As it is often the case, there were a couple of our regular drivers missing in action. I can think of three; Charmaine Wright, who attended the Tamiya Cup in Secunda, Christo Meintjies, who was racing in the African Cup at TRAP and Piet du Toit, whom we heard nothing of. But my biggest disappointment was the fact that Jason Landsberg apparently lost interest in his 8^th scale pan car, for reasons of his own. Boy!!! ..the guy is so fast with that car!

 

BUT: The long anticipated visit from the Pretoria nitro on road guys had finally realized. Lieb, two of his sons and a couple of other guys had eventually paid us a visit, after we gave in to their request to visit them. We went there on June 19^th. Not a particular large group, because it was such short notice, but enough drivers to make their nitro sugar day worthwhile.

About the weather: Damn, it was like a scene from a Scotland or Ireland movie; dreadfully cold and misty. Very unpleasant for our sun-loving South Africans. The fog only cleared away completely from about 11 ‘o clock.

Sugar on the track: Henry took the sugaring contraption out to the track shortly after 6h30 on Sunday morning and started sugaring. This was completed long before 8, but even at 9’o clock the track was not yet dry. The absence of sun and heat made it impossible. And to add injury to insult, we even had a light drizzle before the start of the race….really REALLY not funny.  So, our only option was to postpone the start of the race with another hour. At least everyone knew what the cause of the delay was: The track was just too wet and slippery.

Best Presented RC body of the day:

Award goes to : HEROLD VAN EEDEN  CONGRATS!!

 

The Race:

31 entries, divided into 3 classes. One 8^th scale GT class, one 8^th scale pan car class and the 15 tenth scale drivers were split into two groups of 8 and 7 respectively.

Heat 1 Round 1 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Kevin Gates dominated this race and won hands down. Better lap times and more laps than any of his opponents. Johan Barnard ended 2^nd and Henry 3^rd.

Heat 1 Round 2 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Lap times of all the drivers became much faster, probably due to the tar that was much drier by now. Almost everyone was 3 seconds faster on each lap! Jannie Holtzhausen won the race, while Kevin had a couple of slow laps, I am not sure what caused it, though. Marika, leaving her previous car trouble behind, now improved from 5 laps to 14 laps.

Heat 1 Round 3 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

This time Kevin did not start and Jannie was still on a roll and ended 1^st again. Henry improved on his lap times and came 2^nd, ahead of Marika in 3^rd place. Schalk and Colleen Vorster also improved in this round, but Johan was now plagued by car trouble. Fastest lap belongs to Jannie - 18.64 sec.

Heat 2 Round 1 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Conrad Liebenberg from Pretoria won this race. All 7 drivers were visibly uncomfortable with cars slipping and sliding on the still wet tar track. As a result, no one did lap times that I was expecting from them. Lucas ended 2^nd and Johnny Claes 3^rd. Jason, much to my surprise, did not start.

Heat 2 Round 2 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Lap times were much faster now. In actual fact; the lap times came down with three seconds. Conrad won again, this time with some extremely fast laps, of which the fastest one was 15.66 seconds. To be precise; 8 of his 19 laps were less than 16 seconds! Well done! Marius Stols, also from Pretoria, ended in 2^nd place with one lap down on Conrad.Brent Alexander, not one of our club’s members, but also a very familiar face here by us, ended 3^rd. He too succeeded in doing two laps of less than 16 seconds. Lucas and Johnny both improved dramatically on the drier track. Unfortunately Bjorn still had car trouble and…and…and….. Jason still not ready to race, broke my heart! Can you hear me sob?

Heat 2 Round 3 - 200mm Nitro Touring:

Conrad was still improving on his own best lap time; he now boasts a fastest lap of 15.4 sec. Jason was racing at last, but only for 6 laps. His fastest lap - 15.69 sec.  Something very strange on the results/ printout , which I’ve given to Henry and André for investigation… Will keep you posted…         

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

A group of 9 drivers. Lieb Liebenberg and Wayne Breytenbach raced with the local Meyerton group of GT drivers. In this 1^st round, on the cold and wet track, Lieb won the local guys. He was followed by Johan Barnard and Ronel Bann. Kevin Bann did not start.

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

Kobus Griesel took the lead from the start and he achieved some very fast laps. Best lap – 17.99sec. Kevin Bann was close behind in the 2^nd place and his average lap time was only .04 slower than that of Kobus. His wife Ronel took the 3^rd place. Lieb retired after 7 laps.

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

Lieb took the lead back from Kobus. Now it was Kobus’s turn to take an early retirement after he was hit from behind by Jannie. O Jannie, jy maak die manne kwaad….jy moet versigtiger ry. Kevin ended in the 2^nd place again, but with one more lap this time. Johan Barnard ended 3^rd.

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

Jacques Liebenberg made racing these cars look so easy…..he sommer broke the track record like it was child’s play! We had to bring the minimum lap time down with quite a few seconds!

In 2^nd place we saw Herold van Eeden and in 3^rd place Lourens Badenhorst. Wayne Breytenbach, whom we also saw in the GT class, ended 4^th. Kevin Bann quit the race early on due to carburetor problems, but his brother in law Schalk did a very good job in his first ever pan car race.

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

Jacques was now even faster. If it wasn’t for a longish flame out – or something – he would have easily had an average lap time of less than 15 seconds. Schalk Vorster tasted what it was like to do laps of less than 18 seconds and I think he liked that taste! Schalk took 2^nd place. Lourens still had much faster laps than Schalk, but he left the race 10 seconds too early and had to settle for 3^rd place. Jacques’s best lap – 13.38 seconds!! Definitely a track record!

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

Things started to go wrong for many drivers and Wayne took the gap. He did exactly what he did before and with very consistent driving he managed to win this round. Jacques improved even more on his best lap, but something made him quit after 8 laps and he lost his 1^st place. Schalk also had two long flame outs that cost him his 2^nd place. He ended 3^rd.

B FINAL - 200mm Nitro Touring:                                                                                                                                                                                                              

This 30 minute race was really exciting to watch. My nerves almost didn’t make it! The difference between the fastest lap of the winner and the 6^th position was an incredible 13 seconds and the difference between their average lap times even bigger, a staggering 15 seconds. But I must point out that there are also many years difference in experience between them.

Let me take it car by car:

Car 1: Henry had bad luck from the start. He only started racing halfway through the race.

Car 2: Bjorn on the other hand had an excellent race. Looking at his lap times it seems that he didn’t even had one flame out! Fastest lap – 14.84 sec. Good for you, Bjorn!

Car 3: Marika Claes did 64 laps and that is totally acceptable for this young woman who started this game not so long ago! According to the race results she had suffered several flame outs, including one that lasted for a minute-and a- half. But with all those 21 seconds laps she has had, she can be more than pleased with herself. Mooi Marika, jy was ‘n ster!

Car 4: Colleen Vorster is also a lady that is still kind of a novice. But by no means scared to take on a challenge! Colleen completed 49 laps. Well done!

Car 5: Schalk, like Henry, didn’t have a good race. He retired after 21 laps due to a faulty receiver.

Car 6: Jason Landsberg.. as we all know this is a guy with brilliant racing skills. But if you have a 91 second flame out early on in your race, it can have a devastating effect on your racing spirit and obviously on your results. But I remember clearly that the moment his car was back on the track, he immediately had a faster lap than before the flame out. That displays determination! Unfortunately two more flame outs cost him dearly. His best lap was an excellent 15.4 seconds, although not good enough to beat Bjorn’s. Better luck next time Jason. We know what you are capable of! 

 

A FINAL - 200mm Nitro Touring:

All of these guys are capable of doing pretty fast lap. I am going to take them car by car again:

Car 1: Conrad boasts the fastest lap in this class – 15.55 sec. unfortunately something went wrong and he left this 30 minute race after 14 minutes. What a pity…

Car 2: Lucas didn’t have a bad race altogether, but a flame out (or breakage) of more than 3 minutes took its toll. Lucas ended 2^nd and his best lap was 17.11. Lekker man lekker!

Car 3: Marius Stols was out of the race for long periods. First it was for about 6 minutes and after a while again for 12 minutes. Need I say more? He lost more than half of his racing time… Sorry man! He can however be quite happy with his best lap of 16.18 sec.

Car 4: Johan Barnard only managed 9 laps. Not sure what forced him to leave the race. Better luck next time.

Car 5: Apart from a late start and one flame out of a minute, Brent Alexander had a VERY good racing day. Congrats with your 99 laps and a fastest lap of 15.88 sec. Brent won the race hands down!

Car 6: Johnny Claes - at first he apparently drove with a rear belt only, but after he was hit by Jannie, he had to quit from the race. Hoop dit gaan volgende keer beter, Johnny!

Car 7: Kevin Gates is a relatively novice, with loads of potential! Kevin ended 3^rd with a best lap of 17.62 sec. He didn’t complete the race, but was still in a good enough position to hold on to his 3^rd place. Well done!

 

FINAL GT :

Car 1: Lieb started the race but that was it…I am not sure what caused him to quit.

Car 2: Kevin Bann had a late start and that is a huge disadvantage, especially if you have a guy like Kobus Griesel to compete with. Not much went wrong further and Kevin enjoyed a better than average race. He completed 85 laps of which the fastest one was 18.81 seconds. Kevin took the 2^nd place.

Car 3: Johan Barnard, in spite of wrecked nerves, did pretty well! His consistent driving served him a well deserved 3^rd place. His average lap and his best lap is only 2 seconds apart. Good job, Johan!

Car 4: Ronel Bann, probably the most daring lady driver in our club. Ronel completed 75 very nice laps. She stood her man for the full duration of this 30 minute race. Her best lap was a better than average 19.23 seconds. Well done!

Car 5: Wayne Breytenbach is a guy that I am not familiar with, so I can just comment on what I see on the race results: I only notice one flame out, further he seemed to have a very nice race which he completed right up to the very end. Wayne did 79 laps and his best lap was 20.40 sec.

Car 6: Kobus Griesel won the race and he boasts the fastest lap as well – 17.65 seconds! I deliberately did not announce his best lap over the microphone, because I’ve learnt that it is better for Kobus to keep on trying for that best lap, instead of knowing that he already achieved a new goal. He had a flawless race and deserved this first place. 89 very nice laps. Mooi Kobus, ek is bly vir jou.

Car 7: Jannie Holzhausen, the guy that still has to learn not to drive so reckless. I have sympathy with his nerves that let him down, but I also have sympathy with the other drivers on the track. Jannie, jy is so ‘n goeie drywer en jy is SO entoesiasties, maar ai jong, jy sal MOET leer om rustiger te raak op daai driver stand. Jannie completed 77 laps and his best lap was 19.20 seconds.

Car 8: André Steenekamp. Not his best racing day of the year. After one long flame out early in the race, he came back for some more, but eventually had to quit after 40 laps. Apparently he used the wrong type of tyres for the track circumstances and he didn’t want to either brake his own car or be an obstruction for others when his car failed to get a good grip on the tar.

Car 9: Henry Ogden did not have a bad start and was doing well with his new car up to his 28^th lap. From then on things unfortunately didn’t go well. His pit crew couldn’t get his car to start and we all know Henry by now: he never goes back after two flame outs. He rather quit the race.

 

FINAL 1/8^TH PAN CARS:

Three drivers decided not to take part in the Final race., for personal reasons. The three that followed through was Jacques Liebenberg, Lourens Badenhorst and Schalk Vorster. Schalk completed 75 laps and with that he pleased himself and his extended family next to the track tremendously. Especially after he had a major setback after only three lap. He was out of the race for 5 minutes but made a very welcome comeback. And because it was his 1^st time competing in this class, every new personal best was celebrated by all of our club members with great enthusiasm. I think he can be more than satisfied with that best lap of 16.44 seconds. Well done, Schalk!

Lourens completed 102 laps. I think that is awesome! And his average of only 17.7 seconds is something to be very proud of. Best lap – 15.09. WOW!! You did well, Lourens. Hope to see you again in future.

Now we get to Jacques and my reasonably large vocabulary is going to let me down. I’ve used up all my adjectives to describe great performances. So what can I say now? Jacques, you were brilliant!!

120 awesome laps! We had to adjust the minimum lap time on the computer twice to accommodate you. And we did it with great pleasure. Your best lap of just 13.89 seconds won’t be beaten for years to come. It was a pleasure having you here. C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all for the attendance..hope to see you again ...Untill then; keep well!