GENERAL:

While the National event was on in Midrand, Meyerton Raceway entertained those who were not interested in Nats this year and those who are still new to this game with a club race.

 

 

 

As I have previously mentioned, we recently introduced a novice / beginners class. People who are new at the RC hobby, including young children and women, usually are to scared to drive with the more proficient drivers. We now allow them to race totally is a class of their own, to get over their jitters and it seems to be working well.

 

 

 

And all of a sudden, Meyerton Raceway boasted a Truggy class too, this month. Something we haven’t had in a very long time! There is every reason to believe that there will be a couple more truggy racers next month. We are really looking forward to building a strong representation in this exciting class.

 

 

 

We started the day’s race with a slightly wet track, after the light drizzle of the previous day and night. But to overcome this slight obstacle, we sent the truggies on first and after their first heat, the track was dry…. problem solved!

 

 

Nitro Truggy class:

11 year old James Boogaard competed in his first ever competition and proved to be a person to be reckoned with in the near future. In the first heat he was two laps behind Henry, who has won the race, but in the next heat he equaled Henry’s laps, although his lap times were still 11 seconds slower. Kevin Bann also made his first ever attempt to truggy racing, and did fairly well. For the first two heats though, he seemed to have had too little time for him self to get ready, seeing that he had to lend a hand to three other family members and their buggies on the day. But after the intervals between the races were increased, he was ready in time and it showed in his performance. When the Finals came, Kevin, with 23 laps in this 30 minute race, was only one lap behind Henry and James. Henry, with 24 laps, couldn’t improve on his 1^st heat’s best lap of 61.39 seconds. Our youngster, James, managed to also complete 24 laps and showed a major improvement when he did a lap of only 67 seconds, which is 10 seconds faster than what he started with in the morning! Well done, James. Kevin had faster laps than James had, but James’s more consistent lap times caused him to beat Kevin. Next month Kobus Griesel will also be in this class, and between him, Kevin and the youngster, Henry will have to keep his guard up!

 

 

Nitro Buggy class:

 

This class was by far not easy to determine the winner of, before the last 30 seconds of the Final! Andre Steenekamp and Henry, 1^st and 2^nd, were neck –in- neck in the first heat. Bjorn, Kevin and Jacques were somewhere in the middle and Kobus had some car trouble., with only two laps to show.  In the second heat Henry won with more than a lap, and a lap of less than 60 seconds, with Kobus, Kevin, Bjorn and Andre behind him. This time around it was Jacques who did not start. Heat 3 saw Andre in the lead again, winning the race with more than a lap. Jacques, yet again, did not start. The whole scenario changed in the Final, with Jacques, who had now finished taken care of his car trouble. He changed the engine on his buggy. Also Kobus seemed to have sorted out his problems, and he ended in the 2^nd place. Kevin, in 3^rd place, had one lap less than Kobus, but one more lap than Henry.  Henry at one stage, after several flame-outs, quitted the race, but after doing some settings under his gazebo, decided to join in the race again. Andre, earlier on in the Final race, was in a very good position, but had to quit the race altogether when his car broke halfway through the race.  Uhmmm, may I mention now that Jacques won this race with 9 laps more than the runner-up and his average lap time was 31 seconds faster than the rest. Wow Jacques, jy mag maar race!

 

 

 

Beginner class:

Out of the 8 entries, one guy didn’t show up, one guy did not start and two couldn’t get their cars to co-operate in their 1^st heat.  Carl Fisher, newcomer to this game, won the race. In the 2^nd heat the others made their best efforts to competitive racing. Charles though, still struggled to keep his buggy going and Carl won the race again. Schalk Vorster shed his jitters for the third heat and beat his rivals, but with his brother –in-law Johan in a close 2^nd position.

 

When the final race for them came, Schalk was totally ready and won again, but afterwards admitted that 20 minutes of continuous racing had him back in jitters again. Shame. His brother-in-law, Johan Killian came 2^nd again and Ronel, Kevin’s wife, 3^rd. Ronel, the only female driver for the day, was quite happy with her position, especially when she realized that her lap times had come down with more than 20 seconds since last month.

Although the sky was overcast for almost the whole day, no rain had interrupted the racing and a braai was held to end a very pleasant family day at the track.