It was nice to once again had the Van der Walts from Potch here, Jacques from Klerksdorp, the Banns from Nigel, the Vorsters from Springs, the Landsbergs from Boksburg, the regular Vaal Triangle group from Sasolburg, Vanderbijl and Vereeniging as well as our local Meyerton people. Then we are also proud of and thankful for guys like Andre Steenekamp, Kevin Gates and Ewald van der Neut that didn’t come to compete, but they DID come to support and act as pit crew for the drivers. You guys rock!

The early morning temperature was much better than the previous couple of Sundays, but then the wind turned ugly on us and made it a bit hard to enjoy the nice warm weather. Ah, we can just not have it all, can we?

In Heat 1 of the Nitro Buggies, Tertius van Rooyen was the undisputed best performer. Tertius boasts minimum lap times of 51 and even 50 seconds, which is EXCELLENT!!  But then we also had Piet du Toit, Rohan vd Walt and Johan Barnard that had to battle it out for the 2^nd place in all three qualies.  Both Piet and Johan Barnard, together with Tertius of course, made it to the A Final.

In Heat 2 of the Nitro Buggies, Jason Landsberg was the best performer. His fastest lap through the three qualies was 49.24 seconds. Outstanding!! Well done, Jason! Johnny Claes, Kevin Bann and Jacques Brits were his closest rivals. Daniël du Plessis had two laps of just over 50 seconds, but he unfortunately also had frequent car trouble that spoiled his couple of outstanding fast laps.

Heat 3 Nitro Truggy: Here we saw mixed results throughout the qualies; not one of the three rounds had the same results. For example; Johan Barnard won the 1^st round, Johnny Claes won the 2^nd round and Kevin Bann won the 3^rd round. Kobus Griesel claims the two fastest laps, but his average lap time couldn’t pull him through this month. Kobus’s fastest lap in the Truggy qualifiers: 54.57 seconds.

Heat 4 Electric buggies: Kevin Bann won two of the qualifying heats, but for some reason he did not start his 3^rd qually . That one was won by Piet du Toit. Fastest lap in this class during qualifiers belongs to Kevin – 52.6 seconds.

Electric buggy Finals:

This class gets 3 legs of 6 minutes each to allow for reasonable track time, in comparison with the nitro classes. Kevin Bann won all three of the final legs. Well done! Kevin’s best lap- 53.32 seconds.

Nitro Truggy Final:

What a nail biting race! Phew..!!! Johnny Claes took an early lead and kept his pace throughout this 30 minute race. It deserves to be mentioned that it was only the second time that Johnny competed in this class and he won it!! He completed two laps more than the runner up and his average was more than 4 seconds faster! That’s what I call a worthy victory! Excellent racing, Johnny! The 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th places in this race were a surprise up to the very end, because it kept on changing! As soon as I thought that it was going to be Kevin, then something happened and Kobus shifted into 2^nd. Then, in a matter of seconds, things would change again and it was Martin van Rooyen in 2^nd. This scenario kept on taking place and no one watching this race, including the drivers, was sure what the outcome was going to be. At the end it was Kobus who resurfaced the umpteenth time, and ended in 2^nd place, with Martin in 3^rd, after a drive shaft came loose on Kevin’s truggy.  Kobus’s best lap was 52.10.  It was a pleasure and a great surprise to have noticed that Martin was also able to do several laps in the low 50’s.  Huge competition for Kobus, who used to be our local Truggy king. But on the other hand; who says that Kobus is afraid of the Big Bad Wolf/Woves?  Just LOOK at that face on the podium.... Haha.  Can’t wait for next month!

 

B Final Nitro Buggy:

Both Henry and Ronel had faster laps than the young boy from Potc, Rohan and his dad, but it was their more consistent laps that earned them the 2^nd and 3^rd places. And both Henry and Ronel had flame outs that cost them dearly. Schalk, the winner, had a very good race and he also boasts the fastest lap – 54.22 seconds. Well done, Schalk! Schalk’s wife Colleen quit the race after 9 laps.

End result:

1. Schalk Vorster
2. Rohan van der Walt
3. Johan van der Walt

 

A Final Nitro Buggy:

A very exciting race to have watched. Extremely good laps were done by our local boys, Jason Landsberg and Tertius van Rooyen, whom we are very proud of. Fastest lap for the day in this class belongs to Tertius – 48.67 seconds.

1. Jason Landsberg
2. Tertius van Rooyen
3. Jacques Brits
4. Kevin Bann
5. Kobus Griesel
6. Piet du Toit
7. Jakkie Landsberg
8. Johnny Claes
9. Johan Barnard (car trouble)
10. Daniël du Plessis  (car trouble)

Best presented car ; Congrats to Johan Barnard

   

Apart from the nasty wind, it was in every other aspect a very pleasant and enjoyable day. ... I would say?