What a lovely, sunny day it had been?! After a long, cold winter, it is always pleasant to experience warm weather again, but even more so when you are dealing with outdoor activities. And warm summer weather is what we got for our monthly on road electric race meeting!

The turnout wasn’t too bad either. 36 entries split up into 6 heats.  17.5 and the Mini classes being the biggest, with 9 entries each.  This amount of entries allowed the drivers to be a bit more relaxed, but still enough to keep race control relatively busy. The beginner class only saw 3 entries this month, due to one withdraw and the others (like me, Anette) that has now moved on to the 540 class. The 13.5 class only had three entries, but boy! did they put up a show for us!

 

September winner of Best presented RC body - Electric On Road

 

 

Beginners:

Ronel Bann started her 1^st round with laps of around 27 seconds, but improved to lap times of less than 24 seconds later on in the day. Well done!

Daleen Griesel started the day with lap times of about 28 seconds and also improved to lap times close to those of Ronel.  Mooi meisies, nou weet ons mos julle kan!

The very young girl, 8 year old Anzea still has a long way to go, but she improved on her own best lap with more than 11 seconds in one day and that is very promising! And keep in mind that we ARE talking about beginner class here….

Overall result:

1. Ronel  Bann
2. Daleen Griesel
3. Anzea Pretorius

ELECTRIC MINI:

The first three positions in all three qualifiers and the 2 final legs all appeared different. In other words, it was impossible to predict the overall winner for the day. Jason Landsberg, his dad Jakkie, Daniël du Plessis and his dad Danie, all had equal chances to win the race.

Anette and Ronel joined the men in this race, but whilst Ronel stayed in the competition through all 3 qualifiers and the two final legs, Anette quitted after the first round. That yellow mini had a mind of it’s own and she was by no means going to put up with that! Apparently Anette’s mechanic , and others whom she consulted, all failed to fix the wayward steering. Maybe a new receiver will make a difference?

Round 1:   Jason won the race, with Daniël 2^nd and Danie 3^rd. Henry did not start. The fastest lap belongs to Jason: 22.13 seconds.

Round 2: Jason won the race again, this time with Danie in 2^nd and Daniël in 3^rd place. Fastest lap: Jason 22.5 seconds.

Round 3: same as round 1

Leg 1 of Final:

Jason 1^st, Jakkie 2^nd and Daniël 3^rd. Jakkie boasted the fastest lap : 22.58 sec

Leg 2 of Final:

Jason 1^st, Jakkie 2^nd and Danie 3^rd.  Best lap belongs to Jakkie again : 22.18 sec

OVERALL RESULT:

1^st Jason Landsberg

2^nd Jakkie Landsberg

3^rd Daniël du Plessis

 

540 Touring:

Tiny Wright entered on-line, but withdrew before he even started. He had an eye operation about a week ago, and realized that he was in fact not ready for racing yet. Ian Stapelberg, the new guy that raced with us in this class last month, showed up once again. Unfortunately he had to retire from the race after just three laps.  I am not sure what exactly had broken on his car, but he apparently left when he couldn’t fix the problem. Hope that he will be back in future.

Round 1 saw Jakkie Landsberg in the lead with Charmaine in 2^nd position.  Anette was 3^rd and this is where Ian left the track after 3 laps.  And with both him and Tiny out of the picture, there wasn’t any place lower down for Anette (me) …haha. But just to put things in perspective for myself: I’ve reached my personal goal, to complete at least a few laps in less than 25 seconds. That is IF she remembers to pull out the aerial….and not accusing Henry of letting her drive with a flat battery. Sorry Liefie.

Round 2:  Same as Round 1. Both Jakkie and Charmaine improved on their best lap times.

Round 3:  Same as rounds 1 & 2, and both Jakkie and Charmaine improved again. This time Jakkie broke the 20 seconds barrier. Well done!!

Leg 1 of Final:  Jakkie and Charmaine 1^st and 2^nd respectively again. Anette raced a lap of less than 24 seconds..23.81 seconds.

Leg 2 of Final: Same as leg 1. Anette is now doing more and more laps in less than 25 seconds.

Overall results:

1^st Jakkie Landsberg

2^nd Charmaine Wright

3^rd Anette Ogden

21.5 Electric Touring:

Round 1: Harry Wilesmith beat Charmaine to the starting line, both had 15 laps and left Danie, with 14 laps, to come 3^rd. Harry’ best lap = 19.78

Dylan Olivier was 4^th, Kevin 5^th and Conroy Olivier 6^th.  Kobus and Jakkie did not start.

Round 2: 1^st , 2^nd and 3rd places remain the same, but now Jakkie  and Kobus were in on the game and came 4^th and 5^th respectively. Conroy only managed to do 9 laps, but they were extremely fast laps…something must have went seriously wrong for him! He had three less than 20 second laps.

Round 3: Conroy displayed his excellent driving skills by doing faster laps than Harry, but unfortunately for him Harry’s more consistent laps still made him (Harry) the winner.

So, even with him matching Harry’s 15 laps and Conroy’s fastest lap time of 19.7 seconds, Harry still  won the race. Conroy 2^nd and Charmaine 3^rd. The other was closely knitted behind them, with only Danie who had car trouble.

Leg 1 of Final: It would be unfair to make exceptions, because all 8 drivers were in very close proximity of each other…really REALLY close!! Harry did however won the race, so let us give him what is due to him.

Leg 2 of Final: Harry is still in 1^st position while Conroy is still doing faster laps than anyone else in this class. Again that ‘more consistent’ thing made the difference. All the other raced better than just average…well done all of you!

Overall results:

1^st Harry Wilesmith

2^nd Conroy Olivier

3^rd Charmaine Wright

 

Electric 17.5 Touring:

These 9 guys mean business when they enter into a race. Again it feels unfair to make exceptions, because no one in this class showed interest in laps above 18 seconds! Freddie Kotze changes that rule totally on his own, by making his personal goal/barrier 17 seconds. ..! Sjoe! It seemed however that both André and Harry had car trouble in Round 1.

Round 2 ended the same as round 1, with Freddie, Daniël and Gert in the first three positions. This time it was Conroy and his son Dylan who had car trouble.

Round 3 saw Gert in the lead with Daniël and Jason behind him, when Freddie left to attend to some business, with the intention to rejoin the race later on again.

Leg 1 of Final :    Freddie returned after our lunch break  and took back his 1^st place. Gert Swart was 2^nd and Jason Landsberg 3^rd. Conroy, Dylan and André did not start.

Leg 2 of Final: Disaster struck and Freddie’s car broke down on the 10^th lap! Jason won the race, with Gert Swart in 2^nd place and Daniël 3^rd.

Freddie‘s fastest lap was raced in the 2^nd round, 16.13 seconds…Well done!

Also our congratulations to Daniël du Plessis with several laps of just 16.something seconds. Meyerton Raceway is proud of you!

Overall result:

1^st Gert Swart

2^nd Jason Landsberg

3^rd Freddie Kotze

 

13.5 Electric touring:

Round 1: 1^st Freddie, 2^nd Harry 3^rd Marius Burger.  Fastest lap belongs to Freddie= 16.55

Round 2: 1^st Harry, 2^nd Marius, Freddie left to attend to business. Fastest lap Harry = 17.96 sec

Round 3 : 1^st Harry , 2^nd Marius, Freddie not back yet. Fastest lap Harry= 17.09 sec

Leg 1 of Final:  Freddie 1^st, Marius 2^nd, Harry 3^rd. Freddie’s fastest lap = 16.54 sec

Leg 2 of Final: Freddie 1^st with 19 laps, Marius 2^nd with 15 laps and Harry 3^rd also with 15 laps. Freddie’s fastest lap = 16.17 sec.

Overall result:

1^st Freddie Kotze

2^nd Marius Burger

3^rd Harry Wilesmith

Thanks to all that took part. See you again next month! Keep well.