This race day was marked by cold and windy weather, but a whole bunch of hot-blooded, race-hunger guys showed up for the race. Come to think of it; no ladies, this month..!?  It was a sad day for me though, because I have just learnt that my elderly mom is terminally ill with cancer. But the support of the local drivers gave me the strength to carry on with my club duties through the day.

 

The Race:

Heat 1 Round 1  -  200mm Nitro Touring: 

Car 1 – Bjorn was having trouble with his car and had a late start. But his quickest lap of 17.82 is still proof of what we know he is capable of.

Car 2 – Stephen Smith didn’t have his car trouble at the start of the race, but halfway through, when he had a 45 sec flameout.

Car 3 – Piet du Toit had two not-so-fast laps, probably due to crashes or something – not long enough for flameouts – but other than that he had a beautiful race. He completed 15 laps –best lap 17.65s

Car 4 – Jason Landsberg had one long flameout, but the rest of his laps were so fast that he more than made up for that glitch. Fastest lap – 16.87s Also the fastest lap in this round.

Car 5 – Ewald vd Neut complete 11 laps before he retired from the race. Must have been caused by a breakage or a flameout.

Car 6 – Brent Alexander hasn’t paid us a visit for a LONG time, and we were happy to have had him with us for a change. No problems for this guy; he took the lead and won the race, after completing 16 laps. Fastest lap – 17.32 sec

Heat 1 Round 2  -  200mm Nitro Touring: 

Car 1 – Bjorn showed off his skills and won this one convincingly, with a lap over his closest rival. Best lap – 16.87s

Car 2 - Stephen was still battling to get his car to co-operate…not a successful battle at this stage.

Car 3  - Piet, together with his car, was still in good shape and the two of them scored 2^nd place.

Car 4 – Jason must have had a rather severe flameout, because I can see on the result printout that he was out of the race for more than a minute. His best lap – 16.13 ..Again the fastest lap of them all.

Car 5 – Ewald did not start

Car 6 – Brent had to make way for his friend Bjorn as well as for Piet and moved down two places, ending 3^rd. Best lap -16.63s

Heat 1 Round 3  -  200mm Nitro Touring:  

Stephen recovered fully, and I mean FULLY! He won this round with two laps and two seconds faster than the runner up. His quickest lap – 15.98sec.

Jason had been very fast, but not fast enough to catch Stephen and had to settle for 2^nd place.

Brent must have had a flameout to the end of the race and that caused him to be content with 3^rd place. Fastest lap – 16.53s

Bjorn had a very late start and he just couldn’t make up for lost time. He nevertheless managed 14 laps.

Ewald, after starting a minute late, did 13 laps.

Piet was having Beeeeeg trouble…

The 200mm Final race:

Extremely exciting racing!! Stephen had shed all his car troubles from earlier on in the day. He entertained us with some brilliant racing. To average 17.4 seconds is excellent and he deserved his 1^st place on the podium - this month - after completing 104 laps in 30 minutes. Good for you!

Piet du Toit, at one stage out of the race for 88 seconds, still recovered well enough to complete 87 laps and with that he earned himself the 2^nd place in this race. Well done!

Brent was out of the race for almost 3 minutes early on in the race and then again towards the end of the race for another two minutes. And probably a flameout or two in between. But he still ended 3^rd overall. Best lap – 16.76s.

Ewald retired from the race a little early, but not before he got at least 70 laps. Good job.

Jason Landsberg is one of our club’s fastest guys, if not THE fastest, but he was so unfortunate to lose more than a third of his racing time in the Final when the belt on the rear of his car came loose. Out of the 68 laps that he got, the best one was 15.7 seconds. In fact, he had 10 laps of less than 16 seconds, which shows how good he really is! Sorry Jason, we feel for you!

Bjorn had a less than fortunate Final race. With the stress of my mom’s ill health situation, I ‘ve been on the phone a lot and didn’t take as many notes as I normally do. So I cannot tell exactly what the problem was.  But what I can see on the printout is that he had a flameout early on and then after about a third of the race he couldn’t make a comeback. Sorry about this, Bjorn. We all know that you are in fact a very skilled racer.  Your fastest lap of 16.2 is proof of that!

Overall 200mm (10^th scale) result:

1. Stephen Smith
2. Piet du Toit
3. Brent Alexander

 

Heat 2 Round 1 - 1/8th  Nitro GT:

Car 1 - Wayne Smith took an undeniable lead from the start. Two more laps than the runner up. His best lap – 17.33sec.

Car 2 – André Steenekamp gave his usual better –than-average performance. He ended 3^rd.

Car 3 – Henry Ogden performed at the level that we are used to…nothing extra ordinary. Pretty much average.  He ended 4^th.

Car 4 – Jacques Brits did not start.

Car 5 – Jakkie Landsberg kicked his race day off with a lap of less than 19 seconds in the 1^st qualifier. And with no flameouts, he secured himself the 2^nd place.

Car 6 – Jannie Holtzhausen did not start.

Heat 2 Round 2 - 1/8th  Nitro GT:

Wayne 1st – 16 laps.  Best lap 16.86

André 2nd – 16 laps.  Best lap 18.23

Jacques 3rd – 16 laps. Best lap 18.25

Henry 4th – 15 laps. Best lap 18.95

Jakkie  had a flameout and could only master 13 laps this time

Jannie did not start

 

Heat 2 Round 3 - 1/8th  Nitro GT:

It seems if Wayne had two flameouts, but he still won the race. Wow! 

Jacques also had car problems..or something that caused him to have had a couple of slow laps, but he still ended 2nd.

Henry  had a fine race and ended 3rd.

André  couldn’t comlpete the race. He quit after 14 laps.

Jakkie was doing well, apart from a flameout that wasted a little of his race time.

Jannie DNS

Final 8th scale GT race:

Wayne did  a brilliant job of this final GT race. At first the BK system estimated that he would complete 90 laps, but Wayne eventually got 99 laps! Best lap 16.62 seconds.

Jacques  also had a very prosperous race. He completed 90 laps, of which the quickest one was a mere 16.98 seconds. Very-bloody-well, Oorbelletjies!  

Jakkie enjoyed an almost flawless race. It seems that he only had one flameout, but it wasn’t long enough to have much of an impact on his performance. Talking about performance : Congrats with your two laps of less than 19 seconds!! Impressive, seeing that you are only racing in this class for 6 months now..

Henry also had a very good Final race. I notice a flameout of 2.5 minutes, but other than that, everything went well. Good for you, Hubby! 72 laps.

Andre  had more than a fair share of misfortune... he had  to quit 10 minutes too early after he lost a wheel.  Sorry!!

Final GT result:

1.  Wayne Smith

2.  Jacques Brits

3.  Jakkie Landsberg

 

 Best Presented Car of the Day:

 Congrats, Stephen Smith: