26 May Following his experience in a Formula Vee and working with E.R.A (Eloff Racing Academy), Dexter Bruce writes:
“On Saturday, 17 May at Round 4 of the Power Series I was offered to race a Formula Vee. The decision to race was made quite late, not giving me enough time to climatise to open wheel racing.
None the less, Robb Eloff from ERA racing, introduced me to his 3 – very enthusiastic – student pit macs, who would under Rob’s keen eye, be my team.
My team induction was at 4pm on Friday (Qualifying) and out of pit lane I went. Resulting in P5 from a grid of 11 other drivers.
After Quali I returned to our pit, to give feedback to the ERA team. I told them that our car struggled to shift gears. I then left for home and the team stayed up late attending to the car’s problem and tuning.
On race day, Saturday 17 May, I arrived at 7am. The students and Rob were ready for race 1. Our goal was to bring the car home and finish with a good result, learning along the way.
We completed race 1 in P5 and when the car came back into the pits, the students immediately took tyre temps and asked me for more driver feedback.
Furthermore, we had hydraulic problems with the #17 car, resulting in shifting struggle and brake fade. The team tackled the car in between races, swopping and replacing parts.
The #17 formula vee was ready for race 2. Rob assured that everything was sorted, and we started in P6. The car ran like clockwork and finished on the podium in third place with a fantastic time of +1.25 seconds.
We achieved all of our goals and made some great memories.
What Rob has brought to main circuit racing is exactly the breath of fresh air motorsport in Cape Town needs. The environment rob creates is both fun and progressive learning. It completely has my support.
Regards,
Dexter Bruce.”