Although we were in the midst of winter in South Africa, it was (fortunately) not a very cold morning. Bare arms were seen, even before the race started!

The only ‘regular’ driver that were absent on this day, was Stephen Smith. Having had his daughter’s 1^st birthday party the day before, may be enough of an excuse...so Stephen, we forgive you! 

 Charmaine Wright, our very competent 8^th scale nitro (lady)driver, will probably return to the racing scene soon, as the Spring season approaches.

We welcomed a new nitro driver to the 200mm (10^th scale)class.  Francois Geyser competed in his very first nitro club race at Meyerton Raceway. Francois and his wife, Esmarie joined the club recently.

 Above: Francois & Esmarie

Picture below:  

Wayne Smith, assisting newcomer Francois Geyser with his 200mm nitro car.

 

Best Presented RC Car of the Day award:

Francois Geyser Congratulations! 

THE RACE:

200mm Nitro Touring:

Jason Landsberg was not ready for the 1^st round and Francois Geyser did 6 laps on his own.

Jason got onto the track for the 2^nd round and displayed his brilliant skills by racing 17 beautiful laps – best lap 16.88s. Francois upped his game by completing 14 laps…a huge improvement on his first round.

In the 3^rd qualifier Jason improved on his own performance and achieved 18 laps, of which the quickest was 16.53s.

Francois must have had a flameout, because now he only got 13 laps.

200mm 30minute FINAL:

Jason had an almost flawless race and he managed to complete 93 laps. In the absence of his fiercest rival, Stephen, there was not much reason for him to over exhaust himself, but he still gave a better than average performance.

Francois had been out of the race for 5 minutes halfway through the race, but he returned with renewed guts and completed the race and succeeded in writing 66 laps behind his name. He also improved on his previous best lap time, now boasting a 19.18s lap.

 

1/8^th scale GT :

Round 1:

André Steenekamp managed to beat our main GT guy, Wayne Smith, in this round. He completed 20 laps. The best lap – 17.15sec.

Wayne – also with 20 laps - had a flameout or some kind of incident that caused him to lose precious time. He ended 2^nd.

Johan Barnard, who recently returned to RC racing, ended in 3^rd place.

Johan was followed by Jakkie Landsberg and Henry Ogden. All three of them completed 17 laps.

Piet encountered a problem that was challenging enough to make him quit the race after 14 laps and the same goes for Johan Korff.  Jacques Brits DNS.

Round 2:

André won this round as well. He and Wayne, in 2^nd place, both got 20 laps. Johan Barnard was in 3^rd place. Jakkie was seen in 4^th and Henry in 5^th place. All three these drivers completed 17 laps.

Piet was having car trouble and so was Johan Korff. Jacques DNS.

Round 3:

The printout of the race result is missing, so I can only read what is available on the club’s website;

1. André
2. Piet
3. Johan Korff
4. Henry
5. Wayne
6. Jacques       Best lap of this round – 17.30s.
7. Jakkie
8. Johan Barnard     DNS

Final 1/8^th Nitro GT :

A seriously dramatic race!!

Car 1 – André : Congrats with your TQ position! Apart from an almost  3 minute down time during the race, André performed extremely well. He boasts a best lap of 17.11seconds. André ended 2^nd.

Car 2 - Piet du Toit, who qualified 2^nd, stayed in the lead for the biggest part of the race.  Although he was guilty of a bit of ‘rough racing’ managed to pull off some excellent lap times. Unfortunately he was affected badly when his car overturned in his 70^th lap. The attention of the two closest marshals was at another driver’s car and they did not notice the car lying on its roof. By the time the 3^rd marshal realized that no one was going to attend to Piet’s car and ran towards it, it was too late and the car flamed. This was a real bummer, because Piet could have won the race on this particular race day. Sorry. Maybe next time?  Piet ended 3^rd. His best lap: 17.69s

Car 3 – Wayne Smith:  Wayne, being challenged as he had never been before at Meyerton Raceway, had to work very hard at this win!  But Wayne also possesses a very good sense of sportsmanship and he did not even consider throwing in the towel. The race between him and André had been nail biting to the very end!! And with Piet back in the picture after the unfortunate incident, there was not a moment to lose concentration. But Wayne nailed it, regardless. Congratulation!

Car 4 – Jacques Brits: Just a horrific day… hopefully not to be repeated soon. That Murphy ’s Law thing: everything possible went wrong.  Jacques retired from the race after a mere 12 laps. But not before he proves that he is still capable of a lap time of 17.8seconds.

Car 5 – Henry Ogden : Henry raced just about half of the race, due to flameouts.  Better luck next time.

Car 6 – Jakkie Landsberg: Jakkie didn’t have a bad race at all, until close to the end of the race, when disaster struck and he lost about 4 minutes of racing.  Jakkie achieved several 17.something laps, which is proof of excellent driving skills.

Car 7 – Johan Korff: Johan ended in 7^th place, after he quit the race after only 27 laps. He is however boasting a best lap of 17.75s. Very good!

 Car 8 – Johan Barnard : Barriers had his rivals worried, because his car and him were a mean team on this day!  I cannot detect a single bad lap amongst the 81 laps that he completed. Well done, you were doing great!  Johan ended 4^th. 

See you again next month for some more NITRO fun!