Sharonlea racer Michael Kernick impressed on Kyalami race track
Michael Kernick thanked his team for making things happen and said that this wouldn’t have been possible without their support.
Sharonlea-based Michael Kernick has had an impressive recovery in the Silvercup 2.0 races at Kyalami International Race Track.
He was racing a Nash MVW3 in the Silvercup class support races to the SAES 9-hour race. He explained that it was the smallest and lowest car in the field – size wise.
After he had had various troubles in the practices and qualifying, his team got the car sorted for the first race of the day in which he qualified in 25th place out of 43 cars.
“There was a problem with the gearbox and I was in the assembly area waiting to go out for race one. When I pulled out of the pits the car froze. I alerted the team and while I was strapped in they got onto it and fixed the problem. Due to this I lined up last on the grid in 43rd place; I didn’t think about it much – just focused on the job on hand.”
Kernick added that he told himself that ‘this will need to be like a Bruce McLaren come-back drive’ he did in 1967 at Mosport in the can am series. He got his head down and raced his way through the field to finish in 16th place and first in class despite not having fifth gear.
“It was incredible to be in that head space and to have made up so many positions. I was super happy about it and so was the team.”
They worked late into the night to sort the car for the last race on the following morning.
Kernick started the second race in 16th place but had a slower start and dropped back. He started to make up time when a safety car was released. Michael had this to say, “ I looked at the many cars ahead of me and said ‘see that Golf, go catch it’.
When the safety car came he set about catching and passing more cars, including the Golf he had set his target on in the last lap and finished in 9th place – just ahead of the Golf in 10th place. “Everything worked and the car was great; we were all over the moon with the results. It really was great racing in Silvercup 2.0 and the racing is so clean with such a great bunch of people in the club.”
“I’m so grateful for the opportunities that was given to me and I appreciate everything the team have done,” he added.
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