Summarize

Pepper Racing enjoyed a brilliant weekend in spite of treacherous conditions at Port Elizabeth’s fifth round Engen Polo Cup races as Shaun La Reservee took the overall win for the day and led Tasmin Pepper and Jason Campos home to a 1-2-4 finish, while Keegan Campos came home fifth among the Juniors. It was a tough weekend for Tasmin though, after she was taken out in a race 2 incident that could well have seen a team 1-2, were the unnecessary incident avoided.

Tasmin and Shaun qualified first and fourth to move into Superpole, while brothers Jason and Keegan put it 11th and 13th on the grid. It turned out that La Reservee’s fourth place was quite fortuitous as the track was relatively dry as he was third out, in reverse order to put it second on the grid, but it was pouring by the time Pepper went out last and she was limited to fifth on the grid, but Tasmin did well to drive to third behind second-placed Shaun in race 1, with Jason Campos ninth and Keegan 11th.

The second race proved contentious behind La Reservee, who moved into the lead on lap 3 and drove off to a welcome win, but Tasmin was eliminated from third before fighting her buckled car back to tenth after the driver who took her out was penalised for the move that also took another title contender out of the race. Brothers Jason and Keegan Campos made best of the drama in front to romp home third and fifth in the second race to see all four cars into the top ten overall.

“I had a really strong weekend,” a delighted Alpine Pepper Racing Polo driver Shaun La Reservee admitted. “Top six in qualifying for both races, second in race 1 and a great win in race 2 meant Port Elizabeth was a superb weekend. “Thanks to the team for a faultless car —  I finally have my first turbo car win and hopefully we can continue this form for the remainder of the season. “It feels so good to be back on top again!”

“We had the pace all weekend,” Electric Life Pepper Polo lass Tasmin Pepper reported. “I put it on pole for both races, but I got the worst of the rain for Superpole, so it was fifth for race 1 and pole for race two. “I was cautious but bagged decent points in race 1 and I was ahead of both my title rivals in race 2 when Jeffrey took me out and I was clobbered by a few other cars, bending my car quite badly. “I was lucky to finish tenth, but we need to sort the car and test again before Zwartkops. ”Well done on the win to my teammate Shaun and huge thanks to Shane and my dad for an awesome car. “Sure, it’s racing, but stupid mistakes are so unnecessary.”

“That was a really tough weekend,” Campos Transport Pepper Racing Polo man Jason Campos pointed out. “From completely wet to bone dry running and everything in between, it was really hard to learn where the limit was lap-by-lap, session by session and at the end of the day we were a bit fortunate to get 3rd overall, but I will take it with both hands.”Well done to Shaun on the win — he drove like a champ and hard luck to Tazz, but we’ll all be back at Zwartkops.” 

“Our lack of experience showed this weekend,” Turn 1 Insurance Pepper Racing Polo driver Keegan Campos owned up. “We struggled a little this weekend despite the team showing it has what it takes to win, but conditions were pretty tough, so that second race fifth was a bit of a bonus. “We have a lot to work on if we want to be outright quicker than the field and eliminate all possibilities that luck brings to the party, but Zwartkops is next and we can’t wait — really looking forward to that one!”

“Shaun La Reservee, what a boykie,” team boss Ian Pepper concluded. “Pity we can’t say that about some of the drivers out there and such a pity for Tazz to be victim of that, but we will be back - we have a championship to win. “Well done to the Campos boys too — you both turned it around and scored plenty good points on a tough weekend - we are back at home at Zwartkops on 18 August — that should be a really good one!”