The day started with a wet track, after the previous day - and early evening’s rain. But fortunately, it wasn’t to such an extent that a few bags of sawdust couldn’t fix it. We started a bit later than usual, but even that was a blessing in disguise, because there were a few late comers. (Which we must REALLY discuss… it is becoming a vicious circle; We start late, because the drivers arrive late. ..and drivers arrive late, because we’ve started late the previous month)

We’ve split the Buggy class into two Heats, to ensure that all drivers could have pit crew to assist them.  We obviously tried to group them according to their abilities, and I am happy to say that André and Henry were spot on with their choices.

Award for Best Presented RC body:

Jason Landsberg  Congratulations!

                                    

    

The Race

Heat 1 Round 1 - Nitro Buggy:

JP Sweeck certainly did not have the fastest lap in this round, but he was the most consistent driver and that is all you need to win a race. His best lap and average laps only 1.5 seconds apart. Stephen Smith had the fastest lap, but his average lap time could only secure him the 2^nd place. Tertius van Rooyen boasted several laps of less than 50 seconds, which is excellent, taking into consideration that he hardly attended any races in 2016. Jason Landsberg , one of our club’s best drivers, had a bit of car trouble in this round and this also applies to Jacques Brits. Fastest lap : Stephen Smith- 47.06sec.

Heat 1 Round 2 - Nitro Buggy:

JP won again in Round 2, this time with Jason in 2^nd and Jacques in 3^rd. Now it was Tertius and Stephen were held back by flameouts.

Heat 1 Round 3 - Nitro Buggy:

Jason and Stephen recovered fully and ended 1^st and 2^nd respectively. JP had to settle for 3^rd place. Jacques had one short flameout – or accident - and ended 4^th. Tertius had to quit the race a minute or two early. Jasons’ quickest lap – 46.6sec.  (Fastest lap of the Day - congratulations! )

 

Heat 2 Round 1 -  Nitro Buggy:

Henry Ogden won the race. Not the fastest lap times, but as I’ve said before: you only need to be consistent to win a race. Jakkie Landsberg ende 2^nd and Piet du Toit 3^rd. Little Johnrique did not start.

Heat 2 Round 2 -  Nitro Buggy:

Henry won yet again, with a faster lap time this time around. Jakkie in 2^nd again, also with better lap times.  Johnrique joined the group and ended 3^rd. Piet also got faster lap times, but he quit the race after 3 laps.

Heat 2 Round 3 -  Nitro Buggy:

Henry in the lead again, with the fastest lap as well, but not as consistent as he was earlier in the day. But, as they say; a win is a win..  Jakkie followed him and we now saw Piet back in 3^rd place, after a VERY late start. Johnrique also start very late and consequently lost more than half of his race time.

 B Final Nitro Buggy:

Jakkie Landsberg entered into the Finals with renewed energy and lots of wooma. He beat Henry with 4 laps and 4 seconds better average lap times in this 30 minute race.  He improved significantly on his own best lap from the qualies. His quickest lap – 51.77s  Well done!

Henry ended 2^nd and although he couldn’t improve on his previous best lap, he didn’t do too badly at all!

Johnrique completed the race with 3 laps less than Henry. He did however succeed in getting a much better average lap time than in the Qualifier rounds. Mooi so!

Piet unfortunately had to quit from the race after only 10 laps. Apparently his servo packed up.

Below:

1^st  Jakkie Landsberg

2^nd  Henry Ogden

3^rd  Johnrique Claes

 

A Final Nitro Buggy:

Buggy 1 – JP Sweeck:

 JP was doing pretty well and would have been a real threat to the rest, but disaster struck after 18 laps. He’d been out of the race for more than 4 minutes…which is just too much to recover from completely. According to him, he  did not re-fuel soon enough and we all know what the consequences of THAT mistake is….!!  JP ended 3^rd.

Buggy 2 – Jason Landsberg :

Jason was his own, fast self, but he unfortunately also had car trouble that took him out of the race for 5 minutes. Jason ended 4^th.

Buggy 3 – Stephen Smith:

Stehen did 33 beautiful laps in this 30 minute race, which gave him an average lap time of 55.6s, of which the quickest one was 48.38 seconds. He ended 2^nd. Well done!

Buggy 4  - Jacques Brits:

Jacques just did not have a good Final race. He was out of the race for almost 4 minutes, came back, but had to quit again after 7 more laps. Jacques ended 5^th.

Buggy 5 – Tertius van Rooyen:

Tertius is one of those guys; he can stay away from the track for many months, but when he has got that radio in his hand, his talent just takes over!  I notice that he lost 105 seconds of racing time within the first ten minutes of this race, but that didn’t stop him from winning this race.Tertius boasts the fastest lap in the Finals – 47.59s. Great stuff!

Overall Buggy A Main Results:

1. Tertius van Rooyen
2. Stephen Smith
3. JP Sweeck

 

TRUGGY

 

Round 1:

Johnny Claes won this round, with Wayne Smith behind him in 2^nd place and Henry Ogden in 3^rd. Martin van Rooyen, after a LONG absence from RC racing, struggled with his car and so did Jason Landsberg.  Best lap : Johnny – 50.32sec.

Round 2:

Wayne moved into 1^st place – where we are used to see him – and Henry moved into 2^nd place.

Martin, now in serious racing mode, ended 3^rd.

Jason had a VERY late start and ended 4^th.

Johnny raced even faster than in the previous round, but he quit the race after 3 laps. He probably had a flameout and it seems that he was having problems getting familiar with his new starter box. He ended 5^th. Best lap : Jason – 50.45sec.

 Round 3:

Johnny   relentlessly took back his 1^st place and forced Wayne back into 2^nd place.

Henry moved into 3^rd again.

Martin ended 4^th and Jason did not start.

Truggy Final Results:

An extremely exiting…nerve wrecking…nail biting race!!!!! The outcome was uncertain until the last second of this race.

The top three drivers, Jason, Johnny and Wayne were very close together..!

Henry quit after 22 laps, but Martin raced to the end, collecting 30 laps.

In the final stages of the race, Wayne fell back just a tiny bit, while Johnny gave it his all, but in the end it was Jason Landsberg who walked away as the conqueror. He finally pulled off a lap, no 3 laps!, of less than 50 seconds. Well done, Jason!!

Thank you, guys, for entertaining us with your wonderful racing skills. It had been a pleasure watching you.