Not a big race, but nevertheless very exciting for the 8^th scale GT drivers. And for their pit crew and family members that came to watch the race.

We were a bit concerned about the weather, because we had some heavy rain showers during the previous night and more rain was forecasted, but luckily no rain fell during the race. To tell the truth; we couldn’t ask for better weather!

 

The race:

 

André Steenekamp  had himself a fabulous racing day. Taking in consideration all the circumstances that could have influenced his performance in a bad way (like his late start in the 1^st qualifier), he managed to rose above everything and excelled like never before…

He was engaged in supporting another driver and had no time to prepare his own car before the start of the day’s racing. He joined the rest of the drivers when the race was already on for almost a minute.

For the 2^nd qualifier he started on time, but he was beaten by Piet du Toit with a 10^th of a second. Maybe that was a wakeup call, because from then on he was the victor in every race for the rest of the day.

In the 3^rd qualifier he broke through the 17second barrier…..and he repeated this accomplishment four times in this 6 minute race. Congratulations!

In the 4^th qualifier he only managed to do a 16 sec lap once, BUT he improved on his average lap time..and this is what is of importance. So again: Congratulations André!

In the Final, a misunderstanding between him and the person who was pitting for him caused a 63 second delay, which was very unfortunate. But André recovered from it in style. He continued racing to the end of this 30 minute race with no further mishaps. He completed a total of 92 laps and won the race. Well deserved!

   

 

Francois Geyser’s day surely turned out better than he had expected. He had one little oopsie in the 1^st qualifier and ended 4^th. He was 4^th again in the 2^nd qualifier. And yet again in the 3^rd.   In the 4^th qualy he only completed 2 laps due to idling problems.

BUT: Came the Finals, he had an almost flawless race. He didn’t even bettered his own best lap of 18.66s in the 2^nd qualifier, but with a well maintained car he succeeded in completing 79 laps and earned himself the 2^nd place on the podium. Well done, Francois!

Piet du Toit had a day with many ups-and-down s. For example; he started the day with an uncontested win. He had one more lap than his closest rival and his average lap time was a full 3 seconds faster. And his quickest lap an admirable 17.11 seconds!

He repeated this performance again in the 2^nd qualifier with an even better best lap (16.91s) and well as a better average lap time. Wow!

In the 3^rd round, Piet managed to end 2^nd, behind André.

In round 4 he achieved his best lap of the day – 16.88s and ended 2^nd again.

In the Finals things turned out badly for Piet. He had been out of the race for 8.4 minutes. He fixed whatever it was and returned to the race for 40 more laps. He was rewarded for his courage and determination by slowly worked his way back to the top and ended 3^rd overall.

A GREAT performance overall; you can pat yourself on the shoulder, Piet.!!

Below: Piet du Toit; A special moment with his grandson Nathan. 

 

Henry Ogden did not complete his first qualifier and neither did he complete the 2^nd .

The 3^rd qualifier went much smoother for him and he managed to end in 3^rd place.

Round 4 went even better and although he ended 4^th, he achieved his best lap of the day – 18.5s.

Henry ended 4^th overall in the Finals. Well done.

Johan Korff (also known as Hein) started his race day with a bang! He ended 2^nd with very good lap times. Trouble started to set in from the 2^nd qualy, but he notwithstanding managed to get his best lap time for the day – 17.55s. Well done!

Hein did not start in the 3^rd round. In the 4^th round he went straight back to 3^rd place.

Although he did not complete the whole 30 minute race, he did complete 55 beautiful laps. Keep your eyes on this guy; he may just be back on the podium next time.

Charmaine Wright had a reasonably thriving 1^st round. She ended 3^rd.

She DNS for the 2^nd round, but she was back for 13 laps in the 3^rd qualy.

She had a very late start to the last qualifier round, but she succeeded in doing 16 laps without any hiccups. Charmaine couldn’t complete the whole 30 minute Final, but she did perform her very best in this race. No less than 19 laps of less than 19 seconds. Fastest lap – 18.06s. This is really good driving on your side, Charmaine! Keep it up in the midst of all those boys!