After a whole bunch of big events successfully hosted by us, we were quite confident that nothing can go wrong before the RC X Challenge here at our track. ( April 25th & 26^th ). But just to bring us back to earth, Nature surprised us with almost a week of rain, rain and more rain!

On Thursday afternoon, after the rain had subsided for a few hours, Henry told me that the track was drying out fast and I should stop panicking, the track will be just fine in 48 hours. But the rain returned and brought one of the worst hail storms that the Vaal Triangle has seen in years, with it. The track was flooded to such an extent that I decided NOT to post the pictures that I took, on Facebook; Nobody who saw those pictures would ever, in a million years, belief that a race would be possible on that track in a day’s time! But the rain wasn’t over yet; even more rain fell on Friday and also during the night on Friday! But when Saturday came, Meyerton Raceway was ready for the 70 plus competitors. We unfortunately had to reduce/postpone the planned practice time from 7 to 12 that morning to only one hour, from 11 to 12. Under the circumstances, the drivers fully understood and gave us their wholehearted cooperation.

Saturday: More and more cars arrived at the track as the morning progressed and by the time the Qualifiers were scheduled to start, we had 71 entries and the track was a beehive of activity. Oh and the sun was shining, actually: the sun was beating down on us! At first the track was maybe not so easy to drive on, because the sawdust was strewn quite lavishly. But as always, the sawdust was soon just a yellowish border ‘decorating’ the outer edge of the racing surface.

Nitro Buggies:

In Heat 1, Round 1-3, Stephen Smith was the fastest.

In Heat 2, Round 1-3, Johan Godwald and Danie de Swart were in a tie, with JP Sweeck close behind them.

In Heat 3, Round 1-3, SJ Coetzer had the most wins.

In Heat 4, Round 1-3,Miguel Haasbroek won 2 rounds (he DNS the 3^rd) and Thomas Schmuck was his closest rival. However, every single driver in this group managed to do laps of less than 50 seconds. All ten are brilliant drivers. Miguel’s fastest lap, in round 2, was 45.7 seconds.

Nitro Truggy:

In Heat 5, Round 1-3, Lombard Delport and Adam Sweeting were battling it out against one another, with Wayne Smith giving them a hard time, breathing in their necks.

Heat 6, Round 1-3, In the absence of Sandra Greyvenstein, she was studying, the guys had it a bit easier than normally. Her husband Albie (Lammie / Loose Wheel) Greyvenstein took full advantage of this situation by driving her truggy and did extremely well with it! He gave SJ Coetzer and Brenden du Preez a hiding that I think was quite unexpected. The fastest lap in the Truggy qualifiers belongs to SJ – 46.36 seconds.

Electric Buggy:

In Heat 7, Round 1-3, Thomas Schmuck won two of the 3 rounds, but he had to work really hard to achieve that, because Danie de Swart and Christof Meyer were also aiming for that TQ position!  Thomas’s fastest lap – 47.49 seconds.

NOW FOR THE FINALS:

A Final Nitro Buggy:

Miguel won the 30 minute race (as always) with a best lap of 47.39 seconds. Tiaan Oelofse ended 2^nd, also a very common place for him to be in. The young boy Calvin Barnard came 3^rd. The next 6 positions were taken by Cameron Balie, MJ Schoeman, Thomas Schmuck, Arron Gee and Danie de Swart, in that order. SJ Coetzer was out of a race for almost 12 minutes and Johan Godwald retired after 6 laps.

1. Miguel Haasbroek

2. Tiaan Oelofse

3. Calvin Barnard

 

 

B Final Nitro Buggy;

Albie took the 1^st place, but Stephen Smith who came 2^nd had a faster best lap – 50.25 seconds.

Hein van Rensburg took 3^rd place. The 10 competitors in this race are all good drivers, the all do laps that range from 50 to 60 seconds in average. Anyone of them can easily work their way into A mains in future. Good luck with that!

1. Albie Greyvenstein

2. Stephen Smith

3. Hein van Rensburg

 

C Final Nitro Buggy:

Paul Naude deserved this won. In this race he was the only one to achieve a best lap of less than 50 seconds. (49.43 sec) JP Pessoa ended 2^nd and Jason Landsberg 3^rd. In this race there is also a couple of guys that can strive for, or end in A mains in future.

1. Paul Naudé

2. JP Pesoa

3. Jason Landsberg

 

D Final Nitro Buggy:

Christof Meyer won this race hands down. He even lapped his runner up 3 times! But having said that; the runner up Tertius van Rooyen is a young man that hasn’t race for three years and he only returned to Meyerton track a month ago. In 3^rd place we saw Shannon Hopkins who apparently is a total newcomer to RC racing. So, good for him to get a place on the podium after competing against guys that are racing for a couple of years already. Christof’s best lap – 49.16 seconds. This race was marred by 3 guys that went off with broken cars and THE KID that didn’t even pitched for the race.

1. Christof Meyer

2.Tertius van Rooyen

3. Shannon Hopkins

 

A Final Nitro Truggy:

As we more than often see, it was SJ Coetzer in the 1^st place again. Brenden du Preez, who boasts the best lap in this race, ended 2^nd. His best lap – 48.44 seconds. Lombard Delport came 3^rd. Albie, who TQ’ed with Sandra’s truggy, retired after only 12 laps, with a broken steering arm, I think? ..and so did Brendon van Staden and Patrick Bouillon.

1. SJ Coetzer

2. Brenden du Preez

3. Lombard Delport

 

B Final Nitro Truggy:

5 Meyerton guys competed against each other and Johann van Zyl did not start. Johan Barnard did the best with his 28 laps and won this race. Henry did better lap times than Johan, but he retired from the race after 25 laps, due to a blown steering servo. Ronel Bann also had a bad race; she was out of the race for more than 12 minutes. Sorry, Girl! Kobus Griesel had the fastest lap in this race – 55.38, but he also had to quit after only 6 laps, due to the clutch bell bearing that went on his truggy. The same goes for Brendon Vorster.

1. Johan Barnard

2. Henry Ogden

3. Ronel Bann

 

Electric Buggy:

Leg 1 was won by Danie de Swart ( best lap 48.16 sec) followed by Thomas and Leo de Oliveira

Leg 2 was won by Thomas (best lap 50.4 sec) followed by Christof Meyer and Leo de Oliveira

Leg 3 was won by Danie again (best lap 50.57) followed by Thomas and Christof.

Overall Electric Buggy:

1. Danie de Swart
2. Thomas Schmuck
3. Christof Meyer