Summarize

Swart overcomes issues to shine in Pretoria

Cape Town’s Jurie ‘Umpie' Swart Junior overcame the double challenge of a wet practice and a tyre issue to drive his Alpine Autohaus/GT Graphics Polo to seventh overall in Saturday’s Falken Volkswagen Polo GTI Cup at Zwartkops to jump up from seventh to tenth on SA’s most competitive national racing series. 

“It may not have felt like it through the meeting, but Zwartkops turned out to be a pretty good weekend for our championship, “Jurie explained. “We struggled with a tyre problem in the first two races and I was maybe a bit lucky, but we sorted the issue for the last race and I was happy to find my pace again to wrap up a strong weekend in the end.

"Friday was wet all day, so qualifying was a bit of a gamble for us coming here to most of our rivals’ home track with no data off this car and then the car felt a bit weird on top of that — it was as if we never had new rubber on the car, but we did — it was understeering everywhere and we only managed tenth on the grid, but only one tenth away from making Superpole - that’s how close it was!

“We got a bit lucky in the first and second races — I was struggling and the car was understeering horribly and so difficult to drive, yet I still managed a seventh and an eighth after a few guys up front ran into trouble and we scored some good points. “Then we swapped the rear tyres with the front for the third race and it was a different car — I immediately had grip in front and the rear was loose, but I had real pace and managed to drive up from eighth to sixth on pace this time, without anyone falling off ahead and my best lap was just a tenth off the quickest, so we were back where we should have been.

“It's a pit about the first two races — I enjoy Zwartkops and we should have been a bit further up, but the final was solid and we came home with some good points. “Now we head home to Killarney for the next round, where we are strong and have the advantage of our home track — can’t wait!

Umpie meanwhile climbs back into his Alpine Autohaus Polo Vivo to chase a repeat of his double victory in the WP Burly Pro GTi Challenge at Killarney this coming Saturday 13 April, before the third round of the Polo Cup there on 11 May.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Jurie 'Umpie' Swart

What:Falken Polo Cup Round 2 Report
Where:Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria
When:Saturday 6 April 2019
Community:South Africa National, Cape Town

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