The early morning temperature was extremely cold. I didn’t think of taking pictures then, but I remember seeing a young boy wiping thick, white frost from the barriers around the track shortly before drivers’ briefing. But notwithstanding the terrible cold conditions, we still had 52 entries for this month’s electric On Road club challenge.

 

We’ve put Dana Cato, Colleen Vorster, Onika Barnard and the 5 year old boy, Johnrique Claes in a Beginner class.

The other new (to Meyerton club races) class that we started with in April, namely the TTO1 class, consisted of 5 competitors this month.

Then we had a nice full group of 10 drivers in the Mini class.

There were 8 drivers in the 540 Touring class and the 17.5 and 21.5 both had 10 entries each.

Lastly we had 4 drivers in the 13.5 class.

Beginner class:

The three adult ladies as well as Johnrique used this race day to improve their skills. Dana started with a best lap of 26.7 seconds and before the end of the day she was able to do a lap of 23.56 seconds. Well done! Johnrique started with a 52 seconds and ended with a 34.99 sec lap. Mooi so, groot seun! Onika’s laps were all in the vicinity of 31 seconds and Colleen succeeded in doing a couple of 29 second laps and even one of 28.83 seconds. Mooi girl, jy vorder goed!

 TTO1 class:

JP Sweek took the lead from the start and he comfortably won both qualifier rounds as well as the two final legs in this class. JP is actually an off road guy, who had this month joined the on road side for the first time, probably to spend some fun times with his girlfriend Dana, whom I’ve mentioned in the Beginner class. (The experience gained at off road racing obviously helped him tremendously.) In the 1^st round Anette (that’s me) did relatively well and I ended 2^nd. Schalk Vorster and Marika followed me. Charmaine Wright, although she had faster lap times than Schalk and Marika, was not up to her old, efficient self and ended 5th. Maybe I should say her car didn't do her justice? But in round two Charmaine recovered and ended 2^nd.  I am tempted to say “Where she belongs” Anette started having extreme difficulty in controlling her car and apparently so did Schalk. Marika equaled het previous performance, improving her best lap with a second. In the two final legs it was JP and Charmaine in the top two positions again. Now Schalk shed his car troubles, and it was Marika that joined Anette with cars that just wouldn’t play along. JP’ s best lap 21.33 s.

 

Electric Mini:

Kevin entered, but he never raced. I think that he might have lent his Mini to his brother-in-law, Schalk to race with.   The achievers in this class were clearly amongst the men. Paul Langenhoven and Piet du Toit had flawless races, while Lucas Dillschnitter and Jason Landsberg, although they are very competent in this class, had some car issues that needed to be sorted out. Jannie Holtzhausen and Jakkie Landsberg raced well, with no big problems. The two sisters, Colleen Vorster and Ronel Bann were doing average laps and Schalk was doing well with multiple laps of less than 25 seconds. In his last race of the day he even had one lap of less than 24 seconds. Jason, after sorting out his tyres, boasted a fastest lap of 21.07 seconds.

 

540 touring class:

Lucas, Charmaine and Johnny took turns to win the races. But they had Jannie and Jackie to deal with, first! Johann vd Merwe , quite new to this game, did just fine! His fastest lap – 21.84. Lekker man, lekker! Marika Claes, who is getting better and faster by the week, had steering problems and couldn’t show off her improved skills. Sorry….next time…  Anette, that is me, had a terrible day. In the 1^st round of the heats my car’s belt came loose. That was enough to break my racing spirit. But fortunately the rest of the day went fairly well …in this class…anyway. My best lap was 22.5 seconds. The fastest lap in the Mini class belongs to Lucas : 19.95 seconds.

 

21.5 Touring:

From here on we usually see laps of around 20 seconds. Harry surprised us when he sommer kicked off with a fastest lap of less than 19 seconds. But although Gert couldn’t beat Harry’s best lap, he nevertheless won the 1^st qualifier round. Harry improved some more in the 2^nd qualifier round and succeeded in winning this round. Kevin Bann moved up to the 2^nd position. In the 1^st leg of the Finals, Harry won again, although he couldn’t go faster any more. And Kevin yet again claimed the 2^nd place. Kevin now also broke the 19 sec barrier. Well done! Harry and Gert fought for 1^st and 2^nd places in the last qualifier leg, but Kevin walked away with the bone, when he boasted the fastest lap in this class for the day – 18.66 sec. Congrats!!

 

17.5 touring class:

The majority of the guys and 1 lady (Ronel) in this class are capable of doing laps in much less than 20 seconds. It is hard to make exceptions here, because the group was big and they were all very worthy competitors. Both Marius and Jason had two wins each. Frans Fourie unfortunately had a bad start, when he only completed 1 lap before he retired from the race. But he recovered and continued racing for the rest of the day. But someone had to be the overall winner and that person was Jason. Well done! The fastest lap in this class – 16.71 seconds belongs to Jason Landsberg. Congrats!

 

13.5 Touring:

This is mos the very fast manne, where less than 17 seconds is the norm. Franco set the pace by winning the 1^st qualifier with an average of 17.38 seconds. Harry had the fastest lap – 16.82 sec’  Kevin did not start. With all three his opponents having car trouble, Franco won the 2^nd quali easily.  With all four drivers back in action, Harry bagged the 1^st leg of the final. The last leg of the final was won by Franco again. Harry boasts the fastest lap of the day in this class: 16.81 seconds.

Harry Wilesmith with his winnin car: Best Presented RC  Body of the Day.