Temper during the restart. With limited overtaking opportunities around the course it was these three drivers who would eventually cross the finish line separated by just nine seconds, but that was more than enough to guarantee Stark his third World Championship title. “Wow, that was a tough race” said a jubilant Stark. “At times it felt like we were racing back in Stockholm maybe even a little rougher in places. I soon worked out though if you gave it full throttle it was easier to control. But what an amazing feeling, it doesn’t matter whether it’s your first world title or your third it’s still really special.”
Osterberg was delighted with second place. “My goal today was to finish in second place, so I achieved that” he said. “The first start was terrible because I got pushed by Edin, so at the first turn I had to blend in behind him and some how I ended up in fourth place. At the restart following the yellow flag I caught Temper by surprise, but once I got past him I knew it would be difficult for him to retake me. Then I just hoped everything would stay together till we crossed the finish line.”
Making his second visit to the podium this year was Temper who now looks completely at home in his DAC hull. A fourth place finish was good enough for Ola Pettersson, the only driver who had started the weekend with a realistic chance of taking the title off Stark, and those nine points now propelled Pettersson into second place in the Championship.
As everyone headed off to ‘The Shack’ the general option amongst the teams was that for their first ever international event the local organisers had put on a very good show, even the UIM Commissioners said that their wish list for the 2014 Free State Grand Prix is not a long one, which can only bode well not only for South Africa but also for the future of the UIM F2 World Championship.
