Summarize

Jurie Swart endured the toughest day of his Falken SA National Polo Cup Championship chase season so far when his Alpine Autohaus Polo suffered a shock absorber failure in qualifying to drop him back into the wild midfield from where he was unable to fully emerge through a difficult weekend.

“Mama warned me about days like this!” Umpie shrugged after being eliminated from the second race. “We had the pace to get into the top six Superpole shootout throughout Friday’s practice, but when we went out to qualify the car would not handle — a shock absorber had broken and I only qualified 16th, so we knew we were in for a tough weekend — it's just so difficult to fight back from there.

“Still, I worked hard to claw back to twelfth in the first race, but I was tapped by a rival early in the second race and forced to retire. “That’s racing — we still have a few positives to take home — my pace was solid and the point I scored in the first race could very well prove vital come the end of the season, but for now we will focus on East London at the end of August and work on fighting back to third in the title chase. “Thanks to the team for a great effort — we will be back!”

Swart first has an appointment in his home Burly Pro GTi Challenge at Killarney in Cape Town 10 August before the GAP Motorsport team prepares for the trek to East London 31 August.