Eish…where shall I start with this report? Let me try; We’ve had all the arrangements in place, including the caterer.  We kept an eye on the online entries and arranged the food accordingly. …  But came Saturday 14 May, I could not get it over my heart to allow the prospective caterer to follow through and go and purchase thousands of rands’  worth of wors, patties, buns,bread rolls etc. , because it started raining cats and dogs on Friday!!

And all the weather platforms unanimously predicted more and more rain for Sunday…    Consequently, I texted him on Saturday at 13h00 and tell him to NOT go ahead and buy the supplies at 14h00, which was his plan of action.  It was an extremely difficult decision to have made, as you can imagine.  I did however had a Plan B in place for in case the TC would go ahead, regardless of the bad weather. What happened then is now history.

Photo below was taken 06h20 am Sunday morning.

 

When Sunday morning dawned upon us, none of us were sure what the day would bring. We, the organizers as well as the drivers took it moment by moment. Meyerton Raceway is famous for drying tracks before a big race, so that was exactly what we did again. Not many hands assisted us this time around, but we (Andre, Piet and Marius, to be more specific) worked relentlessly and with the help of Mother Nature, who sent us a little breeze and a lot of sunshine, we got the track in order shortly after 11 am.

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In the mean time, we added seven more names on the BBK system.  (As always, we had a number of guys that entered at the track.) Of the initial 105 online entries, it was only 4 guys that backed out, because of the rain…unbelievable!!!!! We were so chuffed about this!! No one will dare call the Tamiya cup guys sissies, ever, in my presence!! 

THE RACE

Heat 1 – Stock Touring:

Car 1 – JP Le Roux had a late start and a few hiccups in between

Car 2 – Jan Venter won the race and he also boasts the fastest lap time – 21.5 sec

Car 3 – Pedro de Abreu did not pitch

Car 4 – Kobus Hietbrink ended 2^nd, only a fraction of a second behind Jan

Car 5 - Diego de Abreu did not pitch

Car 6 – Paul Els ended 3^rd, equaling Jan and Kobus’s 14 laps.

Car 7 – Gerhard Bezuidenhout ran into some car trouble and quit the race after 8 laps.

Heat 2 – Stock Touring:

Car 1 - Rogan Hesselwood was still feeling his way around the track…

Car 2 – Daniel Kusner wasn’t his normal fast self, but averaged 24sec nevertheless

Car 3 – Bradley Ludeke, if I am not mistaken is a young boy in his 1^st ever Tamiya Cup race. He completed 13 laps. Best lap 22.3 sec

Car 4 – Buks Herringer  A late start and also a couple of troublesome laps hampered his performance

Car 5 – Robbie Webster ended 3^rd with a best lap of 21.75 sec

Car 6 – Rudi Lintström Did Not Start

Car 7 – Lunaco Eksteen won the race and he also had the fastest lap – 21.66 sec

Car 8 – Warren Cooper ended 2^nd Very consistent, with his best lap and average lap almost the same.

Heat 3 – FWD Touring:

Car 1 – Danie Delport. No mistakes on his part, just not the fastest

Car 2 – Henry Mostert ended 2^nd. Some incredible fast laps.

Car 3 – Paul Els had one loooong lap that stole some precious seconds from him

Car 4 – Chris Silver had a late start that influenced his end result

Car 5 - Lance Constable was his usual fast self, winning the race and achieving the fastest lap – 18.19s

Car 6 – Bradley Ludeke Did Not Start

Car 7 – Martin Visser ended 3^rd

Car 8 -  Hayden Millar did not pitch up

Heat 4 – FWD Touring:

Car 1 - Bennie Ludeke had to retire from the race early on, after only 7 laps

Car 2 – JP le Roux had 3 or more long laps (knock overs?) that had a negative effect on his average lap time

Car 3 – Pieter vd Merwe ended 2^nd. 2 laps of less than 18 seconds proof his ability

Car 4 – Logan Burger had an accident, or something on his car broke, because that 40 sec lap was demoralizing!

Car 5 – Derek Sardini ‘s late start affected his results negatively

Car 6 – Harry Wilesmith ended 3^rd, after a more than pleasing race

Car 7 – André Marais won the race. The only driver in this heat to achieve an average lap time of less than 20 sec.

Car 8 – Greg Schotel had a disastrous qualifying round…to say the least

Heat 5 – Mini Chassis:

Car 1 – Daniel Kusner did not do anything wrong, he was just not the fastest guy in this race.

Car 2-   Bradley Ludeke managed to beat his dad and he was so chuffed! Need I say more?

Car 3 – Bennie Ludeke had a late start as well as a couple of slow laps; I cannot recall what caused it..

Car 4 – Henry Mostert ended 2^nd with quite a few 20 second laps. Not too shabby, hey? 

Car 5 – Ethan Constable ; with RC in his blood stream it wasn’t strange to find him in 4^th place.

Car 6 – Chris Silver performed his usual better-than-average laps, 14 of them

Car 7 – Louw Venter had his (un)fair share of car trouble, shame..

Car 8 – Wayne van Veenhuyzen won the race. His best lap 20.4 and his average a brilliant 21.1 sec.

Car 9 – Kevin Hattingh, another youngster with RC blood in his veins, ended 3^rd.

Car 10 – JP Prinsloo ‘s performance was totally fine, just not top notch…

Heat 6 – Mini Chassis:

Car 1 – Greg Hesslewood ; something went terribly wrong, he only did 3 laps

Car 2 – Roux Delport, another RC kid, did 12 satisfactory laps.

Car 3 – Wietz van Staden joined the race as a beginner and was still getting the hang of it.

Car 4 – Anton Prinsloo had a couple of hiccups along the way..

Car 5 – Robbie Webster made no mistakes; he won the race

Car 6 – Greg Schotel ended 2^nd , but boasts the fastest lap in this race – 20.58 sec. Well done!!

Car 7 – Rudi Lintström had himself an average race.

Car 8 – Luanco Eksteen ; better than average for a mini – 23.3 sec average

Car 9 – Warren Cooper had two slow laps that hampered him, probably due to accidents?

Car 10 – Chazlee Cooper grew up in a RC world; he ended 3^rd.

Heat 7 – Formula One :

Car 1 – Bradley Ludeke drove his racing car pretty well! 13 laps.

Car 2 – Bennie Ludeke ended 2^nd. Best lap 19.74 sec

Car 3 – Chris Silver had a bit of a late start plus one or two oopsies along the way.

Car 4 – Jaco Smith ended 3^rd. Best lap 19.33 sec

Car 5 – Lance Constable won this race convincingly. Fastest lap – 19.26 sec

Car 6 – JP Prinsloo had 2 slow laps that cost him dearly; maybe due to accidents?

Car 7 – Hayden Millar – DNS

Heat 8 – Formula One:

Car 1 - Greg Hesslewood – a late start disadvantaged him

Car 2 – Jannie Hattingh  - that 19 sec lap couldn’t make up for those two slow laps…more than likely caused by accidents…

Car 3 – Louw Venter quit the race after 7 laps….sorry about that.

Car 4 – Wayne van Veenhuyzen won this heat. Well done!

Car 5 – Anton Prinsloo did not start

Car 6 – Pieter van der Merwe boasts the fastest lap – 18.98 sec. He ended 2^nd. Mooi man!

 

Heat 9 – Super Stock:

Car 1 - Danie Delport  put 14 laps behind his name

Car 2 – Jan Venter had a race that he would rather forget about; only 2 laps

Car 3 – Lance Constable ended 2^nd. One of his laps was less than 17 seconds.

Car 4 – Arno Minnie retired after 9 laps

Car 5 – Wayne van Veenhuyzen had mixed results: varying from 19 to 35 seconds…confusing…?!

Car 6 – Morné de Beer won this race with a brilliant 17.59 sec average. Best lap – 16.43 sec

Car 7 – André Marais did well; 13 pretty fast laps and two less fast ones

Car 8 – Chazlee Cooper ended 3^rd.  Best lap 16.94 sec. Wow!

 

Heat 10  -  4 wheel drive GT:

Car 1 -  Morné de Beer won convincingly. Best lap – 16.13. Great job!!

Car 2 – Kobus Hietbrink can be happy with a successful race

Car 3 – Wayne van Veenhuyzen ended 2^nd with 3 of his laps in 16.- something seconds.

Car 4 – Jannie Hattingh ended 3^rd. 3 laps of 16. something seconds

Car 5 – Martin Visser DNS

Car 6 – Marius Burger, relaxed driver as always. 17 laps

Car 7 – Logan Burger got 16 laps

 

Heat 11 – Open Stock:

Car 1 – Francois Smit got 13 laps

Car 2 – Roelof Pretorius got 11 laps…a race ruined by car trouble galore.

Car 3 – Paul Els. One slow lap badly influenced the fast ones. Sorry about that.

Car 4 – Chris Silver  - same story: one bad lap spoilt the many good ones.

Car 5 – Diego de Abreu did not start

Car 6 - Mario de Abreu did not start

Car 7 – Ethan Constable raced very well and ended 2^nd.  Best lap 18.39 sec.

Car 8 – Daniel Kusner , sorry about that one lap of 32 seconds that spoilt your performance.

Car 9 – John Steyn, an old friend of us, ended 1^st .  Well deserved!  Fastest lap – 17.62 sec

Car 10 – Kevin Hattingh, the young lad, ended 3^rd.

 

 Heat 12 – Open Stock

Car 1 – Hayden Millar never pitched up at the track

Car 2 – JP Prinsloo Did not Start

Car 3 – Zak Coetzee, also a young kid, got 10 laps.

Car 4 – Ferdinand Smit  did reasonably well, he got 14 laps

Car 5 – We saw Robbie ending in 4^th place

Car 6 – Greg Hesslewood ended 3^rd. Congrats with that 17 sec lap!

Car 7 – Lunaco Eksteen did not complete the race

Car 8 – Harry Wilesmith ended 2^nd. Well deserved!

Car 9 – Roux Delport, you did well; I am looking forward to witness your future in this game.

Car 10 – Chazlee Cooper won this race. Congratulations!

Car 11 – Gerhard Bezuidenhout – the friendly guy. A couple of troublesome laps spoilt the really fast ones. Sorry!

=====================================================================================================================

Top qualifiers:

Stock Touring:   Luanco Eksteen

FWD :                  Lance Constable

Mini chassis:      Wayne van Veenhuyzen

Formula 1 :        Lance Constable

Super Stock:      Morné de Beer

4 wheel drive:   Morné de Beer

Open Stock:      Chazlee Cooper

 =====================================================================================================================

Final results :

(See fastest lap in class in brackets)

B   final – Stock Touring: 

1. Gerhard Bezuidenhout  (22.18)
2. Rudi Lintström
3. Buks Herringer

 

A final – Stock Touring:

1. Kobus Hietbrink
2. Jan Venter
3. Bradley Ludeke

(Best lap – Robbie Webster – 21.38 sec)

B Final FWD :

1. Greg Schotel  (18.70)
2. Logan Burger
3. Bennie Ludeke

 

A Final FWD:

1. Henry Mostert (17.68)
2. André Marais
3. Martin Visser

 

B Final Mini Chassis:

1. Warren Cooper  (21.48)
2. Luanco Eksteen
3. Greg Hesselwood

 

 

A Final mini Chassis:

1. Henry Mostert (19.75)
2. Wayne van Veenhuyzen
3. Kevin Hattingh

 

Formula One:

1. Jaco Smith
2. Pieter van der Merwe
3. Wayne van Veenhuyzen

(Best lap – Lance Constable – 19.16 sec)

 

Super stock:

1. Morné de Beer (16.50)
2. Chazlee Cooper
3. Lance Constable

4 Wheel drive GT:

1. Morné de Beer (15.99)
2. Wayne van Veenhuyzen
3. Jannie Hattingh

B Final Open Stock:

1. JP Prinsloo
2. Gerhard Bezuidenhout
3. Luanco Eksteen (18.36)

A Final Open Stock:

1. Chazlee Cooper
2. John Steyn (17.50)
3. Harry Wilesmith

A note or two from Henry (track owner) :

Thank you to all the racers that had the balls to come out and race in the bad weather conditions. We appreciate your support.