Remember  the few times when off road club races had to be cancelled due to a lack of interest?  Well, not anymore! Nowadays we have to plan carefully to be able to finish before sunset. All thanks to our loyal members (read: friends) who refused to give up and stayed with us.  Recently, some club races are almost too big! But we don’t mind, we will always make a plan! We love and appreciate you so much!

 

Like every other weekend, there was the regular irregularity! We learnt upfront that Kevin Bann and his wife Ronel were going to be late and that this would consequently have an effect on the day’s– and new series- results.  With our right hand man, André Steenekamp,  not in town and therefore absent from race control, Henry and I just about managed to cover all the bases.  A big surprise, but certainly a most welcome surprise, was Kevin Gates that offered to take on the task of race director! Job well done, Kevin!

Our new members from Potc invited their RC friends to take part in this month’s Off Road race. They also brought along their families. You are so welcome! Glad to have seen how much all of you enjoyed the day with us.

We also had the pleasure of having a few Secunda guys over for some RC fun. No need to say that we also appreciate your visit…always a pleasure to have you around and pick up some pointers .

The Race:

To accommodate a few less experienced drivers, we split the Buggy drivers up into three heats. Never a bad idea, because then they have a perfect opportunity to show us whether we over or under estimated their abilities!

Heat 1 Nitro Buggies:

Car 1 – Colleen Vorster: Loads of car trouble. Not being able to complete her races. Hubby Schalk was racing seriously and not available to solve her problems for her. Sad face…

Car 2 – Johan vd Walt (Potch) : Doing better than average with frequent 65 second laps and fairly consistent throughout all three heats. A totally positive way to do RC racing! You are SO on the right track…excuse the pun!!

Car 3 – Grant Joubert: repeatedly asked me to enter him for the race but did not show up..again!

Car 4 – Rohan vd Walt: Son of Johan and boasting two second places out of the three qualies. Good job Rohan! Congrats with that 57 sec lap!

Car  5  - Schalk Vorster: Winner of all three qualies….. WOW! Congrats with your 54.72 sec lap!!

Car 6 – AJ Etsebeth:  A novice, says he….!   I envisage a great RC future for him. A beginner is supposed to do 100 second laps, AJ, not 59!!!!!!  Well done!

Car 7  -  Kobus Minny: Also a Poch guy that claims that parking lot RC fun is his style. Well, I think you can reconsider your style, because the ability to end in 2^nd place demonstrates that you are meant to do things the PROPER way!

Car 8 – Shaun Grobler, another Potch non-racer, haha.  Shaun , you can also consider swapping parking lot fun for real RC completion racing. Most laps in the region of mid 60’s…not too bad at all!

Heat 2 Nitro  Buggies;

Car 1 – Jacques Brits: Our old and dear friend from Klerksdorp. Taking 3^rd place throughout all qualifying heats. Touching on that evasive but so desirable 49 second lap…only done by the best of the best! His fastest lap today 50.3 sec. so very close…!

Car 2 – Attie de Jager: 1^st round DNS followed by an average 2^nd round and then a 52 second lap.

Car 3 – Kobus Griesel: With this guy you never know what to expect. It usually is either a spectacular race or a troublesome race.  This one was a mixed grill, a bit of everything.  Best lap – 53.3 seconds.

Car 4 – Danie de Swart : A guy that knows his way around a RC track. Several laps of less than 47 seconds…clearly a SA top RC driver. Fastest lap – 46.28 sec. Well done, although predictable.

Car 5 – Kevin Bann: Family matters (that he didn’t mind taking some time for) made him to forfeit his qualifying points.

Car 6 – Tertius van Rooyen: Tertius kicked off this month’s race with a brilliant 49.2 second lap. Meyerton is sure to have a candidate in the SA National top 10 in future!

Car 7 – Stephen Smith: Not a club member yet, but I sure wish he was! Doing laps of way less than 50 seconds comes naturally for this guy. Fastest lap : 46.78 seconds. Good job!

Car 8 – JP Sweeck: Kicking off with a 49.55s lap, improving to a 48.68 and ending the qualies with a 47.9. What more can a guy wish for??

Car 9 – Jason Landsberg:  almost the same story as Kobus’s …Jason either does brilliantly or he struggle big time.  He too started with his best lap and couldn’t improve any further in the rest of the qualies. Best lap – 50.3 seconds.  Good enough in any language….

Heat 3 Nitro Buggies:

Car 1 – Ronel Bann: See Kevin Bann in Heat 2.

Car 2 – Jannie Hotzhausen: Jannie had a very good race day thus far, apart from the 2nd round when he had a late start. Ending in2nd place twice and doing a fastest lap of 53.9, I think he can be quite happy with his performance! Lekker man!

Car 3  - Jakkie Landsberg: Not a bad day he had, doing several laps of less than 60 second. Best lap – 55.22 seconds.

Car 4 – Henry Ogden: A bit of a slow start, but then improving to some 50- something laps, ending 2^nd and 3^rd for a change. Good job.

 Car 5 – Piet du Toit:  A very consistent performance throughout. Best lap: 55.22 sec.

Car 6 –Johan Barnard : Not a good racing day.

Car 7 - Johnny Claes: Johnny was totally in control of his buggy and fended off all opponents by just not doing anything wrong. Johnny won all three heats. Great job, Johnny!

Heat 4 Electric Buggy:

Car 1 -  Victor Fernandes:  A guy with  - to my best knowledge -  not much experience in organized RC racing. However, we’ve seen them fooling around on the track on non-racing days quite often. Vic didn’t do too bad, managing laps of close to, and even less than 60 seconds. Fastest lap; 57.79 sec.

Car 2 – Carlos Loureiro : An almost exact replica of what I’ve said about Vic. Best lap: 56.79 sec.

Car 3 – Danie de Swart:  We’ve entered him for this race, but apparently he didn’t even brought his electric car with him. 

Car 4 – Piet du Toit : Mixed results. One DNS and one win, which apparently he did not deserved, because of mistakes made by the marshals? I am guessing… because lap times of 26 and/or 31 seconds are almost impossible. The best reliable lap time for Piet is 53.45 seconds., which is pretty good!

Car 5 – Attie de Jager:  Attie did what Attie normally does; he drove well and his average lap time was a very competent 57 sec throughout the 3 qualies. Best lap – 51.9 sec.

Heat 5 Nitro Truggy:

Car 1- Ronel Bann: Not taking part

Car 2 – AJ Etsebeth: Not all this new guy’s laps were good, but also not bad at all for a beginner. Looking at the results, I am of the opinion that he might have experienced some car problems in this class. Better luck next time. I am sure it will go far better and more to your liking next time.

Car 3 – Johan Barnard: It went well for Johan in the first two rounds when he got laps of 59 seconds.  Johan DNS in the 3^rd qualifier round.

Car 4 – Marika Claes:  A not-so good first round, but from then on this girl didn’t have any more trouble. She just kept on improving, ending with a better than average 62.98 second lap. Mooi so!

Car 5 – Martin van Rooyen:   Martin started with a best lap of 55 sec, improved to a 53 and fell back to a 54, BUT what is really important, is that he kept on improving on his average lap time!! To have an average lap time of less than 60 seconds is just a dream for the average driver…so CONGRATS!...you did very good, Martin!

Car 6 – Kevin Bann: Did not take part.

Car 7 – Kobus Griesel: Kobus is a regular club champion in this class, but on this day he had some stiff competition in the form of Wayne Smith. He won the first round and also had his best lap of the day in this race – 51.92 sec. Kobus, you just keep on doing what you know you should: Maintain & prep your car properly, keep calm and do your best on the driver stand. Hat is all you need to do; you already has the skills.

Car 8 – Wayne Smith: There is nothing that I can tell this well experienced driver; he knows what to do! Apart from: Join Meyerton Raceway, we need drivers like you! Haha .Wayne’s fastest lap: 50.97 seconds.

Car 9 – Attie de Jager: Attie kept on improving from the 1^st to the last qualie, with a full 3 seconds in average and going from 4^th to 2^nd position. Well done,  Attie! Best lap; 53.53 sec.

C Final Nitro Buggy:

Kevin Bann was in a too much relaxed state of mind after having the morning  off, relaxing with his son and family from Natal and wasn’t actually racing seriously, kind of fooling around. But for his wife Ronel it was an excellent opportunity to gain 30 minutes of  experience. With a fair amount of encouraging from race control, she raced her best ever buggy lap  so far – 58.7 seconds. Mooi man! Colleen, like it was in the morning, couldn’t get her buggy to cooperate.

 

B Final Nitro Buggy:

Schalk dominated this race so far that it seemed like a sin! I think the majority of his opponents were not ready yet for 30 minutes on the driver stand. Or they just had common plain bad luck with cars that let them down.

1. Shalk Vorster
2. Kobus Griesel
3. Shaun Grobler

 

A Final Nitro Buggy:

Danie de Swart had no trouble to bag this race. Fastest lap  46.65 sec. But that doesn’t take away the fact that Stephen Smith is also a brilliant driver. His best lap – 47.56 sec. JP Sweeck and Tertius van Rooyen equaled best laps of 50.30 seconds, but JP didn’t finish the race while Tertius raced to the very end. Most of the 10 drivers completed the race, but with different degrees of disastrous flame outs in between.

 

Truggy Final:

Wayne won the race with Kobus not far behind.  Kevin Bann, now not in “play mode” ended 3^rd.

 

Electric Buggy Final leg 1:

Attie won the race.Piet ended 2^nd and Carlos 3^rd.

Electric Buggy Final leg 2:

Same positions than for 1^st leg.

Electric Buggy - Overall Results:

Attie’s best lap: 52.24 seconds.

1. Attie de Jager
2. Piet du Toit
3. Carlos Loureiro

 

Best presented RC body for the Day:

 

A lekker day of off road fun ....hope to see all of you back next month!