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Former Formula GTi Challenge champion Marco da Cunha gave the class A Exa Nissan Dealer Team’s new Tubular/R&A Cellular Nissan 370Z a successful debut in round five of the Bridgestone South African Production Car Championship at Port Elizabeth’s Aldo Scribante circuit on Saturday.
Da Cunha struggled to get the car’s considerable power on to the wet tarmac in rainy conditions in Friday practice, and qualified seventh on Saturday on a track that was still damp in places. Younger brother Paulo qualified ninth in the older Tubular/R&A Cellular Nissan 350Z previously raced by Marco and was also hampered by a lack of grip in the conditions.
“Grant has built us a radical new car and it had already shown in (pre-race) testing at Zwartkops (in Gauteng) that it is faster and more powerful than the 350Z that has served us so well for so long,” said Marco. “Our biggest challenge is to get the handling package up to speed as quickly as possible and this weekend was very much a trial run for the team.”
He was forced into the pits on lap five of the opening eight-lap sprint race when the supercharger belt came off and was classified 10th, one place behind Paulo who experienced braking problems.
Marco was unable to make the start of the second sprint, run back-to-back with the first one, while Paulo did well to finish sixth despite battling with his braking and going off the circuit at one point (“I had no brakes and was just a passenger,” reported the younger Da Cunha).
The lengthy break before the second pair of back-to-back sprints gave the team a chance to fix the 370Z and attend to Paulo’s braking problem, which they suspected was the ABS system.
The brothers finished eighth (Marco scoring the new 370Z’s first championship points) and ninth in an uneventful race three. Paulo was an early retirement in race four after the accelerator cable broke on lap three, while Marco completed the 370Z’s debut race meeting with a seventh place.
“We’re happy with the progress we’ve made this weekend,” said team principal Van Schalkwyk. “We came here with very little testing and a set-up that is far from right, yet we are already half a second quicker than we were with the 350Z. This translates into an even better improvement at a circuit like Kyalami and we are confident we have the makings of a very competitive car in the new 370Z.”
The next round of the championship is at the historic former world championship grand prix circuit in East London on 3 September.
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