Durban Model Car Club (DMCC) Rd2 of 3 On Road Gas National 13-14 June 2009
Race Report - 7/6/2009 12:37:47 PM
Race Report Durban Gas National June 2009
Well, the Inlanders arrived at what has always been a very tough track for most of them, but this year, through some great skills (and a bit of luck) they managed to well and truly put one over the Coastal boys. Well done guys!
I think it had something to do with too much traction for the local coastal members, as we’re not used to having so much? Anyway, congratulations to all the winners and the guys that weren’t quite there, when you come to Durb’s next year, you know what to expect.
Let’s get down to some racing. Thursday started with minimal traction, Even Arnie was looking in his box for the SE Mediums!. However a second top-up sugar brought the traction right up there with what we had two years ago when all the current records were set. Friday retained the traction and all the visitors were really getting in the groove with the Border boys settling well to the longer track. (kerbs were great Huh?)
Saturday dawned a lovely day in Durb’s with the temp in the 25o C region and the grip even better. The racing was fast and furious, sometimes too furious, and the gloves were coming off right from the first round.
Traditionally, DMCC pulls out a bunch of superquick local flyers that, unfortunately do not always travel the Nats circuit, but they are always really fast at home. After the first round of 1/10” there were a few surprises at the top of the log with Mikey quickest on a 25 lapper, Steve Munslow 2nd on a 24 lapper, while 3rd went to local Durban driver Daniel Ferguson, who stunned a few with his pace, coming from group 2 of the 4 seeded groups. Another surprise was Ian Corbett who has not raced for over a year, but he slotted in to 8th with young Ayrton Vermaak tucked in the 10th spot with Border first-timer, Pat Lester at 11th.
Second round and the boys were getting serious. Mikey still top, but the Inlanders were starting their charge. Munzie held 2nd with Daniel going even faster in this round, still in 3rd. with his Durban teammate Tony D’Oliviera now secure in 4th. Christian snatched 5th from “Part time” Serpent team man Rowan in 6th. Russel Attenborough and Asad Rajab were defending their top 10 positions from round one as well. It was hotting up at the front!
Third round and what a race in group 4. Mikey still out front, but then came the dice of the weekend between Christian, Munzie, Rowan and Dave “Hot foot” Wisey. These guys showed how to race at the top level with some excellent dicing, which had the crowd oohing and aahing, as first one led, and then the next. How easy and skilled was it to race like that, going into a corner in front, and coming out four places back, and so on and so forth, a really good race.
Group 1 The final 4th round saw Asad and George McClure again fighting for the top slot in Group1 as they had done all day. Asad eventually just missing the A Main cut by going B1, one slot ahead of the ever improving George who took 12th. Luis Fernandes who has raced all over the world in his younger days, finished a creditable 17th while newcomer Fernando Chambel took 24th and Border new boy Andy Wiggell, 29th.
Group 2 had those local flyers in it and again they impressed with Tony D putting in a special run in round 4 to take 4th overall, while Daniel nailed 7th and Clinton Thomson secured his first A Main with a fine 9th overall. Derek Noddings took 15th while Rias Khan secured 20th. One of the pre race favorites, Stan Hausmann, had a weekend to forget, as motor problems plagued his efforts and his Electric team will be asking all sorts of questions about his performance!
Group 3 had Ayrton and Ian Corbett tussling at the front all day, with Ayrton finally getting the better of Ian, to take 13th overall, one spot ahead of Ian. Pat Lester stayed in the B main and more importantly ahead of his pal, Anthony Fox, who secured his spot in the C main.
Wim Hoek, recovering from a hip replacement, had a quiet weekend but still took 16th overall while Quinton Wucherpfenning, Mischa Naidoo and Dean Cafun dropped back to the C main.
Group 4 saw Christian saving his best for this last run as he jumped up to 2nd overall, pushing Steve Munslow back to 3rd, ( hear the Coastal boys growling?) with Tony taking 4th, Dave 5th and Rowan 6th. Russel kept the Border boys represented , taking the 8th spot behind Daniel, while Jason Mara backed up his East London performance, with another top 10 spot, behind Clinton.
Some great sprinting to watch over the day!
The 235 class has been badly hit with low entries recently, however, this is such a fun class to watch and to drive, and it was great to see a full grid once again. Rumours of Faizel coming out of retirement for the TVR leg will certainly draw Arnie and a few of the AMR boys out of the woodwork as well. Two heats again for this class?
DMCC put out six cars, with Phillip Engel being the sole Inlander, while the Cape had two drivers, The sprints were close as always, with Dave “Hot foot” Wisey taking the T.Q. Mr. “GTI”, Derek Noddings 2nd and Ian Corbett 3rd with Daniel (lightie) Ferguson, 4th. They could have put four Ian’s and Daniel’s in the race and added their ages together and they still would have been younger than the two ballies in front. Peter Moller having his first race in a few years, took 5th, ahead of fellow Capetonian Leon Du Plessis, with Clinton, Phillip and Neil taking the remaining spots on the grid.
And then let hell break loose! The “big okes” came out to play and there was some good racing and some poor driving. Unfortunately, Wayne and Mikey are a big step ahead in this class and the rest are having to play catch up. This is strange as in the 200mm class, there are quite a few drivers running at Mikes level.(1/8 boys needing some quiet practice sessions?)This doesn’t mean you have to throw big money thrown at motors etc. Yes it’s nice to go fast, but the faster you go, the faster all hell breaks loose, and the expense starts big time. I lost count of all the 1/8th’s airborne or upside down this weekend. The model aircraft guys could learn a thing or two! Its all down to smooth running and practice!
Wayne and Mikey really did put on a good show, though with Wayne coming out on top and Mikey stuck to Wayne’s car like cellotape, that’s how close these two can run – it’s thrilling to watch and must be nerve shattering to drive. The rest of the guys were fighting for third spot in this class with local driver Tony D’Oliviera securing this position, 4 seconds clear of Johan Kirsten who made a welcome return to racing. Shaheen put in his best performance to date with a fine 5th, ahead of the Cape’s Sean Moller, who was having his first race meeting in two years but was still very smooth. Some new pass techniques were shown to us in this class, with some drivers trying to go through each other, again costing money and patience.
To Sunday, and welcome to a cloudy Durban, We managed to get to race the “C” main 200mm before a drizzle delayed things for a while , then thy skies cleared and we managed the full race programme for the day.
200mm C Main. Stan “The man” Hausmann, (did we mention he was representing the whole Electric racing sector?) came through from no 10 on the grid, to take the lead on lap 5 (trophey hunter) with Clive Crawford hanging on to him in second, but a motor cut for Stan saw a big shuffle at the front with Chris Potgieter now into the lead, again closely followed by Clive and Anthony Fox, who is now residing in Durban. He moved into a steady untroubled 3rd with Quinton Wucherpfennig chasing him..
Chris Potgieter held onto his lead to the end with Clive finishing one lap behind in 2nd while Stan snatched 3rd in the final few laps. finishing a few metres ahead of Anthony. At least this one went to the locals! Congratulations to Chris Potgieter, Clive (the stripper) Crawford and trophy hunter Stan “The man” Hausmann.
The “B” mains and here came the crash and bash crowd. Remember guys, there’s 30mins to race and you don’t necessary win in the first corner. Anyway, after all had settled down, pole man Asad was at the front but getting pressure from George Mc Clure and Ayrton “The Wild Thing” Vermaak. By midway in the race, young Ayrton had hit the front while Asad dropped back with a lengthy stop. Pat Lester had been hovering in 4th for a while and he now jumped up to 2nd with Rias Kahn coming from 9th up to 3rd.
This dice continued for the rest of the race with these 3 never more than a lap apart. Ayrton maintained his cool though and finished on 63 laps, 10 seconds ahead of the fast improving Pat Lester while the quiet Rias finished 3rd, just 5 seconds behind Pat. All three were on the same lap at the finish!. . It shows how much concentration goes into driving these cars for 30 mins, as when Pat came off the drivers stand totally draining all his body fluids out of his eyes. Well done to all, and especially Pat for showing some of us what this hobby actually means to him.
The “A” main, and after such a build up on Saturday, some good racing looked on the cards. Six Coastal okes, four inlanders, but boy, did these inlanders whip our butts! 1st, 2nd and 3rd to them, and so giving the Inlanders much to crow about, especially in Durban. There are all sorts of stories about a big contingent of coastal okes going to TVR, you have been warned!
Mike and Christian hit the front from the start with Mike shadowing Christian before a broken battery tab gave him a runaway on the back straight, thus ending his race. Dave had taken second and was the only car on the same lap as Christian up to the 20 minute mark when a stripped 2nd gear required a gearbox change, dropping him back to 4th. This allowed Rowen up to 2nd with teammate Steve into 3rd .Russell was keeping the Border hopes high in 5th.
Christian stayed cool and calm and without putting a foot wrong, secured his 2nd A Main win of the season,, one lap clear of Rowan, with Steve 3rd, a further lap down. Dave finished in 4th, a lap down.on Steve, after another gear stripped. Congrats go to Christian, Rowan and Munzie for cleaning up the prizes.
The 235 class, and here was the first showing of the pink brigade from that place at the bottom of the continent. It’s actually sad to have to bring the really old guys out to make up the class. Sunday was particularly bad for the poor guy, as the weather played havoc with his arthritis. Anyway, I digress, Dave and Derek put on a good show for the crowd, cleaning up, with Derek 1st, Dave 2nd and the Capey, Peter Moller, finishing a fighting 3rd, albeit with having to use a cane to hold himself up with! He was 20 seconds ahead of Clinton Thomson, who also finished on 61 laps. Roll on TVR which is a great track for these two wheel drive cars!
And then there were two 1/8 Mains, well almost only one, as the “B” main 1/8’s tried to destroy themselves on the first couple of laps. Reminds us of the Scheckter F1 crash at the British GP which decimated the field. Arnie’s car somehow managed to jump from the back straight, onto the middle straight, causing total destruction. Out of the six cars to start the race, only Dean “running the motor in” Cafun, missed the carnage and was able to completely run his motor in for the 45 minutes. A good testament to a Nationals, was that everybody, except Arnie, got running again, albeit a couple of laps down, and finished the race. Congratulations go to Dean, Wim Hoek and Phillip Engell who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in this main. .
And now the big one! Not quite, as Mikey went out very early with two plug cuts, allowing Wayne a pressure free run and he made sure it was a trouble free run, even managing a tyre change halfway through! Problems for the other guys also except for another one of the pink brigade complete with a “rent a family for the weekend” Sean Moller who drove a great race to finish second ahead of an unlucky Tony “D” who was 2nd for almost the entire race, before a broken rod shorted his final but still saw him drop to third.
And so that was the weekend, I’m sorry to not be able to mention everybody and I’m sure you all have your own stories to tell, but the whole weekend was very entertaining and the people do get on well with each other. I just wish we could find some more drivers again, so until TVR everybody keep practicing so we can all give the Waynes’ and Mikeys’ a go in the not too distant future.
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