2017 Kyalami 9 Hours

2017 Kyalami 9 Hours, officially known as 2017 Eskom Kyalami 9 Hours was an endurance event held at Kyalami Circuit, Gauteng, South Africa. The race was organised by Markus Mk. Co. It was held on 9-10th December 2017. The unique feature of the race is a dusk-to-dawn race, with race started on 7:30 PM and finished 4:30 AM the next morning. There two class of cars: GT1 which run GT cars at the same spec of GTR-WC, and TC2 which run former WTCC S2000 cars and current Copa Petrobras de Marcas, with organisers giving options to the entrants.

The race was won by Trueba Racing Team of Franck van Nifterick and Lorenzo Crescenzi in GT1 class. TC2 class winner were Hunter Autosport's Deanna McMahon and Peter Oliver.

Race Summary

Benoit Treluyer is on pole in the #27 F550, while TC2 pole is Sasha Hawke's #423. Green flag was dropped supposedly on 7:33 PM, but Kelvin van der Linde had driven the SC a bit too slowly. When the GT1s arrived on the entry apex of last corner, the green flag was dropped. This brought little confusion, especially TC2 cars with Sasha Hawke lifted too much, ended 3rd in class already by the time they reached start/finish line. At the front, Steven Mackintosh got past Treluyer to took the lead. In TC2 Marco Bizzarri managed to took the lead.

Some laps into the race, cars started to turned on the lights as the sky lights got dimmer. Six laps onto the race GT1 cars begun to lapped TC2 cars. Lotterer used the traffic very well and snatched the lead. Traffic also caused problems for faster GT1, as they begun to hit TC2 cars, prompted a little damage to be fixed. First casualty was Chiara Rossi. Then 16 laps onto the race Rossi's #42 Porsche engine failed as the result of earlier contact.

Pitstops cycle begun first with TC2, but noticeably Hunter's SEAT Leon TDI stayed out much longer than the other TC2 cars. This would be proved as their key to winning the race. GT1 pits much later. With traffic also breaking the pits cycle, nobody could guess who is on the right cycle to win.

Valerian Motorsport's day took a severe blow when Aurelien Moll was too eager to lap Deanna McMahon on the chicane, got spun, and when tried to rejoin the track got hit by Ben Collins, ended Moll's day. Next retirement was Travis Crabtree's Vectra with gearbox failure. Their (Definitely Maybe Racing) day also ended prematurely as the other car retired not long later with engine failure. Next retirement was Gregg Donnelly as his Peugeot's suspension broke down.

As the race cycle continues, Lichter-Shultz crashed the car uncaught by the camera on the 5th hour. Lotto's #38 was retired past 6th hour with brakes nearly failing. Next, Equippe Fantomette's Ford #444 engine broked down.

Next drama was Valenti coming out from the pits. Unsighted, Steven Mackintosh hit her, took her out from the race, while Mackintosh managed to continue, pitted and switched into Ben Collins with 2 hours on the clock. The biggest drama of the race happened on lap 274, a little more than an hour on the clock, as John Bean drove the main straight, Karun Chandok was rejoining the track after pitting his Ford #445. Bean hit Chandok, took both of them out of the race. Bean along with Lotterer was on the lead contention.

It then became clear that Trueba's #24, driven by Lorenzo Crescenzi by the 8th hour, and Rob Lomas Racing's #008 driven by Bob Lomas is on the lead cycle, as both have different pit cycle. Bob Lomas pitted with 64 minutes on the clock, sparking questions could he strecth his fuel and hold Crescenzi. Crescenzi pitted with 44 minutes remaining, rejoined 12 seconds behind. Meanwhile in TC2, Hunter's SEAT Leon TDI now driven by Peter Oliver is holding a good lead by over a minute thanks to the great fuel mileage.

The hunt for the lead begun after 10 minutes, Crescenzi managed to carved the traffic and now within less than a second behind Lomas. The pair battled for 23 minutes head-to-tail, with Crescenzi still unable to past Lomas, at one point was mimicking Michael Schumacher-Mika Hakkinen - Ricardo Zonta's battle of 2000 Belgium Grand Prix, but this time Lomas kept the lead. Disaster striked with 10 minutes on the clock, Bob Lomas caught traffic on the hairpin on the wrong position. Crescenzi swept past him then hold a 3 seconds lead. With 4 minutes on the clock, Bob Lomas' got critical fuel warning, and decided to splash&dash to make sure he finished after received report of two cars behind him also pitted minutes before. At the end of 9 hours, Franck van Nifterick and Lorenzo Crescenzi wins the revival of Kyalami 9 Hours ahead of Wiremu Tamati and Bob Lomas pair, drifted 50 seconds behind. Home hero Danny van Rijkens along with Australian Simon Redman finished 3rd, making a Trueba double podium. In TC2 Deanna McMahon and Peter Oliver pairing won the class by one lap in the end, with Marco Bizzarri and Raffaele Modena took 2nd, ahead of a surprise Ragnar Larsen and Ludvig Kristoffersen, due to TC2 cars were splash-dashing (pitting) in the final minutes.

Franck van Nifterick-Lorenzo Crescenzi won with 314 laps on the books or 1337 km in distance over 9 hours. TC2 class winner Deanna McMahon-Peter Oliver won with 277 laps, some 37 laps down from GT1.

Race Result

Pos	Class	No.	Team	Car	Drivers	Laps	Grid
1	GT1	24	Trueba Racing Team	Maserati MC12	Franck van Nifterick Lorenzo Crescenzi	314	3
2	GT1	008	Rob Lomas Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Wiremu Tamati Bob Lomas	314	4
3	GT1	25	Trueba Racing Team	Maserati MC12	Danny van Rijkens Simon Redman	314	5
4	GT1	3	Mont Blanc Racing	Lister Storm	Randall Wade Vic Sunset	314	8
5	GT1	91	Mont Blanc Racing	Lister Storm	Steven Mackintosh Ben Collins	314	2
6	GT1	007	Rob Lomas Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Jason Gonzi Boris Pavlovic	313	7
7	GT1	1	Union Saver Developments	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Ricardo Llosa Jordan McKenna	313	10
8	TC2	100	Hunter Autosport	SEAT Leon TDI	Deanna McMahon Peter Oliver	277	23
9	TC2	87	Renzo	Alfa Romeo 156	Marco Bizzarri Raffaele Modena	276	14
10	TC2	52	Racing Team Scandinavia	BMW 320si	Ragnar Larsen Ludvig Kristoffersen	276	25
11	TC2	422	Union Saver Developments	Chevrolet Lacetti	Artesia Mass Shin Ramirez	276	21
12	TC2	33	Racing Team Scandinavia	BMW 320si	Verna Klien Alvin Ziegler	276	15
13	TC2	31	Team Mecha Racing	Toyota Corolla	Cecep Sugiharto Ryu Takanori	276	16
14	TC2	32	Team Mecha Racing	Toyota Corolla	Mauricio Rossini Patrick Boon	276	24
15	TC2	423	Union Saver Developments	Chevrolet Lacetti	Sasha Hawke Paul Jenkins	276	13
16	TC2	8	Kurosawa Engineering	Mitsubishi Lancer	Kamui Kobayashi Kazuki Hisakawa	276	18
17	TC2	101	Hunter Autosport	SEAT Leon TDI	David Simmons Chelsie Knight	276	32
18	TC2	39	Greggs Racing	Peugeot 407	Jose Pablo Mazzacane Alik Mori	276	26
19	TC2	7	Kurosawa Engineering	Mitsubishi Lancer	Kazuki Nakajima Kazuki Fushida	275	19
20	TC2	156	Alfa Corse	Alfa Romeo 156	Adolfo Moretti Antonio Delvecchio	275	20
21	TC2	37	Lotto Racing	Honda Accord	Sandra Cessler Ryan Sharp	275	27
DNF	GT1	27	Anthony Byrne Cars	Ferrari F550	André Lotterer John Bean	274 Accident	6
DNF	GT1	28	Anthony Byrne Cars	Ferrari F550	Benoît Tréluyer Natalia Valenti	260 Accident	1
DNF	TC2	445	Équipe Fantomette by Euromotor International	Ford Focus	Quentin Bisping Karun Chandok	241 Accident	17
DNF	TC2	444	Équipe Fantomette by Euromotor International	Ford Focus	Lee Honmei Patrick Feldhoffer	233 Engine	20
DNF	TC2	38	Lotto Racing	Honda Accord	César Campaniço Rafael Martins	194 Brakes	28
DNF	GT1	2	Union Saver Developments	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Karl Lichter-Shultz Alphonse Ribeiro	163 Accident	11
DNF	TC2	19	Greggs Racing	Peugeot 407	Geoff Donnelly Gregg Donnelly	93 Suspension	30
DNF	TC2	95	Definitely Maybe Racing	Vauxhall Vectra	Poppy Whitechapel Roberto Dinella	79 Engine	31
DNF	GT1	42	Valerian Motorsport	Porsche 993	Laurens Vanthoor Aurelien Moll	76 Accident	9
DNF	TC2	94	Definitely Maybe Racing	Vauxhall Vectra	Damon Cannon Travis Crabtree	70 Gearbox	29
DNF	GT1	43	Valerian Motorsport	Porsche 993	Chiara Rossi Eric Swerts	16 Engine damage	12
DNS	Wildcard	88	Porsche South Africa	Porsche 997 GT3-R	Kelvin van der Linde Adrian Zaugg	-	-