Henry got up early and started sugaring the track at 6am. He was only done for a few minutes, when a rain shower came along and washed the sugar right off again! Eish!!!Not nice… Drivers from afar said that by looking at the sky on their way to Meyerton, the prospect of a successful race day didn’t look good at all. But after the rain subsided quite early – about 8 o’ clock – it stayed away and the day became scorching hot once again.

 

The day held another surprise in stall for the drivers: Graham, also known as Tiny, and his wife Charmaine celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary at the track. They were so kind as to buy braaivleis (chops, steak and sausages) for everyone at the track, including our marshals. When the fires were ready we were invited to come and fetch some meat and braai the meat to our liking and help ourselves to salads and bread rolls.  We even had cupcakes for desert! Everything was lip smacking and we want to convey our gratitude again. Thank you, Tiny and Charmaine!

The Race:

10  entries on the 8^th scale GT’s and this month only one 8^th scale pan car. Sorry, Stephen, I really hope the regular pan car drivers will be back next month.                 Only 5 of the 10^th scale nitro’s this month. Bwaaahhhh….that is me crying…. because we normally run 2 heats of them..

 8^th scale GT class :

Heat 1 Round1:

Kevin Bann kicked off on a high note. He won the race with a lap more than the runner up. . the best of his 17 laps – 17.43 sec.

Wayne Smith raced 16 laps and came in moments after Kevin.

Johnny Claes equaled Wayne’s 16 laps and ended 3^rd.  He was followed by Kobus, Charmaine, Ronel, Johan, Jacques and Schalk. Stephen with the pan car did not start and neither did André Steenekamp.

Heat 1 Round2:

Kevin beat Wayne to the starting line again, this time with half a second gap between the two of them. Both got 17 laps. In this round Kevin treated us to the best average lap time for the entire day – 18.09 sec. His best lap – 16.88sec  Well done!

Johan Barnard ended 3^rd , with 16 laps behind his name and Ronel Bann ended in 4^th place with 15 laps. Stephen (with his pan car) encountered a couple of flame outs. So did Schalk, Johnny and Kobus. André, Jacques and Charmaine did not start.

Heat 1 Round 3:

Kevin swapped places with Johan Barnard while Wayne remained in the middle….his 2^nd position. Ronel and her brother –in-law Schalk followed on Kevin’s heels. Stephen encountered idling problems again with Charmaine in the same boat. Kobus only managed to do 3 laps while André, Johnny and Jacques did not start.

1/8^th GT Final results:

The results are a bit of a mess, because the computer refused to allow me (and Henry, for that matter) to allocate Kevin’s transponder to his name. Instead, the club transponder number 1, that Schalk used, was automatically allocated to Kevin, who was driving car no 1) and we’ve tried for 30 minutes to correct it, but to no avail. And at the end of the race, Kevin’s ‘unknown driver’ results were discarded of… But I’ve taken 14 photos of the screen during the race and we will try to manually allocate him his series points.

Also: André Steenekamp, who could get his car to co operate for even one qualifier, was all of a sudden the main man..! He won the half an hour race with 93 beautiful and un-interrupted laps. Johan Barnard ended 2^nd with 91 laps and Kevin (before his results were discarded of) had 88 laps behind his name.

1^st -  André Steenekamp  -  Fastest lap – 17.52 sec

2^nd  - Johan Barnard – Fastest lap – 18.12 sec

3^rd -  Kevin Bann

4^th – Wayne  with 83 laps

5^th – Ronel with 82 laps

6^th – Charmaine with  with 74 laps

7^th – Schalk Vorster with 71 laps

8^th -  Jacques Brits with 70 laps  (Did not complete the race)

9^th  -  Johnny Claes with 63 laps

10^th  - Stephen Smith with 62 laps  (Did not complete the race)

11^th  - Kobus Griesel with 18 laps  (Did not complete the race)

 

10^th scale  (200mm touring)

Heat 2 Round 1:

Kevin Gates did well in the 1^st qualifier and also did the fastest lap

Lucas Dillschnitter was in 2^nd place and Marika Claes  (3^rd) performed extremely well. I am sure that this was her best performance ever in this class. Mooi so, girl!

Piet du Toit had a very late start and only had time to complete 12 laps.

Bjorn Boogaard had car trouble and had to retire after only 3 laps.

Heat 2 Round 2:

Marika now did even better… she came down on her lap time considerably! She also took the 1^st place in this round.

Piet (almost) overcame his problems and ended 2^nd with only a few wasted seconds.

Kevin Gates started to pick up trouble with his car. He ended 3^rd, but now achieved the fastest lap – 17.01 sec

Bjorn had a late start as well as a flame out. He ended 4^th

Lucas DNS

Heat 2 Round 3:

Marika succeeded in winning yet again. You go, Girl!!

Piet was behind her and Lucas ended 3^rd.

Bjorn and Kevin Gates did not start

200mm Final:

Kevin Gates left the race as well as the track after his car let him down after 9 minutes into this 30 minute Finals.

Marika kept on racing and she got 70 laps, even after a couple of flame outs. Now THAT is the racing spirit that we want to see!  You get the message, Kevin?

Bjorn (3^rd) and Piet (2^nd) both managed to race 83 laps each.

Lucas Dillschnitter was however the shining star for the day. He completed 98 laps in the half an hour race and his best lap was 16.62 sec. Great stuff!!!!! 

 

Best presented RC body for the Day:

Jacques Brits with his GT