Double Apex makes endurance racing debut in an extremely fun series competing with the most unlikely racecar, a Jaguar S-Type. Our managing editor jumped into the hot seat again and is already looking at the calendar for future events.

A few days ago I reported that we would be participating in an endurance event that forms part of the iLamuna Endurance Series. You can read our original article here for some background info. This was the very first of its kind held in the Cape. The format is similar to other endurance events. The team that goes the furthest ie completes the most laps, at the end of nine hours, wins. There is a price limit imposed on the cars of R55k, which is in keeping with the ‘lemon’ theme. To prevent teams from modifying too much, there is a lower lap time cut-off of 1 min 35,0 sec. Any car going quicker than that time has the lap deleted from their total.

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A PolyCat

I was invited to race as a member of Team PolyPlank. The team members consisted of Jakes ‘The Captain’ Wallage, Jan ‘Dem**rin’ Koekemoer, Danie ‘Cement Bags’ van Jaarsveld and yours truly. Team leader Wallage had the brilliant insight to choose a Jaguar S-Type to race. The car, dubbed PolyCat, was the only one of its kind in the field and a firm favourite among other teams and spectators alike. It looked, as you can see from the images, completely out of place in a sea of other race-prepped machines. PolyCat was driven to the track for every practice session, as well as back home after the race weekend. It has a number plate and is still road-registered.

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Quali Day

The race weekend for the iLamuna Endurance Series was particularly festive and relaxed. There was plenty going on in the pits as teams prepped for the race day (Saturday). Practice and qualifying took place on Friday. Practice takes the form of long open sessions because there are no other series racing on the weekend. Teams can go out and come into the pits as many times as they wish in a three hour window. Quali is a two-hour session held later in the day in a similar format. Teams can send different drivers out to set a time or make mid-session car set-up changes in the hunt for a better lap time.

During earlier practice sessions we were doing laps around the 1 min 40 sec mark. That was on very old tyres without a decent suspension set-up. We knew the car would go quicker in quali and on race day. We thought we’d do okay… boy were we wrong. When the quali session ended there were 21 cars between 1 min 35,0 and 1 min 35,9. The quickest managed a scarcely believable 1 min 35,001.  We qualified 26th (of 38) with a 1 min 37,655. But, nine hours is a long time and anything could happen.

Race Day

Race day began with a drivers’ briefing session. About one third of the 135 drivers entered were new to the sport, so there were a few extra questions for organisers and marshals to answer. Better safe than sorry. Once all the questions were answered, it was time to go racing. The race starts under a Safety Car (SC) procedure. There are two rolling laps, and once the SC enters the pits, drivers can start racing. Wallage was tasked with taking the opening stint. He had put in the long hours preparing the car and steering our efforts. We figured, if something should go wrong with the car during the nine hours, at very least, he would enjoy some wheel-to-wheel action.

Opening Laps

Our captain was a complete novice, as was Van Jaarsveld, before Saturday’s race. His racing inexperience showed as he lost a few positions at the start, falling back to 29th place. But what he lacked in experience he made up for in sheer guts and enthusiasm. He chipped away, passing cars on track and some as they made pit stops. We ran as high as 10th place about twenty laps into the race. Wallage was getting more accustomed with each passing lap and all seemed well with the PolyCat. 

First Stop

We had bargained to drive about an hour each as our initial fuel calculations led us to believe that was just a little less than how far a full tank would take us. We did not want to run out of fuel on track as that would put us out of the race. Wallage gained a few laps of fuel under SC conditions, so stopped on lap 40.

I jumped into the hot seat and headed out. All seemed well. I was finding my feet when, four laps in, the water temp spiked. The high temp sent the standard ECU into limp mode and killed the V6 engine. I radioed into the pits as I pulled the car off the track. A similar problem occurred once before and we were certain we had solved it. I managed to get going again and limped back to the pits at a snail’s pace. In the pits we worked out that the engine had burst the same water pipe as before. The team worked at a frantic pace to replace it and 42 min later I was back on track.

Continued below the gallery… special thanks to Paul M, Deon vd Burg, Snap Shift Media and CLR Photography for use of the images.

Getting Stuck In 

We had fallen from 20th before the issue to 31st after. I took the first few laps to suss out the car’s health. Once all looked stable I started to pump in laps quicker than many of those around me. I had several great battles and watched as some really fast cars would deliberately brake just before the start line not to beat the 1 min 35 cut off… The pace was good and I was not taxing the PolyCat too much, which meant I was also saving fuel. The team asked me to extend my stint for as long as I could. In the end I completed 52 laps at pace and took us from 31st to 27th. Worried about the fuel level I radioed in for my stop.

New Rookie

I pulled into the pits and after a top-up of go-go juice rookie Danie headed out. He didn’t manage a full lap before high water temp caused another power cut. He came back in and we carried out the same repair as before. Except this time we popped in a new, less restrictive, thermostat and bled the cooling circuit. Forty-six minutes later Van Jaarsveld was on his way. The Jag seemed to be fine again, showing no ill-effects of the cooling issue. The rookie pilot acquitted himself well. Reeling off times that were properly competitive. He was overjoyed every time he managed to overtake a car on track, which he announced loudly over our comms systems. He gained us two more places and took us to 25th.

Old Hand

With forty laps under his belt we brought the, self-proclaimed, ‘BMW Overtaker’ into the pits. We did some quick preventative maintenance and sent Jan ‘Dem**rin’ out for his only run. The old hand, a fellow rival from my Fine Cars racing days, was steady as a rock, firing off laps with consistency over his 30-lap stint. He held station in 25th as the car seemed to be in better health through the cooler hours of the day.

Bringing it Home

I took the wheel for a quick second stint. The run took place as the sun sank into the western sky, creating a spectacular sunset and bathing Killarney’s tarmac in a soft golden hue.  The penultimate stint was a short, 25-lap affair. As we fell under another SC period, I pitted to hand over the reins to our captain to bring it home. Our choice to stick with the standard headlight set-up wasn’t ideal and Wallage’s times tumbled as he struggled in the inky conditions. But it didn’t matter, all we wanted was for him to bring the car home unscathed, and he delivered.

Checkered Flag

The flag fell at 19:20 to conclude the race, nine hours after the cars set off. 34 of the 38 starters managed to finish. We were classified 25th with 222 laps (725 km). The leaders completed 307 laps (1 000 km). I have raced sprint races at the national and club level, national cross-country and now an endurance event. This form of racing is unparalleled. There is a great deal of fun to be had, and loads of seat time as well. From that perspective there are few ways better to break into the sport.

A Special Award

Team PolyPlank was bestowed with a special award by the organisers for The Best Lemon Ever. As mentioned, it was a firm favourite, and we are pretty sure many folks didn’t expect the old, heavy PolyCat to make it to the end, but we did, which felt like a victory in our books…