I took a quick glimpse at the race report of Feb 2018. That race too was quite small. But this year’s February club race was even smaller than that one. Oh boy, not a very positive thing, this early into the new year. Usually the drivers get tired towards the end of the year. Ah well, we just have to wait and see; maybe the financial situation in the country is still affecting the RC drivers.

 

Round 1 - 8^th scale Nitro GT:

Piet du Toit got 18 laps and Francois Geyser equaled it, but Piet’s average made him the winner. Esmarie, wife of Francois, wasn’t far behind hubby; she completed 17 laps. Henry retired a little early (12 laps) and André, yes André.. forgot to fix a transponder to his car!?

Round 2:

With both André and Francois chasing him; Piet was forced to drive even faster  this time. He succeeded in doing so; he now completed 20 laps and sommer improved on his previous best lap. Although André now remembered to attach his transponder, but he was hampered by a flame out or two.

Francois broke through the 18 seconds barrier, possibly for the 1^st time ever and Esmarie broke through the 20 second barrier. Also her personal best so far. Well done, Team Geyser!

According to the race printout, Henry had an extremely late start.

Round 3:

This time Piet was the unfortunate one with the car trouble; he retired from the race after a mere 5 laps.

André again started late.

Both Henry and Francois were on a roll, but although they both scored 18 laps, Francois had a faster average lap time. He won the race, with a fastest lap of 17.14s. Well done!

Esmarie ended 3^rd and guess what? She boasts a best lap of 18.9sec. The 1^st time ever she achieved laps of less than 19 seconds.

Round 4:

Almost the end of the qualifiers, and Andre was now fully in action at last. He convincingly won this round by completing 21 beautiful laps. He also achieved the best lap (of all the drivers) of the day in this round – 16.82 seconds.

Francois ended 2^nd again. His best lap – 17.65 sec.

Esmarie got 19 laps and Henry 16.

Piet did not start. Gearbox problems caused him to lose out on a qualifier round.

 

Final 30 minute GT race:

Sadly Francois could not follow up on his exceptionally good performance in the qualifiers. He had a 5 minute late start and then endured a two minute flameout halfway through the race. But the final straw was the last 9 minute flameout close to the end of the 30 minutes. He nevertheless got 43 laps behind his name.

Piet was doing SO well, before his GT’s motor greeted after 62 laps.

Apart from one flameout, Henry was having a good race – 75 laps

Like Henry, Esmarie also completed 75 laps, but she had a .3 seconds better average than him. And look: She literally drove her tires to pieces!

And so did Henry.

 

Esmarie achieved a well deserved 2^nd place.  Whoop whoop!!

André could not repeat his 16 something seconds lap of the qualifiers, but he did deserve his overall victory, with 90 laps. Good job, André. Congratulations.