A lovely day, spent with a lovely group of people. Yes, currently it feels like an extended family, having our RC people around on Sundays….  I really hope that we can keep it this way.

 

The squatting list on this day shows 39 class entries. One totally new guy showed up and registered for the race without any practice or previous experience. A very brave man!  And he liked us so much, he sommer joined the club! Welcome to Stuart Leach from Vanderbijlpark.  Hope you will enjoy being a club member with us.

 

And a young man (high school pupil), Marcello de Sousa, came to watch his friend Dylan Olivier race last month and this month he also entered into the competition in the Beginners class. My (Anette’s) personal opinion is that a lap time of 25 seconds is good enough to prove that you can stay on the tar….. like a real RC driver. Marcello did well enough to enter wherever he likes to, next time! He had several laps of 24.something and even numerous 23 second laps!!! Excellent Marcello, you obviously have got what it takes.   Then there was Junior Hansen, son of Ronel Bann, who also surprised all of us and probably himself, too. He had been on the track only a couple of times in the past and his parents got him out of bed early enough this week to travel from Nigel to the track in time for the race. Junior also entered into the beginner class, because he considered himself a beginner. Well, after his performance, and I mean PERFORMANCE, I doubt that he will feel comfortable with the novices again. Of hoe, Juwles?  Junior’s little brother, Enrico Hansen competed in this class with his Mini and didn’t do too bad. His average lap time just needs some improvement, which will only come with much more practice. Hoe lyk dit Rico, gaan jy nou gereeld kom oefen??

Beginner Class:

Junior Hansen dominated this race by far……  Lap times of less than 20 seconds in this class is not something that was ever witnessed before. The only real competition was between Ronel, Johnny and the newcomer, Marcello. Dalene Griesel delivered her normal, steady race, frequently ending in the 4^th position. Johnny Piater, also relatively new to this hobby, started off by racing laps varying from 32 seconds to 22 seconds…  and by the end of the day his laps were much more consistent….. his average and best laps very close, around 22 seconds. Well done, Johnny!!  Stuart, the new guy, only joined the race when we were already halfway through the qualifying heats. It seemed like he enjoyed the racing and with a little practice, he will soon reach his potential. Apart from Junior’s (too fast ) laps, the day’s best achiever in this class is Ronel Bann, who every now and then surprised us with lap times of 21.-something.  This lady REALLY enjoys her RC racing…! If only she can get her fastest and average lap times a little closer. We will be keeping an eye on you, Ronel!

Overall results -  Beginner class:

1. Hunior Hansen
2. Ronel Bann
3. Johnny Piater

540 Electric Touring:

Lucas Dillschnitter, won most of the 5 races (3 qualies and 2 legs of Finals) but he had to fight off Tiny Wright and Jakkie Landsberg in order to do so. Actually, Paul Langenhoven was not a push-over either…  Charmaine Wright did not have a good racing day at all, to say the least. Anette never posed a threat to any of them, but is quite happy with most of her laps around 24 to 25 seconds....and a lap or two of 23 seconds..  Anette hinted to Henry that she wants her car’s engine to be ‘polished’ .  Let’s see if the hinting will have a positive outcome.

In the 1^st round both Tiny and Lucas had lap times of less than 21 seconds.

In the 2^nd round both Tiny and Jakkie had lap times of less than 21 seconds, with Lucas doing an amazing 18.94 seconds! Glad to see that being on honeymoon last month did not deprive him of his wooma … (I’ve picked this joke up among the guys on Sunday)

In the 3^rd round Lucas, Jakkie and Charmaine did laps of less than 21 sec, while Tiny did not start.

Leg 1 of the Finals saw both Lucas and Tiny under 20 seconds and Jakkie and Paul with laps less than 21 seconds.

In leg 2, Lucas achieved two laps of less than 20 seconds.

Overall results  540 class:

1. Lucas Dillschnitter
2. Jakkie Landsberg
3. Paul Langenhoven

 

Electric Mini:

Father-and-son team Jakkie and Jason Landsberg could have overruled this class, were it not for Lucas… . He kept on coming in between the two of them. Haha.  Henry and Kevin Bann also posed some stiff competition to each other... actually a race inside the bigger race. In every race they had equal amount of laps. Apart from the time that race control (me) accidently allocated the unknown club transponders to the wrong Bann driver. Sorry, things were just a bit hectic then. But then, in the 3^rd round, Lucas apparently encountered trouble with his Mini and Kevin moved in, to end in 3^rd place. Lucas returned for the Final legs, but Kevin had by then smelled “Podium!” and managed to end in 3^rd place again in the last Mini race for the day. During this race, he improved his average lap times from 29 to 26.5 seconds and managed a best lap of 23.2 seconds. Well done, Kevin! Henry also had a successful race day and his fastest lap was 23.8 seconds. Ronel Bann didn’t do too bad, being only a lap or two behind the men. Ronel’s youngest son, Enrico drove in the 1^st two qualifiers, but then disappeared. I guess his Mini broke down. Jason boasts the fastest lap time in this class, when he did one lap of just 21.20 seconds in the 2^nd round of the qualies. Well done!

Overall results:

1. Jason Landsberg
2. Lucas Dillschnitter
3. Kevin Bann

 

21.5 Electric Touring:

The Marius/Logan Burger team was hungry for victory and they made it very clear when Logan? won 4 out of the 5 races in this class. He was only beaten once and that was by his friend, Harry Wilesmith. The difference being a mere .05 seconds.

Round 1: Father and son, Conroy and Dylan Olivier took 3^rd and 4^th places behind Logan and Harry.

Then came Charmaine and Tiny Wright, respectively. Jakkie ended 7^th, Kevin 8^th and Kobus Griesel 9^th. All these drivers are very good and there were not much difference between the top guys.

Round 2: The sequence very much stayed the same as in round 1, but now Kevin has moved up one place and Kobus Griesel had car trouble.

Round 3: The top three again as before, but Jakkie had now moved up to 4th place. Dylan fell back a little.  Charmaine and Tiny did not start. Oh and Marius now improved on his best lap time, racing multiple laps of less than 19 seconds!

Leg 1 of Final: Harry won the race although Marius (uhmmm I think it was Logan, his son) had a better fastest lap. Tiny now raced like hell and jumped into 3^rd place with Charmaine at his heels, consequently forcing the others down. Kobus Griesel broke his personal barrier, when he did an amazing 19.9 seconds lap.

Leg 2 of Final: In this race Logan raced his fastest lap for the day, namely 18.43 sec.  He also succeeded in completing 19 laps. Behind him was Harry with 18 laps. Dylan, Conroy and Charmaine also had 18 laps. Jakkie had 17 laps and Tiny and Kevin completed 16 laps each. Kobus put 14 laps behind his name.

Overall results:

1. LoganBurger
2. Harry Wilesmith
3. Conroy Olivier

 

17.5  Electric Touring:

Gert Swart dominated this class. With these cars, we are looking at lap times of 17 to 18 seconds…in other words: damn fast!

Round 1: Behind Gert, the leader, was Marius Burger and then the local guy, André Steenkamp. Young Dylan Olivier came 4^th and Craig Joubert 5^{th .} Conroy, Dylan’s dad, ended 6^th. Logan Burger seemingly had car trouble and ended 7^th. Harry and Jason did not start.

Round 2: With Harry now back in the picture, Marius had to step down one position. And so did André, when he now had to be satisfied with 4^th place. Things went better for Logan in this round and he completed 16 laps, to end in 5^th place, in front of Dylan.  Now it was Craig who had car trouble and Jason again did not start.

Round 3: Jason joined the race and immediately jumped into 2^nd place. Craig still experienced car problems, only doing 8 laps, while the top 3 guys did 20 laps each. Somewhere in the middle were Logan, Marius, André, Dylan and Conroy…all racing like mad…..with laps in average of 18.5 seconds.

Leg 1 of Final:

Jason Landsberg took the lead over from Gert Swart. That lap of just 16.99 seconds blew our minds!!  Gert had to settle for 2^nd place and Harry was 3^rd. All three of them completed 20 laps. André Steenekamp got  only 2 laps in this race and Marius Burger did not start.

Leg 2 of Final:

Jason fell back 5 places after he had to quit the race after 18 laps. I can’t remember exactly what had happened to his car… Dylan and Craig quitted after 3 laps each. Gert Swart took revenge and raced 21 beautiful laps, to win the race. Harry was 2^nd with 20 laps and young Logan 3^rd. His dad, Marius was just behind him, they both had 20 laps. Conroy and Jason followed them with 18 laps each. André gave up after 10 laps and Craig and Dylan retired after 3 laps each.

Overall results:

1. Gert Swart
2. Harry Wilesmith
3. Logan Burger

A nice day at the track, enjoyed by everyone.  And a relatively early departure by most…probably because everything went so smooth, all could retire early for a change.

See you soon!