Following two days of (very welcome) September rain, it was quite a chilly start to the morning with a moderate amount of water that needed to be swept from the track. I think it was Daniël du Plessis and his dad, Danie who arrived first and started to get rid of the water and helped Henry with putting up the speakers and so forth.  I assume André also assisted, as always.

It was nice to see Craig Joubert  at our track again after a long absence. The same goes for Darren Hill.  Gert Swart, that has disappeared for a while was also back and it was nice to him, too. As usual, we had some late entries at race control and also one or two that entered on-line, but did not show up. Oh, by the way, when loading the race onto the computer the night before, it was a pleasant surprise to see that Theresa Poalses , a regular visitor, was going to make her first appearance in the Beginner class at last. Then we also had Yas Okauchi, a guy that has paid us a visit or two before. He said he would enter for this race, provided his job wasn’t going to send him on a business trip, but here he was indeed! All in all we had 45 entries, but decided that we would omit the 13.5 class, because it only had three entries.

Car of the Day:

We asked Craig Joubert to choose the Best Presented RC car body of the day for us and he chose the little Mini that belongs to Ronel Bann and was painted by Mark Remcken. Congrats!

Beginners:

Yas Okauchi won all the races in this class. Normally a beginner starts off by doing laps from 30 to 50 seconds, not  less than 20 seconds, Yas!  Or in your case: 18.38 sec?! But because he also was brave enough to,  and we belief he was totally capable, to partake in the  17.5 touring class as well, he gave up his 1^st place trophy in the Beginner class. (Yas apparently competed in Japan in the past and I therefore had the courage to ask him to step down as official winner in this class)                                                                                                        Dana Cato performed well and she claimed the (well deserved) 1^st place on the podium (again) this month. Her fasest lap – 21.59 sec.            Henk Grootherder has now mastered this RC business and he succeeded in bringing his best lap time down to 22.10.  Well done!! He ended 2^nd.   I overheard him telling Henry that from next month he will be moving on to the 540 class, as he is more confident now. Lekker man, lekker!                                                                                                                                                                                                           Theresa didn’t do too badly at all for a novice, but unfortunately her she lost a hub and she couldn’t join in the Final legs. The necessary replacement part was bought already and she promised - or warned?- that she will be back next month.                                                             The 5 year old Johnrique had trouble controlling his car on this day, but I think the problem was with the car, more so than with the driver. Am I right?

Electric Mini Class:

A nice full group of 10 drivers. And so competitive!? It was impossible to predict the outcome of this race, up to the very end! Jason Landsberg was challenged not only by his dad, Jakkie, but also by Daniël du Plessis, Piet du Toit and Ewald van der Neut.

Then there were Danie du Plessis(sr), Ronel Bann, her sister Colleen Vorster, Schalk Vorster and Jannie Holtzhausen…. all trying to improve on their own previous best times.

But there can only be one winner and this month it was Daniël du Plessis. Congratulations!

Fastest lap in this class: Jason – 20.77 sec.

540 Touring:

This month we saw Kevin Bann in this class and he gave Johnny Claes and Jakkie Landsberg a hard time.  Johnny won both Round 1 and Leg 1 of the Finals and it was touch-and-go or he could have won this race. But at the end it was Kevin who took 1^st place on the podium. Kevin’s best lap – 18.97 sec. Congrats!   

 Anette (that’s me) lost the teeth on the spur gear in the qualies and couldn’t compete in the finals.  Marika Claes had herself a good racing day in this class and also improved on her best lap time. Good job, Girl!                                                                                                               Jannie Holzhausen didn’t have much luck, after a whole week of trouble(including a death in the family) his 21 sec laps were more than sufficient, but the damage to his car’s rear suspension was the last straw that broke the camel’s back and he retired and left for his home a little sooner than normal. Bumped from behind despite Henry’s  spying eye????                        

Jakkie Landsberg with his average laps of 20 and/or 21 seconds had a fab day, I am sure.

TTO1 Class:

No surprise; JP Sweeck in the lead, all day long! Anette started the day with a steering that wasn’t playing along, but Henry and JP made some adjustments and from then on she did okay. Marika had a fine race and I think she probably improved on her fastest lap ever in this class. Mooi so! Johnny Claes was ‘toying’ along with a car that was obviously not in good shape and I will rather not comment on his performance, because it would not do him as driver any justice.  JP’s best lap – 21.32 seconds.

21.5 Electric Touring:

A full 10 driver class. Kevin Gates, of whom I've reported on frequently in the past few months, dominated this class. He won them all… qualies and final legs. His fastest lap – 19.07 sec. Well done! Hectic races, all 4 of them!                                                                                   A challenge for Jakkie Landsberg:  Aim for 2^nd place next month; I know you can do it. If it wasn’t dor Darren, it would have been yours this month already! But Darren is a very experienced racer, so you are excused….

17.5 Touring:

11 competitors and not a race for the faint hearted. In actual fact; you need nerves of steel! It seemed like the fight for the 1^st place on the podium was between Craig Joubert, Daniël du Plessis , Jp Sweeck and Jason Landsberg. But then along came André Steenekamp and Marius Burger who threw a spanner into the works. In the end it was Jason who claimed the 1^st place, though. Congratulations!

The fastest lap in this class, and obviously for the day, was Craig’s 16.21 sec lap in the 2^nd qualifier round. Great stuff!

With different degrees of cold and warm to hot temperatures, I think we can still call it a pleasant and successful day at the track, once again!

PS: Henry, acting as race director, tried his level best to keep the race clean and discourage reckless driving, but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to see everything that happens all over the track at once and he was criticized severely for giving stop-and-go penalties. Not a nice task to do and it may have consequences….. 

Much to our delight it was such a lovely day out at the track that we were all wearing short sleeves. Even for drivers’ briefing! After a long, cold winter we always appreciate nice, sunny weather. The 24 entries - split into 4 heats – were a bonus. I mention this because we are aware that other clubs struggle to get their nitro on road division going. So, a sincere thank you to all the Meyerton Raceway supporters. We love you and appreciate your loyal support.

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It was nice to once again had the Van der Walts from Potch here, Jacques from Klerksdorp, the Banns from Nigel, the Vorsters from Springs, the Landsbergs from Boksburg, the regular Vaal Triangle group from Sasolburg, Vanderbijl and Vereeniging as well as our local Meyerton people. Then we are also proud of and thankful for guys like Andre Steenekamp, Kevin Gates and Ewald van der Neut that didn’t come to compete, but they DID come to support and act as pit crew for the drivers. You guys rock!

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