The nitro enthusiasts were more than ready to start this month’s competition and were eager to go and do what they love doing…… Nitro RC racing! To top that, we were spoilt with lovely weather for this autumn day out at the track.   26 entries split into 4 classes.

We met a couple of new guys that came with Rudi Botes. (Rudi is the benefactor that lend us the 8 workers for two days to re-paint the on-road track before the Tamiya Cup event) Welcome to Theo Kleinhans and Jaco Loots. Jaco took part in the 10^th scale class and Theo in the 8^th scale GT class. I think the car actually belongs to Rudi, though. And what a nicely painted body that was! He won the Best presented RC body for the day. Lekker man, lekker!

Heat 1 Round 1 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Maybe a too big variety of skilled and unskilled drivers in the same race? More than 10 seconds difference in the best lap times of the winner and those who ended last. Genade, maar daai Kevin Gates het homself vinnig op gewerk in hierdie game! Kevin Gates had one lap of 19 seconds and one of 18.93 seconds. Well done! Johan Barnard ended in 2^nd place and Schalk Vorster ended 3^rd. Marika Claes adapted well to nitro after being involved with electric for a few months now. She completed 11 laps. Colleen Vorster was still getting the feel of it. Ewald and Johnny did not start.

Heat 1 Round 2   -   200mm Nitro Touring:

Kevin won again, this time with an even faster best lap – 18.46 seconds. Jannie Holzhausen moved into 2^nd place with several laps of less than 20 seconds. Mooi man!! Marika got one more lap then in the first round, but could not improve on her best lap. Schalk had car problems and retired early on. Colleen also hardly raced due to flame outs. Ewald, Johan and Jonny did not start.

Heat 1 Round 3 -   200mm Nitro Touring:

Jannie sneaked up upon Kevin, but still needed one more lap to at least equal those of Kevin. Jannie got a nice, fast 19. 16 sec lap, but couldn’t beat Kevin’s 18.55 sec. So, we saw Kevin in the lead again, but not that comfortable than before. Schalk improved remarkably, now ending in 3^rd place with a fastest lap of 20.82 seconds. Ewald, Johan and Colleen did not start.

Heat 2 Round 1 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Jason Landsberg won the race, but by no means without stiff competition! Bjorn Boogaard’s average and best laps were very close to those of Jason. Jason’s fastest lap: 17.63 seconds. Lucas ended 3^rd.

Jaco Loots, the new guy, is still pure novice against these top form drivers, but man enough to compete with them. Jaco ended 4^th. Unfortunately our young James Boogaard had a serious flame out after only 6 laps. And with his dad busy racing, there wasn’t much he could do. Rudi and Henry did not start.

Heat 2 Round 2 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Jason in the lead again, still improving on his best lap . Now 17.40 seconds. Henry now joined the racers with his red Mercedes and ended in 2^nd position. James ALMOST rid himself from the previous car trouble. He ended 3^rd, after having a 2 minute flame out. Rudi also shed his car trouble and completed 13 laps. Jaco Loots got 12 laps. Bjorn retired after only 6 laps and Lucas after 5 laps.

Heat 2 Round 3 – 200mm Nitro Touring:

Now everyone but Jason was racing. His car just refused to start!! Bjorn sommer improved on EVERYONE’s best lap, doing a 17.05 second lap. Excellent! Lucas ended in his personal and very regular 2^nd place. (I am sure this is his average place to end during a 3 or even 4 years time span.) Lucas also succeeded in doing a lap of 19. 97 seconds, his fastest lap for the day. James had a good race and ended 3^rd. He just missed breaking the 20 sec barrier with a fraction of a second. Henry moved down to 4^th place and was followed by Rudi and Jaco, in that order.

Heat 3 Round 1 - 1/8^th Nitro GT

Kevin Bann won this race comfortably. He had one more lap than the runner up and his fastest lap was 2 seconds faster. Then, in very close proximity, came Johnny Claes, Johan Barnard, Ronel Bann and Kobus Griesel, in that order. Henry ended 6^th , with one lap less than the bunch in front of him. Andre had BIG car trouble and only managed 8 laps. Theo Kleinhans left the race after 3 laps. Kevin’s best lap – 19.42 sec.

Heat 3 Round 2 - 1/8^th Nitro GT

Kevin was seen in the lead again, but couldn’t improve on his own best lap. Kobus on the other hand, shed his problems and raced a best lap of 19.77 seconds. He however couldn’t equal Kevin’s 17 laps. Ronel, in good shape, ended 3^rd . Henry came 4^th. Kobus, Ronel and Henry all had 16 laps. André, racing with a motor built up out of 4 other motors, ended 5^th , but boasting the fastest lap – 19.53 seconds. Theo did not start.

Heat 3 Round 3 - 1/8^th Nitro GT:

Ronel Bann won this round, also achieving one lap that broke the 20 second barrier. Well done, Girl! Her husband Kevin followed in 2^nd place, but this time he could not get any laps of less than 20 seconds. Johnny ended 3^rd, Johan 4^th and Kobus 5^th. All the drivers in the 5 top places completed 16 laps. Then came Henry with 15 laps, Andre with 3 laps. Theo did not start.

Heat 4 Round 1 - 1/8^th Nitro Pan Cars:

Kobus entered, but was having problems with his car before he even started. Kevin and Jason entertained the rest of us with some spectacular driving. Kevin won the race, but it was Jason who had the fastest lap. Both had 18 laps. Jason’s fastest lap – 16.37 seconds.                                                                     

Heat 4 Round 2 - 1/8^th Nitro Pan Cars:

Jason won the race, improving his best lap time to a staggering 15.29 seconds. Kevin seemed to have retired from the race a bit too soon. But before he did that, he also improved on his previous best lap time.

Heat 4 Round 3 - 1/8^th Nitro Pan Cars:

Jason put on an even more spectacular show, winning the race with even faster laps. Kevin completed 20 laps with an average lap time of 18 seconds and his best lap was yet again faster than before – 17.00 seconds. Well done the both of you! We enjoyed watching you race. And I trust that you are more than satisfied with your achievements.

B Final 1/10^th Nitro Touring:

This race saw only 4 drivers at the end, because Johnny lost his car after a collision and Johan had clutch problems which caused him to withdraw. Out of the four remaining contestants, Rudi did the best by far. He completed 66 laps in this half hour race. The majority of his lap were around 23 to 25 seconds each, but because of the 5 pit stops, his average lap time came down to 27.4 seconds. His best lap was 22.84 seconds. Newcomer Jaco Loots was behind him with 53 laps and a best lap of 24.39 seconds. Marika Claes ended in 3^rd position with 52 laps and a fastest lap of 25.7 sec. Colleen Vorster is also still in her ‘training phase’ and completed 47 laps. Three of those laps were 30 seconds and three were less than 30 seconds, which I assume was her personal goal for the day.

 

 

A Final 1/10^th Nitro Touring:

Bjorn Boogaard was unstoppable; with 90 laps he won this oh so VERY excited race! After 20 laps, Jason Landsberg, one of Meyerton’s best driver, if not THE best, broke a belt on his Team Magic. This caused major stress, but his dad went to the container to buy a new belt and fitted it, all in 6 minutes flat. 6 valuable minutes was lost, but Jason made his return and continued to race to the end. Oh, I see on the results that he had another 105 seconds flame out close to the end of the race. He still worked his way back to the top and ended in 2^nd place. Kevin Gates also suffered a big, no a HUGE setback. His setback took him out of the race for 8 minutes. But he also fixed his car and got back into the race, completed 69 laps to end in 3^rd place. He (Kevin) is such an enthusiastic driver, I call him my new “witbroodjie” , since Danie du Plessis, my previous witbroodjie, is so scarce these days. Schalk Vorster didn’t have any major car trouble and he just carried on racing as best as he could. He completed 67 laps and ended 4^th. Lucas Dillschnitter backed out of the race after 63 laps, as did Jannie Holtzhausen. Henry had a flame out after 27 laps and just couldn’t get his car to start again. Okay, he DID get it started, just in time to do one more lap before the end of the race. James Boogaard did not start.

 

The Final 1/8^th Nitro GT:

Entertainment of the highest order! André Steenekamp had so much car trouble in SO many races in the past, it was heartwarming to see him having a faultless race for once! He worked very hard for this victory, because he had to deal with Kevin Bann, who also was on a roll on this day. Kevin equaled André’s 83 laps, but André had more faster laps and won his race with a .23 of a second better average. Well done, the both of you!!! Excellent driving! Johan Barnard also had himself a very successful race. He completed 75 laps. Behind him was Kobus Griesel with 74 laps. Henry followed Kobus with 67 laps. Ronel had to back out of the race after 46 laps and Johnny left the driver stand after 44 laps. Two very disappointed people. I stand to be corrected, but I think both cars broke after a collision.

 

The Final Pan Car Race:

Again some breathtaking, nail biting racing to watch. Kevin Bann raced excellent, as he did during the last couple of Nitro on-road meetings. Kevin’s best lap was a brilliant 16.92 seconds. But on this day it was Jason Landsberg who deserved to get the glory. Jason set a new track record when he completed 103 laps within half an hour. And his fastest lap of 15.27 seconds may also be a new track record. Thank you for a very entertaining 30 minutes or racing. You both were awesome!

A big thank you to everyone who attended this months Nitro On Road Race meeting. And those who couldn’t make it for the April race, hope to have you back in May.