information supplied by: Subaru South Africa 18 November 2011
TEAM SASOL SUBARU AIMING FOR SEASON-ENDING GLORY
 
Hennie Groenewald and Richard Pinard head back to Zwartkops Raceway for the 9^th and final round of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship with a few firm objectives in mind. The never-say-die approach of Team Sasol Subaru will be put to the test once more this season in front of what is expected to be a bumper crowd at the popular Pretoria West circuit.
 
In spite of the Subaru Impreza STI winning the most rounds of the series (tied on 8 victories with Michael Stephen) Hennie’s championship chances are realistically over.
 
“”Motorsport is strange game.  Michael and I each won eight races yet he is fighting for the championship and I am not.  A couple of wins on the day would bolster our tally and demonstrate that our car is highly competitive.  The two endurance races didn’t go to plan and effectively scuppered our title challenge”, Hennie reflected.
 
“We has some technical issues when we raced at Zwartkops at the beginning of the month which the team believes it has resolved so I want to consolidate my third place in the championship and give the team and our sponsors something to smile about over the closed season”, he added.
 
Hennie expects the pace to be as hot as the Highveld summer sun, while rain is a very real possibility.  “Anthony (Taylor) was very quick three weeks ago and he’s now only 14 points behind me so I’ll have my work cut out.  If it rains, it could help my cause a bit.  The Fourie/Stephen championship fight could also play into my hands as they race each other and slow each other down.  Either way, we’re as ready and well prepared as ever”.
 
“I’m always ready for a day in the sun at Zwartkops”, Richard laughed.  The second Team Sasol Subaru driver is relishing a good scrap in spite of no real changes to his car.  “There’s no point rushing a new engine build for the last race but Hennie has demonstrated that my car is as
 
good as his when he won at East London.  “I’ll be spending quite a bit of time with him going over the data to see where I can pick up a few more tenths”.
 
On a personal level, Richard wants to run closer to his team-mate’s pace.  “If I can get closer to Hennie’s times, it will help me stay positive for next year.  One concern I have is that we don’t have a spare engine and if the team has any issues, I will step down for Hennie.
 
For Carel Pienaar, Team Principal of Team Sasol Subaru and owner of SP Race Engineering, there has been no time to relax.  “We have been hard at work identifying the causes of the problems we had earlier in the month.  We re-mapped an engine with a high temperature profile and ran it on the dyno.  Over and above that we have done a lot of analysis around the suspension, steering and the brakes to try and work around the tyre wear issues we had”.
 
Team Sasol Subaru is proudly supported by Permatex and associate sponsors Shatterprufe, Protea Hotels and MIR sports clothing.  Out-of-town race fans can follow the team on Facebook.
 


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