After a week of anxious anticipation to see if the weather was going to play along, the Sunday of the 1^st RCX - 2016 arrived…overcast, but with no rain at all! The preceding days were filled with Facebook and sms messages from concerned drivers from all corners of Gauteng that reported on heavy rainfall in their regions.

For most it was almost unthinkable that we will be able to continue with the race. Us here in Meyerton had our last rain early Wednesday morning, but although it did not rain again, four cloudy days followed and we were never sure that more rain would not start pouring down any minute. But as you all know by now, luck was on our side and we were able to host the RCX on a dry track.

We want to ensure all the drivers that we would have liked to do better prepping, with that special muti Henry normally uses, but the uncertainty about the weather made it hard to make a decision during the week. And if we were allowed to use the whole of Saturday, which would have been perfect, to spread the muti over the entire track, it would have gone a  long way to constrain the dust. But should we dare asked the drivers to back out of a practice day, we would have never heard the end of that..! We would have been made out as unfair and all things nasty. So yes, the track became seriously dusty on Sunday with the 57 cars on it, but….?

PLEASE NOTE: We unfortunately encountered some time delays shortly after the start of the race, because, due to an unknown reason, the BBK system did not pick up any of Meyerton Raceway’s 20 club transponders. We never stumbled upon this problem before. (It did however recognize the Avion transponders.) Quite an annoyance, because we had to allocate every user in the qualies manually and André used the lunch break to capture all transponders. We can only hope that it doesn’t disappear again. We regret any inconvenience caused by this delay. And please take note that the computer started the new year’s RCX series with no history. Also new rules and new point system applies. And for those who aren’t aware yet; we have also implemented the bump-up system.

Award for Best presented RC body for the day - Stephen Smith. Congratulations!! 

Electric Buggy:

Round 1: Danie de Swart won this round convincingly. His closest rival was his hometown friend Attie de Jager. Kevin Bann ended 3^rd. Danie’s best lap – 47.36 sec

Round 2: Danie won again, this time with his other friend, Neill van Wyk in 2^nd position. Now we saw Quintis vd Merwe in 3^rd. Danie improved his best lap to 46.5 seconds.

Round 3: The same as round 1.

Leg 1 of Final: No one even close to Danie in his usual 1^st place. Quintis vd Merwe in 2^nd and Schalk Vorster in 3^rd.

Leg 2 of Final: Danie (1^st) Quintis (2^nd) and Kevin Bann (3^rd)

Leg 3 of Final: Danie in his now famous 1^st place, Quintis vd Merwe 2^nd and Neill van Wyk in 3^rd.

I wonder if we ever before had a race in SA where we had two married couples in the same race.

In this race we had Kevin and Ronel Bann, and Schalk and Colleen Vorster, all competing against each other in the very same heat!

Piet du Toit can be pretty satisfied with his 54 sec laps!

Electric Buggy Overall Results:

1. Danie de Swart
2. Quintis van der Merwe
3. Neill van Wyk

 

Heat 2 -  Nitro Buggy Round 1:

We had quit a few new drivers in this heat and it seems they were not really prepared for this kind of action. Only 3 of the 9 drivers started in this round. School boy from Potch, Rohan vd Walt fared really well and ended 1^st, with his average lap time 58.65.  His best lap was 56.36. Good driving, Rohan! By the way, he and his dad Johan did not enter online, because they were not sure whether they will be racing or not. Happy that you did come! Then we also witnessed the 8 year old Cuzi boy, Layton van der Merwe competing in his very 1^st race. Layton started his racing history with a fastest lap of 60.15 seconds. The desire of many much older drivers!!

Gavin Leiching joined the race was almost finished.

Heat 2 - Round 2 Nitro Buggy:

Rohan did his family proud by winning again, this time with improved personal best lap times. Gavin ended 2^nd and Sheldon Reed in 3^rd. Three of the guys DNS and Christo Meintjies could not get his buggy to co-operate for more than 2 laps.

Heat 2 - Round 3 Nitro Buggy:

Sheldon Reed (new young driver, never been with us before, but apparently better known at Avion)won this race. His best lap time a very fast 51.11 seconds. Well done!! Rohan had to settle for 2^nd, but still managed to improve his fastest lap time to 54.6 sec. A nasty flame out cost him to lose out on precious seconds and unfortunately decreased his average lap time. Nevertheless, good driving, Rohan. Layton ended in 3^rd. Ettienne de Jager joined the race for one lap only. 3 guys did not start.

Heat 3 - Nitro Buggy Round 1:

Mark Remcken – also a spur of the moment entry – won the race …by far! His best lap – 47.6 and his average 48.6. That is brilliant! Attie de Jager ended 2^nd and Niell van Wyk 3^rd. Warren vd Merwe also had a much better than just average race, with his average lap time lower than 49 seconds. Warren’s fastest lap – 46.08 sec. Running out of fuel left him fuming! Ronel Bann stood her (wo)man against the men and ended 5^th.

Heat 3 - Nitro Buggy Round 2:

Warren took the 1^st place away from Mark and forced him into 2^nd position with Neill van Wyk in 3^rd.

Mark improved on his best lap – 46.82 sec.

Heat 3 - Nitro Buggy Round 2:

Warren 1^st, Mark 2^nd and Hennie Wolmarans, a (very welcome) stranger to us, ended 3^rd.

Mark improved on his best lap once again – 46.32 sec. And so did Warren – 46.05sec.

Heat 4 - Nitro Buggy Round 1:

1^st Daniel de Azevedo, 2^nd JP Sweeck and 3^rd Jan Vermeulen. Daniel’s fastest lap – 47.51. BUT Danie de Swart – 47.47 sec. Danie was pestered by flame outs from the start in the nitro class, which lasted all day, eish…sorry!

Heat 4 - Nitro Buggy Round 2:

Daniel won again, with JP in 2^nd and now we saw Marco David in 3^rd place. A little improvement for JP, from 48.9 to 48.4 sec. Danie de Swart boasts the fastest lap – 47.79 sec.

Heat 4 - Nitro Buggy Round 1:

JP took the lead away from Daniel and Danie shed his idling problems for a while, ending 2^nd. Daniel moved into 3^rd place. Gavin McLean succeeded in breaking through the 50 seconds barrier. Well done! Best lap in this round: Danie de Swart - 46.89sec.

Heat 5 - Nitro Buggy Round 1:

These guys are all capable of laps less than 50 seconds and they showed off their RC racing skills once again by doing just that. Not one of the drivers failed to get at least a couple of laps less than 50 seconds in this 1^st round of the day for them. Miguel Haasbroek, in 1^st place, had a best lap of 45.89 sec. Tiaan in 2^nd had a 46.09 and Thomas in 3^rd had a 47.78 seconds.

Calvin, Pedro, Jason, Schalk and Stephen all did very well! Kevin Bann did not start.

Heat 5 - Nitro Buggy Round 2:

Miguel remained in 1^st with Tiaan in 2^nd. Calvin Barnard bumped up into 3^rd and Thomas slipped down one place. Fastest lap : Miguel – 45.4sec.

Heat 5 - Nitro Buggy Round 3:

1^st three positions same as in Round 2. Pedro moved into Thomas’s 4^th place. Both Tiaan and Miguel improved on their previous best laps. Miguel’s best lap – 44.93sec. Wow!! That’s great!

 

Heat 6 - Nitro Truggy Round 1:

Chris van der Westhuizen is known to do very good in this class and on this day he lived up to his reputation again. Johnny Claes surprised friend and foe by ending 2^nd. Murray van Lelyveld took 3^rd. Kobus, Lammie and Jason did not start. Best lap in this round: Chris – 49.37sec.

Heat 6 - Nitro Truggy Round 2:

Chris took the lead again with Murray now in 2^nd and Johann van Zyl in 3^rd place. Chris could not better his previous best lap, but he still beats his opponents. Murray improved from a 52sec to a 49.9 sec lap. Mooi man! Lammie had mixed results: He performed the fastest lap times, but unfortunately also suffered some serious flame outs. His best lap – 47.81 sec.

Heat 6 - Nitro Truggy Round 3:

Oh, did they have trouble?! 5 guys did not start. The field was subsequently left open for some of the other guys to move up. Murray took the lead with Johnny behind him and Allan Dyer in 3^rd place. But Shannon Hopkins, Dawid Bester and Wayne Smith all deserve special commendation for their continuous strive to achieve that mystical 50 second lap. Don’t be discouraged guys, you are almost there! If I can believe my eyes; in this round Lammie got a lap of just 45.06 seconds. Unfortunately he only managed to do 4 laps after having a looooong flame out, or a breakdown?

Final Truggy Results:

1. Chris van der Westhuizen
2. Murray van Lelyveld
3. Allan Dyer

 

D Final Nitro Buggy:

Jannie Holzhausen and Christo Meintjies bumped up to C Final

C Final Nitro Buggy:

Hennie Wolmarans and Jakkie Landsberg bumped up to B Final

Little Layton boasts 3 laps of less than 60 seconds!!

Below: C Final Nitro Buggy

1. Layton vd Merwe
2. Henry Ogden
3. Kobus Griesel

 

B Final Nitro Buggy:

Jason Landsberg and Neill van Wyk bumped up to A Final.

1. Jan Vermeulen
2. Schalk Vorster
3. Mark Jooste

 

A Final Nitro Buggy:

1. Tiaan Oelofse
2. Calvin barnard
3. Warren vd Merwe
4. Daniel de Azevedo
5. JP Sweeck
6. Jason Landsberg
7. Stephen Smith
8. Thomas Schmuck
9. Miguel Haasbroek  fastest lap – 45.90 sec
10. Neill van Wyk
11. Mark Remcken
12. Pedro Maldonado (DNS)

The amount of entries contributed to the success of yet another successful RCX and Henry and I would like to thank every driver that entered.

PS: I did not observe much of the race; as I was attending to the canteen and taking photos. The past six hours spent writing this race report, was purely portraying info that I gathered from the race results. 

I appologize for the bad quality of my pics, it was already late when the prize giving took place.