We are now back to cold winter mornings, when the sun only comes out after 7am here in Gauteng. Not like in summer time when the cars are queuing outside our gates at 6 am. But you still get the odd RC driver that arrives at the track before the sun does…eish…brave guys!  This Sunday was no different; with the exception that Henry remembered to switch the urn on for the benefit of those who need a coffee/cappuccino fix.

André, our right hand man was not available, due to personal circumstances, so Thank You, Henry for taking care of everything yourself. ..like in the early years, when we were doing everything ourselves.  Back to the early birds; I cannot accuse newbie Erwee Fourie of being guilty of this…haha… him and his dad only arrived at the track when we were about to have the drivers’ briefing.  And that was just before 9 o clock… which is already much later than usual.  Naughty hey..? Now you know…

THE RACE:

Heat 1 – Round 1 Nitro Buggy:

A Beginners Class, because of the 4 guys in this class, it was only Tobie de Beer that had previous off road experience …and it was years ago. Tobie however failed to get a lap in this round.

Johnrique, a week away from his 6^th birthday, had one previous off road race at another track. But something prevented him from starting in this round.

Erwee Fourie, a tall and very talented 15 year old young man had his 1^st official race….ever! Unfortunately he wasn’t ready and did not complete any laps in this round.

Ewald van der Neut is well experienced in On Road racing, but as you know, this is a total different kind of RC racing. Only Ewald was ready (enough) for this 1^st round. He completed 5 laps.

Heat  1 Round 2 Nitro Buggy:

A  first ever in Meyerton Raceway’s history: One full round with zero drivers.

Heat  1 Round 3 Nitro Buggy:

This time around Ewald got his problems solved and did 6 very acceptable laps. Johnrique got 4laps. Erwee got the hang of it and completed a couple of laps. Tobie did not start.

B FINAL  Nitro Buggy:

NOW…what do we have here??  After having all sorts of car trouble, including a couple of blown servos, Tobie gave it up as a bad job.

Johnrique only joined the race 7 minutes into the race. Add another 12.5 minutes of non-racing, due to flame outs and he was left with only a 3^rd of the race to test his skills. He nevertheless completed 11 laps and his best lap of 64 seconds is not bad at all for such a tiny little boy. Well done!

Ewald did quite well. He completed a lap every minute, taking into account the four pit stops for refueling.  26 laps – best lap 63.49s.

Erwee boasts a win in his very first race.  I am particularly proud of it, because that was exactly what I predicted when I first met him and his dad two weeks ago.  Erwee equaled Ewald’s 26 laps, but his average lap time was just that tiny – but ever so important- bit better.  Fastest lap – 63.25 s. Well done!!

 

Heat 2 Round 1 Nitro Buggy:

Car 1 – Kobus Griesel did not get any laps, although he has started.

Car 2 – Stephen Smith did 5 pretty fast laps, but he had to retire after that. His best lap – 51.91s.

Car 3 – Henry Ogden had a bit of late start, but after that everything went well for him. He managed to get 6 laps in and also won the race.

Car 4 – Martinette Hugget , a well known lady driver visited us and experienced a hiccup or two. She got 5 laps.

Car 5 – Piet du Toit also had a late start and then completed 5 laps. He apparently took this buggy from the shelf for the first time this year. We usually see him in the electric buggy class.

Heat 2 Round 2 Nitro Buggy:

Martinette won the race hands down…4 of her 6 laps were excellent.

Henry ended 2^nd. He also completed 6 laps.

Piet equaled his previous 5 laps, but could not better his lap times.

Stephen, notwithstanding amazing fast laps, couldn't complete this round either. Best lap – 51.3s.

Kobus retired from the race after 3 laps.

Heat 2 Round 3 Nitro Buggy:

Stephen shed all his car problems and showed us what he is really capable of…7 laps and amongst them two laps of less than 50 seconds! Fastest lap – 49.41s. Great stuff!

Kobus came back with a bang!! He boasts 7 laps of which the best one was 55.48 seconds. He ended 2^nd.

Martinette had a very satisfying race and she ended 3^rd.

Henry ended 4^th . With a lot of slipping and sliding he still managed to complete 6 laps.

Piet also got 6 laps.

A FINAL  Nitro Buggy:

Disaster struck!! I am reasonably confident in the race control office, but with Henry on the driver stand and Andre at home taking care of personal business, I had NO idea where to look for the problem when three of the personal transponders failed to pick up. All I could do was to announce whose transponders are not picking up. Stephen’s dad helped me by calling out every time his son completed a lap, which I then added manually, but I obviously could not allocate lap times for him. Martinette and her hubby Cyril accepted the disaster gracefully and said that she will continue racing just for fun. Kobus’s transponder picked up every now and then.  Over halfway through the 30 minute race Henry couldn’t stand my moaning anymore and he eventually came down from the driver stand to look for a solution. He found that the noise level on the BBK system was very high and did something to fix it. It was after 1104.93 seconds that I was finally able to see Stephen’s laps on the screen. By then he already completed 16 laps. We will never know what exactly his lap times were before that, but what we were able to see was spectacular enough!! Best lap (on record) was 48.23 seconds!!

 Martinette’s average laps were way better than Henry and Piet’s, and with no flame outs, she obviously deserved the 2^nd place on the podium.

Piet completed 3 more laps than Henry, therefore I had to allocate him the 3^rd place.

Henry accepted his 4^th place, although we know that he had been in a better position than Piet, before he came down from the driver stand to fix the transponder problem.  He actually quit the race, but his pitcrew urged him to go back and complete the race.

Kobus quit the race after 11 laps. Not only because of the transponders issue, but apparently his buggy would not turn properly.

 

Heat 3 Round 1 Nitro Truggy:

Wayne won the race. 7 laps with his best lap 52.52s.

Kobus ended 2^nd after suffering a longish flame out.

Johnny couldn’t complete this round. He retired after only 4 laps.

Heat 3 Round 2 Nitro Truggy:

Wayne stood on the driver stand totally on his own…ah shame…He used this not-so-nice opportunity to complete 7 laps and even improved on his fastest lap time. 50.64s

Heat 3 Round 3 Nitro Truggy:

Wayne on his own again. He again completed 7 laps, but failed to improve on his performance of Round 2.

Truggy Final:

Truggy 1 – Wayne had an almost faultless race. He completed 33 laps in half an hour. Best lap – 51.48seconds. I have big respect for that 56 second average…well done!!
Truggy 2 – Kobus had a VERY late start. Almost 6 minutes lost there… He recovered nicely from that drawback and still completed 26 laps. Best lap – 53.31 sec. Good for you!
Tryggy 3 – Johnny had himself a fine race in the Finals. He ended 2nd. Congrats!! With no major flame outs he got 31 laps of which the quickest one was 53.69s.

OVERALL Truggy Result:

 

Best presented RC body award - Kobus Griesel Mooi so!!

 

So, not an extremely busy or exciting race day, but pleasantly enough. Good weather prevailed for most of the day and with a cheerful atmosphere, the day was enjoyed by all of us.