Fabienne has rebranded and is super excited to be starting off her independence by racing at Phakisa in Welkom.
4th of February 2023. Phakisa is famously known for Moto GP racing when they started in South Africa. The team Fabienne joined is popularly known as the Backdraft Cobra Roadsters.
The Race weekend was no short of seat time, with a full track day Friday Practice and a full Days of Racing with Qualifying which was an hour, 3x 8 lap heats as well as a 1 hour endurance race.
Entering the weekend, Fabienne was set to race in the GT4 category. She set her pace and worked herself into the GT3 category , which is a faster set of Laptimed divisions. The Race Categories were set in 6 GT Categories based on the lap times the driver races. Fabienne is known to stretch her boundaries and never settles for comfort
“to be the best, one needs to beat the best, so naturally I always choose the hardest challenge “.
“Especially at this point in my career, it is all about sponging in as much as I can as I venture into endurance car racing. Whilst knowing my experience level in a race car, I do have the experience from the years of racing to be able to adapt and adjust the handling to suit, race lines and data analysis fairly quickly, so stretching the boundaries in a controlled and decisive manner is safe for the car as to finish first, first you need to finish is most important ” – Fabienne commented after the race.
As Fabienne broke out of GT4 , and into the back end of GT3 , she had her hands full of tackling and mastering the art of driving the Cobra as quickly as it allows to inch closer to the front of the pack of GT3 cars.
The endurance race proved Fabienne’s skill set as she kept her pace consistently and smoothly in the 1.58.00 to 1.59.00 bracket , dropping to 2.00.00 only when racing through traffic of the slower cars. She managed to keep her head cool for the 1 hour race in the scorching African heat of 35 degrees plus as the endurance was a midday heat . With only a 4 minute compulsory stop where she was able to fill up her thirst with a quick water stop and then continued to win the GT3 category and 4th overall .
“After the pitstop, I was pushing the car by braking later as I was honing in on the 1.57.00 lap time which we came close to a few times. Mastering the art of heel and toe is an achievement on its own. I am a size UK 4 foot, so most cars my feet slip between ,I have to giggle as it is quite an unfamiliar challenge to face, on a serious note, I did have 2 heated moments as the back tyres gripped from changing down 4th to 3rd . I was very happy with the Lap times achieved and of course winning my Category had a very accomplishing feeling.” Fabienne finished 3rd in class for the 3 short heat races of the day .
“I had an awesome dice with Tony Martin, owner of Backdraft Racing . It was a privilege to race on track like we did dicing corner to corner , lap after lap, I’m sure it kept the crowd on their toes .
Fabienne’s last words of gratitude were: “I would like to thank Backdraft Racing for the opportunity and entrusting me to bring their car home in 1st place. As a Racing driver this is the achievement I work so hard for. To the organizers of GT Supercup , what a stunning concept for racing and to gain so much seat time which is needed when learning a new car.”
A little history on the Roadsters is that they build cobras from scratch and are involved in women’s skill upliftment initiatives where they facilitate women in Welding and Fabricating on the production line of the machines.
TR-Tec was founded in January of 2002 to manufacture hand built niche automobiles. The Backdraft Roadsters have evolved considerably over the past few years and established themselves as one of the industry leaders in producing turnkey cars. The development of the Mark I Roadster started in December 2000. The first examples of the Mark I car were shown to the public in October of 2001. Backdraft products are developed with a Global vision. The cars are built in both left hand and right hand drive configurations to suit the requirements of the international community. In 2003 the production facility was consolidated into a 5,000sq/m building, south of Durban in South Africa. This new facility which provided space for manufacturing and the development of our products was essential in maintaining control in the production process of the roadster.
New challenges await Fabienne in 2023!