Shelby Can-Am Season Finale Showdown

This weekend sees South African iRacer Darryn Lobb, attempt to become the first defending champion to keep control of his #1 plate in the South African Shelby Can-Am series since 2000.

Darryn Lobb 2010 version 1.0

2010 has been a season of mixed emotion for the 2007, and 2009 champion. A fairly low key start to the championship at the East London Grand Prix circuit in February, saw Lobb escape with the points lead despite being a long way off the pace all weekend. The championship then moved to the beautiful Cape Town Raceway for Round Two where Lobb was in blistering form, smashing the circuit record on the way to victory in heat. Unfortunately, a first lap incident temporarily stalled his championship defence with a DNF.

Darryn Lobb 2010 version 2.0

The reigning champ finally got things going at Round Three at Zwartkops raceway, with a solid first overall with another win, and a third place finish respectively. It was after Round Three that the wheels began coming off. Having secured what seemed to be a great 2010 sponsorship, the company hit financial troubles and the deal came to an abrupt end leaving Lobb without budget to compete in the following round.

To cut a long story short, Lobb missed two full rounds due to sponsorship difficulties. However, a few loan drives gave Lobb the small opportunity to keep his championship hopes alive, and grab them with both hands he sure did. Since the Zwartkops round, Darryn has won the last six heats in a row breaking the circuit records at both Phakisa Freeway and his home track, Kyalami.

Darryn moves towards this weekend’s championship decider at Kyalami with breathing space of nine points with 42 up for grabs. With solid backing from Imperial Toyota, and subsidiary backing from Duo Plus ADSL Modems, Lobb in confidant that he can still secure the championship.

“It’s all about numbers at this stage, and the numbers are on our side going into the last round,” said Lobb.  “The team have done everything they can to ensure the reliability for the last weekend.  It should be a great weekends racing. I can only thank the Lord Jesus for the opportunity to defend my title.   Six months ago, things looked unbelievably miserable, but here we are. Bring on race day.”

Darryn Lobb 2010 version 3.0

The final round of the championship will see two sprint races with the grid for the first being determined from qualifying.  Heat Two will be a reverse grid of the fastest eight cars in Heat One. Weather predictions are pointing towards thunder storms, as is customary with the South African summer. Nevertheless, the competition will be strong, and the race fast!

For results on the day, www.zatiming .co.za – ProTour Round 9. Otherwise, DarrynLobb99 on twitter will be providing updates all race weekend!

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