This month we had 34 entries, split into 5 heats. We tried to keep the beginners and the not-so-experienced drivers in a class of their own. We are very much aware of the fact that the beginners easily feel intimidated by the fast guys. And we also respect the faster guys’ right to drive/race without the hindrance of a beginner that may get in the way and frustrate them.

So we split the Buggies into 3 groups. Heat 2 and heat 3 by no means according to ability, but rather taking in consideration the fact that every driver needed someone – from the other group- to pit for them. The Truggies were a nice group of 8 drivers and there were 5 electric buggies in a class of their own.

It is with much gratitude that I can say that the only visitors on this day were the two van Zyl brothers (Johann and Frans) and JP Sweek…although JP feels like a Meyerton guy already. The rest of the entries were all our local club members and/or supporters. By ‘supporter’ I mean that they only race at Meyerton, although they did not join as club members this year. Oh and by the way: We welcome Johan van der Walt and his son Rohan from Potch as new members at our club.

Nitro Buggy - Heat 1 Rounds 1,2 and 3:

Local guys Schalk Vorster and Jannie Holtzhausen were the best performers throughout the 3 qualifying heats. But it serves to be mentioned that Rohan van der Walt, a totally novice, is showing huge potential for this sport. We will keep an eye on him and I am sure that he will soon excel and post a threat to the older and much more experienced guys. Schalk’s fastest lap - 56.65 seconds.

Nitro Buggy - Heat 2 Rounds 1,2 and 3:

Here it is harder to make exceptions; All these guys are able to do laps of less than 60 seconds. Maybe with the exception of Jakkie Landsberg, who is a devoted on road racer, but only started off road racing this month. But Jakkie is almost there; he had a couple of 61 second laps! Names that appeared in the top 3 places through the qualies, were Kevin Bann, Jacques Brits, JP Killrad and Johann van Zyl. André Stenekamp and Bjorn Boogaard are also of the same caliber, but on this day they just suffered too many flame outs. JP’s fastest lap - 50.60 seconds. Excellent JP!! With lap times like these, you are surely heading for a place in the National A mains!

Nitro Buggy - Heat 3 Rounds 1,2 and 3:

Two guys stood out in this heat; Jason Landsberg and Tertius van Rooyen. They both did laps of 51.something. Kobus Griesel is usually on the same level, but he had, to put it bluntly – a bad racing day in this class. Tertius’s fastes tlap - 51.09 seconds. Well done!!

Nitro Truggy - Heat 4 Rounds 1,2 and 3:

Now, here we saw Kobus Griesel doing his thing! I am tempted to say that Kobus and Johann van Zyl dominated this cass, but oops, along came Kevin Bann and Bjorn Boogaard and they each threw a spanner in the works. The best lap, nevertheless, belongs to Kobus’s - 53.29 seconds. Nice!

Electric Buggy - Heat 5 Rounds 1,2 and 3:

The three serious contenders: Piet du Toit, Johann van Zyl and Kevin Bann. Each of them took a turn to win the race. Fastest lap in this class – Kevin’s 55.82 second lap.

FINALS:

C Final Buggy:

Rohan van der Walt comfortably won this race. Bjorn had much, much faster laps than Rohan, but he retired from the race after only 10 laps in this 30 minute race. And Kobus…well let us rather say nothing at all! We all know by now Kobus didn’t have a good day in the buggy class.

 

B Final Buggy:

Not ONE of these guys had a flawless race; they all had at least one or two flame outs. Some of them were not even racing half of this 30 minute race. At least André can boast that he had the least problems and he achieved the fastest laps in this final race. Well done, André!

 

A Final buggy:

Unfortunately we had some computer problems during this final. Most of you were not even aware of it, but I (Anette) was really in a flat spin, all on my own in race control, when the laptop started showing these nasty messages, something about the system not being able to read some data. Henry was busy selling stuff to a client and André was pitting for someone, so there was no one to share my anxiety. At one stage I noticed that JP’s transponder wasn’t picking up any more and I had to add his laps manually. Not an easy task; to watch the car and work on the laptop simultaneously. Then came Tertius’s dad Martin and announced that Tertius’s transponder was also not picking up his laps. Now it was even more hectic: I had two cars to watch and two drivers for whom I must add manual laps! Every now and then the laps were picked up again and I took the opportunity to take pictures – 11 of them - of the computer screen (results) as back up, in case the computer stopped working altogether. When the Final results were printed, JP’s overall score was disregarded, but lucky enough his lap-by-lap score was saved. The rest of the results were quite a mess, although each driver’s individual scores remained and subsequently it was possible to determine the final position of each driver. JP was the undeniable winner, with a couple of laps in less than 50 seconds! Jason was a worthy runner up with Tertius just one lap down on Jason, in 3^rd place.

 

Truggy Final:

Now THIS was a tough race! Kobus beat his 7 opponents and boasts 30 laps in 30 minutes. Kevin ended 2^nd with 29 laps, including some long ones, probably due to flame outs? Then came Johann van Zyl, Johan Barnard and Martin van Rooyen, in that order, all with 28 laps. Ronel Bann unfortunately had a late start and if that wasn’t bad enough, she had an almost 4 minute flame out. She did however manage to complete 25 laps. Brandon Vorster retired after only two laps and Bjorn did not start. The fastest lap belongs to Johann van Zyl - 53.56 seconds.

 

Electric Buggy Final:

Both the 1^st and the 2^nd legs were won by Kevin Bann. And Piet du Toit ended 2^nd in both these final legs. Ronel’s two sons, Junior and Enrico Hansen took part in this race, and they clearly enjoyed it. Junior raced with Ronel’s truggy and did splendidly. Unfortunately this is against the club’s rules and Ronel therefore forfeit her series points for this month. But I am sure that his good performance served as an encouragement for Junior. He may just return for some ‘legal’ racing next time! Johan van Zyl had a serious flame out in the 1^st leg, but he recovered and did well in the 2^nd leg. Kevin’s best lap - 54.17 seconds.

Overall winners of Electric Buggies: