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Januay 2018 Nitro club race

Not a big race, but nevertheless very exciting for the 8th 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 1st 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 2nd qualifier he started on time, but he was beaten by Piet du Toit with a 10th 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 3rd qualifier he broke through the 17second barrier…..and he repeated this accomplishment four times in this 6 minute race. Congratulations!

In the 4th 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 1st qualifier and ended 4th. He was 4th again in the 2nd qualifier. And yet again in the 3rd.   In the 4th 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 2nd qualifier, but with a well maintained car he succeeded in completing 79 laps and earned himself the 2nd 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 2nd qualifier with an even better best lap (16.91s) and well as a better average lap time. Wow!

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

In round 4 he achieved his best lap of the day – 16.88s and ended 2nd 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 3rd 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 2nd .

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

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

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

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

Hein did not start in the 3rd round. In the 4th round he went straight back to 3rd 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 1st round. She ended 3rd.

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