What a pleasant day it had been?!  We were privileged to have had the company of a couple of new drivers at our track, amongst the 31 entries. Welcome to Meyerton Raceway’s club races Shaun Hards, Garth Nofal and Gert Fourie.

 

  

I have no doubt that you will be back in future. If not; I will come and fetch you!

We are still sad for not seeing the Landsbergs anymore,… We understand that you have other responsibilities that take up your racing time. We will however keep an eye open for your white car to enter through the gates again on a Sunday morning..

And then we are always pleased to see the on-and-off drivers like Freddie Kotze, Willtin Brauer and Derek Sardini. These are the ‘expect them when you see them’ guys. Guys with excellent driving skills which they cannot keep bottled up for too long; so they rock up every now and then to still their hunger for a week, or a month…or two.

We ran out of trophies for the Best Presented RC body of the Day.

(No negligence on our side, but due to a misunderstanding with our supplier)

We will however hand over an overdue trophy to Garth Nofal for his beautiful car for this month.

 

THE RACE

Beginner class:

Richard Botes started the day with good lap times, but he then had a relapse for two races. He was still in the lead, but with much slower laps. Luckily he recovered and managed to hold on to his 1^st place for the day. Fastest lap – 24.11s. Well done, Richard. Keep it up.

Gert Fourie, a newcomer to formal RC racing, kicked off more than just satisfactory. His lap times were good for a novice and he ended in 2^nd place overall. Best lap – 25.54s

Erich van Rooyen competed in his 2^nd or 3^rd official club competition. A bit of car trouble hampered his excellent performance, which is a pity. Erich boasts the quickest lap in this class for the day – 24.05s. He ended 3^rd overall.

Little Ruan Brauer fared much better than what he did a couple of months ago. Then he was still all over the track, including the grass islands, doing lap times in the 60’s and 70’s. Today he managed to drive reasonably well. He achieved several lap times of 30 something. Ruan’s best lap – 32.78s.

Overall:

1. Richard Botes
2. Gert Fourie
3. Erich van Rooyen

 

TTO1  stock :

Charmaine Wright won the first race of the day in this class.

From the 2^nd qualifier onwards Janu Lombard dominated the race.

Janu’s best lap – 21.76s and Charmaine’s best lap – 22.43s

Tyronne Visser was in a comfortable 3^rd position throughout the day. His best lap – 22.55s

Nathan Steyn and Louis Nortje both experienced car trouble that weakened their real capabilities.  

Hope you will have better luck next month, guys. I know that you can!

Overall:

1. Janu Lombard
2. Charmaine Wright
3. Tyronne Visser

 

Electric Mini Touring:

André Steenekamp won both the qualifiers and the final legs.  Congratulations.

André boasts a lot of (amazing) 20 second laps in the qualifiers and the 1^st leg of the Finals. But then his Mini’s tyres were worn out and he replaced them. That unfortunately did not have good results.. The fastest lap he could get out of the new tires was a 22.06s.

Louis Nortje also competed in this class. He got several 22s laps out of his Mini and to my best knowledge that is more than adequate. Mini’s are not known for terribly fast speeds.

 

540 Touring:

Freddie Kotze won all rounds..qualifiers and final legs alike. As usual. His fastest lap today – 18.46s

Piet du Toit won 3 of the 4 races in this class. He ended 2^nd overall. His best lap – 19.60s Good job!

Charmaine Wright, always a driver to take note of, ended 3^rd overall. Her best lap today – 19.58s

Henry Ogden was seen somewhere in the middle until his car (actually MY car’s!) motor burnt out.

Tiny Wright started all enthusiastically and performed quite good with a best lap of 20.03s. Then he slowly faded away….Not sure why.

Marcel van Rooyen also started the day with excellent lap times, but car trouble caused him to retire from the race before the end of the day. Marcel’s best lap – 20.86. That’s great, Marchel!

Anzea Pretorius is a girl that surprises us – and maybe even herself – with various levels of success each month. On this day she varied from 7^th to 3^rd place and anything in between.. Her fastest lap – 20.74. That is really great. You go, Girl!

Esmarie Geyser, despite the fact that she is still in mourning after the passing on of her mother-in-law this week, very bravely took part in this class. She did encounter some car trouble, but nevertheless achieved a better than average lap of 22.24s. Good for you! Keep it up.

Overall:

1. Freddie Kotze
2. Piet du Toit
3. Charmaine Wright

 

21.5 Touring:

Not sure if some of these results are not perhaps under suspicion. Willltin did come to me early in the morning and admitted that he was driving a wrong car in a wrong class, but for the death of me, I cannot remember what car in what class was the topic of his admittance. And at the end of the day’s race there had been a thorough scrutinizing of the cars in this class as a result of a grievance. Nothing much was found wrong..

A few names kept on popping up in the top three or four positions; Willtin, Kevin Gates, Piet du Toit, Leon van Rooyen and Janu Lombard.

Tiny did not compete in every race, but the times he did, he fared pretty well. Best lap – 19.71s

Henry Ogden and Charmaine Wrigh were constantly seen somewhere in the middle and Francois Geyser wasn’t half bad himself..taking in consideration the loss of his mother this week. His best lap – 20.22s Not too shabby, Francois!

Overall:

1. Kevin Gates
2. Willtin Brauer
3. Piet du Toit

 

13.5 touring:

We haven’t had competitors in this fast class for a very long time now. So it was a pleasure to enter four drivers into our timing system this week. One guy, Gart Nofal, is actually a complete novice…either very brave or very stupid to enter straight into the lion’s den with his first official competition. Don’t you think so? Haha. Garth went from an average of 47.8 seconds to an average of just 31.19 seconds in one day. Most newcomers take at least 5 months to get there… His best lap improved from 28 seconds to a 24.54s lap. Way to go, Garth!

Overall:

Willtin’s best lap – 17.18s

Derek Sardini’s quickest lap – 17.19s. Well done!

Shaun Hard’s fastest lap – 18.09s

17.5 Touring:

Garth Nofal had been brave enough to enter into this class as a novice. We salute you! 

Best lap - 24.54s