SUPERCAR SERIES DEVELOPMENT DRIVER + POWER SERIES REGIONAL RACING ROUND 01
Event date : 21 February 2015 | Words & photos: RaceMasteR J | Killarney International Raceway

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The first round of the Wingfield Motors sponsored Power Series kicked off the regional race meeting Killarney calendar on the 21st of February 2015. Now even though I was here to take pictures I did not specifically come to cover the entire event but rather focus more on one specific driver instead.


Long time friend of Raceweb and a personal racing buddy of mine, Nashrene Schloss. Nash, as everyone calls her, has been on the racing scene for pretty much as long as I can remember. The first time I met her was back in 2005 I think, at my very first track day. She was there with her jade green Toyota Corolla bubble, a car which she still owns today.


Nash quickly progressed to the drag racing scene where she owes most of her fame to being one of the only female drag racers at the time. She wasn’t the quickest, but she was very good at getting off the line quickly and giving the boys a run for their money.


But as with most things quarter mile racing became a bit of a “drag” for her even after competing at some national events up in Joburg. Her next racing fix came in the form of gymkhana racing, which she still competes in, very well at that, till this very day. Once again, fame was granted to Nash as she was once more one of the only few female racers on that scene and that too being sponsored by Speed and Sound Magazine at one point. She is also the only female to ever claim overall victory at a WBMK gymkhana, this in the clubs 16 year/100 event history of male domination.


Many indoor karting laps from league nights to 12 hour endurance races later she moved on to 125cc Superkarts at Killarney’s short circuit. Superkarts being one of the quickest things around a race track she found herself being a sponsored racer once again. But with the number of competitors declining at every new race, it was soon to be a thing of the past for her.


Fortune favours the brave they say, and that’s what she was when she applied for an up and coming WPMC driver development program. Nothing came of it immediately, but a rather late reply saw her being invited into the Supercar Series at Killarney for the 2015 season.


For those of you who don’t know, when we say supercars, it’s not Lamborghini’s and Ferraris. It’s a one make series that was developed by the late Own Ashley. I call them radio control cars because they are essentially a fiberglass shell placed over what is basically a pipe car. Running 2L 8V Opel engines with side draughts pushing out about 130kW’s, they are fitted with what seems to be the Opel Astra Coupe body. They also run with full slick tyres and are rear wheeled drive, which is something Nash is not exactly used to, yet.


So… after a few practice sessions in the car it was finally race day! It started off with qualifying where she did a 1:34 second lap time. A bit off the pace, but all that meant was that there was room for improvement, which is the whole point of a development program in my opinion.


A quick drivers briefing before the start of the race to lay down some ground rules.


And as the briefing was taking place this happened... turn down for what? A massive accident on the starting grid of the GTi Challenge race. Anwar Levy managed to roll this borrowed car a few times after trying to avoid another accident infront of him. We're just glad everyones ok. Talk about a rolling start!


Nashrenes qualifying lap time resulted in her being placed last on the grid, but frankly she was quite fine being there as she did not intend to battle with her rivals just yet. The plan was to latch on to someone and try and keep up. A cunning strategy where the prey is studied first and eaten later.


It worked out exactly according to plan. The race started and she found someone to “grab” on to. Even though she could have overtaken the person a few times she preferred to study the situation and style of driving. I say she was just being polite.


She managed to drop her time down to a 1:28 second lap time which was great as that’s a 6 second improvement! Still not quite doing what the front runners are but if this was only her first race there should be plenty more improvement to come.


A few hours seperate the 2 heats which is just enough time for Ernest Stier and his team to adjust or repair any damage. Here we see the team changing the clutch on Nash's team mate, Ashraf Fredericks car. As you can see the entire shell has to be removed in order to work on these vehicles.


For those who are not bound by pit crew duties you can always watch the rest of the bumper to bumper racing happening on track.


Talk about sticking your nose in there...


Former GTi Challenge driver Stiaan Kriel found himself an AWD Subaru to take on the boys in the Clubmans series. I just love the fact that he never went the conventional BMW or VW route on this one. Well done sir, we hope to see you improve through the field as the year progresses.


Danie Van Niekerk's newly branded BMW was looking great and performing well too!


Ronald "The Red Barron" Slamet put on a show as usual by completely dominating the superbike race.


Race 2 saw Nash starting at the back of the grid once more. Drivers start the second race according to where they finish in the first. So the first race is basically one big qualifying scrap for race two.


Unfortunately she didn’t manage to improve on her time, rather she went slower by 1 second. But so did everyone else. So that’s not such a bad thing. She also managed to not finish last this time too. There were a few guys that went off track making it rather dirty and slippery in places. We’re just glad she stayed out of trouble and finished both races.


We wish Nash and her team all the best for the 2015 season of racing and be sure to catch the next Power Series regional race meeting at Killarney International Raceway on the 14th of March 2015.


As I mentioned earlier I never intended to cover the event but I still managed to snap a few pics here and there so check out the rest of the gallery below. Till next time, see you track side!

Junaid Hamid