Madness must be contagious, because I’ve experienced firsthand that 24 mad people came together, voluntarily, in absolute gloomy weather… outdoors…. and they still call it FUN! Yeah, well that is what happened on June 12^th at our RC track. (Other tracks also reported on having RC races in similar conditions, like the Tamiya Cup at TRAP Raceway) Mad, mad, MAD!!!!!

Not particular large amount of entries into the 7 classes (we even ran the 13.5 and 17.5 together) but there was interest in all the classes, so we catered for all of them.

For me it was quite an emotional day, because it was the 1^st time since we started the track 7 -and -a -half years ago, that a blood relative of mine attended a club race. Victor Fourie (10years old) competed in the Beginner class. Closest to it was in the early years when my son-in-law competed for a few months.

Heat 1 - Round 1 Electric Mini:

The top four in this class al got 16 laps in this 6 minute race.

 Jason Landsberg  won the race with his quickest lap 21.64s.

Paul Langenhoven ended 2^nd and Jakkie Landsberg 3^rd. Ewald van der Neut was 4^th.

 Apparently Piet was hit from behind in the 1^st lap and that made him to lose control as well as precious seconds

Heat 1 - Round 2 Electric Mini:

Jason won again – best lap 21.13. Wow! Well done!

Behind him was his dad Jakkie whom also improved on previous fastest lap, now 21.58.

Paul now moved down to 3^rd with Piet now in 4^th place. Ewald picked up car trouble.

Leg 1 of Mini Final:

Something must have gone wrong with Jason’s Mini this time; He either had a slow start or a late start and he couldn’t recover from that and ended 4^th , while his dad Jakkie slid into 1^st position. He did so in style, boasting a lap more than his opponents. Ewald got a faster best lap time than Paul, but Paul received the 2^nd place for his better average. Piet had one longish lap that was probably caused by an accident on the track.

Final mini leg:

Jakkie (nicknamed Oom Mini Man) beat his son to the winning line. Jason got a better fastest lap, but Jakkie was the one with the better average lap time.Paul ended 3^rd

 In 4^th place we saw Ewald and Piet in 5^th. Jason’s fastest lap was also the quickest lap of the day in this class – 21.10s.

Overall Mini results:

1. Jakkie  Landsberg
2. Jason Landsberg
3. Paul Langenhoven

Heat 2  -  Round 1 Beginner class:

Victor Fourie competed in his first ever race, after practicing for about ten minutes before the race commenced.  Ouma Anette is very proud of him! Anzea Pretorius entered into this class for the last time.  Anzea’s best laps , 23’s & 24’s, even a 22.29 sec, belongs in classes like 540 Touring. She won her rivals hands down… a huge gap between her and the runner up, Victor. She has improved tremendously, in spite of long intervals in her racing history… Well done, Anzea.

Victor did relatively okay, in comparison with other total novices we’ve seen in the past. He completed 10 laps. Theresa Poalses’s car just did not play along and she retired after 4 laps. Jaco Viljoen also kicked off his RC racing and had a bad start, due to car trouble.

Heat 2 – Round 2  Beginner class:

Things went less successful for Anzea this time and a bit better for Victor. Victor got one more lap and improved on his average lap time quite significantly. Jaco also got more laps and better lap times. Theresa was still battling…

Leg 1 of Beginner Final:

Anzea excelled by doing more and still faster laps. 23.73s.

The same goes for Victor – 28.29s

Theresa , or should I say hubby Ewald,  sorted  the car problems and she completed 11 laps.

Jaco also improved with leaps.

Final leg of Beginner Finals:

Anzea proofed that she is now a full blown RC racer: An average lap time of 25 seconds to me is when you really, really is ready to do this Rc thing….. Congrats with your beautiful 22.29 sec lap!

Victor approved some more; more laps and still faster laps. Well done!

Jaco improved on his fastest lap times, but his car probably let him down and he retired after only 5 laps.

Overall results – Beginner Class:

1. Anzea Pretorius
2. Victor Fourie
3. Theresa Poalses

 

540 Touring:

Jakkie won all four races, either with two or three laps. Neither Anette nor Dana is capable of giving him some serious competition.  Jakkie’s quickest lap – 19.62s. The real challenge was between Dana and Anette.  And  with Anette’s car that threw off a driving belt and Dana’s car that had trouble with steering somewhere through the day, it was a 50/50 chance for the two of them (us) to end in 2^nd place.  In the 1^st leg of the Final Dana had a brilliant race, it was kind of unbelievable. She did some awesome laps, actually all of her laps was pretty fast in that leg! Anette (that’s me) made some silly mistakes in the last leg and if it wasn’t for Dana’s car that now let her down completely, I wouldn’t receive that 2^nd place trophy at all!

Overall results – 540 Touring:.

1. Jakkie Landsberg
2. Anette Ogden
3. Dana Cato

 

Heat 4  Round 1  - 21.5 Touring:

Paul Langenhoven won this round, with Ewald in 2^nd place. Piet ended 3^rd, but boasts the fastest lap. 19.82s. Jakkie Landsberg had car trouble and quit after only 3 laps.

Heat 4  Round 2  - 21.5 Touring:

Ewald moved into 1^st place, while Paul shifted two places down. Jakkie overcame his troubles and ended in 2^nd place, doing some very fast laps. Piet again claims the best lap time, but had to quit after only 7 laps. I think an accident caused his early departure. Piet’s best lap – 18.71 sec.

Leg I of  21.5 Touring Final:

Piet took revenge on all the bad luck he had earlier and slid into the 1^st place. Behind him came Ewald with a best lap of 18.74s. In 3^rd we saw Paul and Jakkie in 4^th. The gap between number 1 and number 4 is less than one second, which shows that all four of these drivers are of almost the same caliber.

Final leg of 21.5 Final:

Piet repeated his strike of victory. Ewald ended 2^nd again, but now Jakkie came 3^rd and pushed Paul one place down.  That 18.71 s lap of Piet remained the fastest lap in this class for the day.

21.5 Touring Overall Results:

1.            Piet du Toit

2.            Ewald van der Neut

3.            Jakkie Landsberg

 

TTO1 Stock class:

Chris Nel came visiting again after a period of absence.  He celebrated this by winning each and every race in this class.

Rolan Ferreira is now showing more and more enthusiasm for RC  and is turning into a driver to reckon with. He ended 2^nd.  

Henry  (track owner) joined the electric race for a second time this year and is now capable of doing reasonable lap times with an old, restored TTO1. He improved from 27 average to 24.5s.

TTO1  STOCK - OVERALL RESULTS:

1.  Chris Nel

2.  Rolan Ferreira

3.  Henry Ogden

Rolan brought his average lap time down from 24.6 to 23.13 seconds.

Chris bettered his average from 24.2 to 21.3 seconds.

17.5 Touring & 13.5

We ran these two classes together to save time and to make the race a bit more challenging.

17.5 - Jason Landsberg won the 1^st round with JP Sweeck in 2^nd and Andre Steenekamp in 3^rd.

13.5 Rolan and Chris both experienced car trouble. Rolan had a very late start and Chris retired early from the race.

JP  won the second round with Jason behind him and André did not start.

Rolan had one or two long laps, I am not sure what caused it and Chris still had problems with his car.

In the 1^st leg of the Finals Jason took the lead back from JP and he had to settle for 2^nd again. Andre was behind Chris, who now seemed to have shed all his car problems. Chris raced the full race and completed 20 pretty fast laps!

Rolan didn’t quite finish the race, but he did 15 laps before he quit.

Final leg: Same as leg 1, but this time Andre did 3 more laps and Rolan did two more.

17.5 Touring Overall:

1.            Jason Landsberg              Best lap today: 16.35 sec

2.            JP Sweeck                      Best lap today: 16.62 sec

3.            André Steenekamp            Best lap today: 17.65 sec

 

 

13.5 Touring Overall:

Chris Nel           Best lap today: 17.16 sec

Rolan Ferreira    Best lap today: 19.36 sec

 

Best presented RC body of the Day :

Victor Fourie – Car painted by stepdad Paul Langenhoven. Congrats with a great job!

 

A nice and calm racing day. No nonsense and no issues. Very enjoyable, in spite of terrible cold weather.