TVR Nat was the final round of a three Nat 2009 season and despite our thoughts that three Nats would ease the burden of travel costs etc and give us big fields for 2009, this was not the case as all the Nats struggled for entries, although TVR was an improvement and hopefully this trend will continue into 2010.
As always, Arnie and his small team had done some tremendous work in redoing the track which was looking immaculate and they again brought up the traction to a very high level, Well done guys!
Practice saw the locals again very quick with the Border “Squatters” looking like locals as well as they got in some early laps, Looking the most comfortable of their good sized traveling squad was Patrick Lester who settled quickly into the fast flowing track. Steve “Munsie” looked good in the 200mm with Rowan also sharp while Wayne was right on it from the start with his 1/8 and he had a great looking package for the weekend. The traditional Thursday rain brought an early end to Thursday’s runs.
Friday and again great traction after the hosts efforts and Arnie started showing his hand for the weekend when he was extremely quick in practice, even when finishing a “run in” on a motor. Some surprises to come! One of the surprises for the weekend was those that did not bother to attend, despite entering. No less than 7 of the 20 x 1/8 entries did not pitch, leaving the organizers over catered for with tables chairs hand out packages, etc and resulted in a change to the programme with a heat being dropped and a hassle for the finals in this class with only 12 cars making the mains, somewhat difficult to run two good interesting finals.
Not withstanding the above, the spirit and banter in the pits was great and all were looking fwd to some great racing!
Saturday dawned and traction was again recovered after some overnight rain.
200mm
The gaps at the front have really closed this year and TVR was no exception. However, great to also see some new faces slotting into the top 10 in the sprints. Just missing out on the top 10 spots were Errol Warner who was on a flyer well inside the top 10, when he hit a snag which cost him his A Main spot and Steven Snit was also really quick at TVR eventually sprinting into 12th spot just 2 seconds outside of the top 10.
In 10th after looking smooth and relaxed all weekend, was the fast improving Pat Lester, who is also one of the most enthusiastic and motivating drivers on the circuit at the moment! Well driven Pat!
9Th spot went to the consistent Russell Attenborough, who was possibly not quite at his fastest at TVR.
8th was a great drive by newcomer Dino Fameliaris who has only been driving for a few months so look out for him at future Nats!!
7th was also a great drive and overdue, as JJ Viljoen banged in a fine run to secure his spot and make it all look so easy.
6th went to “local lad “ Ayrton Vermaak, who was also very quick and his driving is maturing with every Nat. Expect to see him fighting for spots in the top ten again next year!
5th was another consistent drive from Jason Mara, the ex off-roader, who is hovering just off the pace of the top 3-4 drivers. 2010 will probably see him right in the mix as well.
4th went to Dave Wiseman, who seems to enjoy the flowing TVR layout and has quick pace there.
3rd went to the bustling Rowan Bower, who is right up on the pace of the front pair and just needs a touch more to really look at the TQ spot.
2nd went to the flying Steve Munslow who has been right “on it” this year and his final run was just 5 seconds off the TQ spot.
TQ went to Mike Wiseman who has felt the pressure this year with little regular driving but was still able to put in a stormer in his final run.
235mm
This class was also full of surprises and enjoyed a bit of a revival with 9 entries.
Round one went to a flying Peter Moller who held off all challenges with a fine drive.
Round two went even better when Pete again hung onto the top spot, this time with a 29 lapper, to keep Arnold and Dave at bay, Great drive!
Round three saw the Gauteng boys take control with Arnie banging in a 29 lapper in 10.01sec, closely followed by a “returning to racing” Derrick Plank who had his car well dialed as well. Pete retained the 3rd spot.
The final round everyone notching it up one click, with King Arnie dominant, taking the TQ spot, with Derrick plank improving his time to retain 2nd.
Pete Moller went quicker as well to secure his 3rd place, ahead of the last heat dash of Derek Noddings who overcame his early hassles to put in a really good 4th round run.
Dave, Wayne, Philip, Tony and Ivan filled the remaining slots but the class provided some really good flowing sprinting with clean sportsmanlike racing being the order of the day.
1/8
With Wayne just recently returned from a very successful campaign at the 1/8 Worlds in Switzerland, he was the pre race favorite and he proved to be unstoppable on the Saturday Sprints, with Mikey unable to really put any of the expected pressure onto him. Wayne dominated from Round one and other than in one heat, he was never really troubled by the opposition. Surprisingly, the 2nd spot went to a very “in form” Arnie Vermaak, who was flying on his home track and he secured his best ever Sprint result at a Nat in the 1/8 Class. Well done!
3rd was Mikey while 4th went to a wild but quick Riaan Diedericks, also on his best ever 1/8 drive.
Pete Moller’s mechanic, Sean Moller, remained well in contention despite only racing Nats this year, with no home track racing or set up time. He nabbed the 5th spot.
6th saw Wim Hoek holding off the youngsters, with Derrick Plank just a second behind him.
The pace of the top runners in 1/8 this year has been really awesome and hopefully we will see the return of more drivers to this premier class in 2010.
Sunday mains
235 2 W/D
With a good field of 9 cars, this race promised a good tussle and from the start, Arnie hit the front, closely followed by Derrick Plank, who ran the small block 15 motor in the mains as a trial to evaluate its performance based on the Saturday times as well as against the rest of the field. 3rd was Dave, who stayed within 5 -15 metres of Derrick and got a good guide to the performance of the small block motor. Local boys Phillip and Wayne both jumped up the grid demoting Pete Moller and Derek Noddings in the early laps.
By the first fuel stops, Derek Noddings had moved back up to 4th and was hanging within strike of the leaders, the race still being led by Arnie, with Derrick and Dave scrapping 20 metres behind him. This situation stayed for the first 49 laps before Arnie ran into problems and dropped out. Derrick grabbed the lead, still with Dave in tow while Phillip had quietly worked his way up to 3rd, still having a good dice with Wayne Jackson.
At the 55 lap mark, Dave hit the front with Derrick on his tail but a dumped pack (this is what happens when you race once a year!!) saw Derrick’s challenge fall away and the flying Phillip moved into 2nd, with Wayne 3rd.
A clutch problem in the last 8 laps slowed Dave but he still had a gap to hold off the locals, with Phillip taking the 2nd spot and Wayne 3rd. Pete Moller recovered after some early hassles to take 4th while 5th went to a consistent drive from Tony George.
Interestingly, apart from Derrick’s best lap, the rest of the field’s best laps were covered by a second between the other 8 runners. Close racing!
By the way, only Mikey and Steve Munslow of all the 200mm cars, had a quicker lap with their 200mm that the times of the 2wd 235 cars!!
A really good race to watch and enjoyed by all the drivers as well. Great driving guys! The rematch is in 2 months time!
200mm C Main .
With quite a few new faces in this Main, it was wide open to see who would keep it together for the full 30 minutes.
Newcomer and pole man Andrew Plint from Durban, hit the front from the gun, but after 6 laps Dominic Bancroft took over the lead before Fernando, recovered from a messy first lap, to put on the pressure and take over the lead after 13 laps. Etienne Kriel, also a newcomer, was having a fine run in a nice dice with Jacque Pretorius for the 3rd and 4th positions.
Andrew and Fernando diced for the first.55 laps when a 5 min. hassle dropped Andrew back to 4th. Jacques meanwhile had closed the gap to Fernando, down to just 1 lap, with Dominic just a lap behind him. Fernando survived and they finished in that order with Fernando getting a fine 11th overall!
200mm B Main
A classy field saw Steven Smit hit the first lap out front from second on the grid, but a lap later, 3rd qualifier Luis Fernandes took over the front spot with his teammates Derek Noddings up from 6th on the grid and big jumper Wim up from 9th to 4th.
By lap 15 Derek had worked himself into the lead with Wim snatching 2nd from Luis. With the fuel stops sorted, Maria had Luis back out front but Steven Smit again hit the front and put in a superb smooth run, to dictate this race from the 20 lap mark onwards. Such was the pace of his drive that at the end of Sundays Mains, only two drivers would beat his laps, giving Steven a 3rd overall for the day and his best ever Nats result Great driving!
Derek Noddings also had a great final, finishing just 2 laps down on Steven and 6th overall for the mains, with Durban teammate Wim Hoek in a fine 3rd and 8th overall for the day.
Still some finger time left in these youngsters! Experience does count!
200mm A Mains
Great to see some new faces in the A mains with Ayrton Vermaak qual. in 6th, JJ Viljoen in a fine 7th, newcomer to Gas Nats, Dino Fameliaris snatched the 8th spot and the enthusiastic Pat Lester from Border making his first Nats A main in 10th. 4 New A Main drivers at one Nat! Awesome!
A blistering start saw the four leading cars break away slightly from the field as they banged in a series of Sub 20 sec. laps as they fought for the early lead. Mikey had it for 8 laps before a crash, which saw Steve take over with Dave and Rowan tussling up close for the 2nd spot.
Unfortunately Dave’s run came to an abrupt end when he hit a new marshal while chasing Steve. Mikey was struggling with a handling problem although he still put in the fastest lap of 18.913sec before he also dropped out with a blown plug and a tweak problem after the early crash.
This left Rowan chasing Steve with Jason Mara now up to 3rd.and towing Ayrton along with him in 4th.
Rowan’s run stuttered as he was out for nearly 2 minutes on lap 41 with a problem, allowing Jason to 2nd, Ayrton to 3rd and a flying Pat Lester slipped into 4th. The race stayed fairly static until lap 66 when Ayrton went out with some servo problems, allowing Pat to grab a podium spot while Rowan was flying in his climb back up the field. Time eventually ran out for Rowan as he finished 20 meters down on the ecstatic Pat who made full use of his A main start. A very good second went to Jason, just two laps behind Steve but with a consistency of just 1.58 seconds in the final. Outstanding!
Steve Munslow again showed his experience with a fine fast drive to take the overall win for the weekend with 89 laps. His fastest lap came 15 laps from the end, showing he was still having a full go right to the end.
1/8
B Main
As mentioned earlier, the many withdrawals in the 1/8 class meant only 5 starters in the B Main. Surprisingly though all drivers finished their 45 minute race and the race itself was an interesting one.
Quintin Wucherpfennig from Border was first man thru from grid no 3 as he started with a fast run and held onto his lead until the first fuel stop when local driver Phillip Engall took over and showed his improvement over the year in this class as he packed in the steady fast laps.
The TQ man, Warren May was steadily working his way into this race and just before the halfway mark, he started a good lead swapping tussle with Phillip until he gradually eased ahead. Phillip kept close to the leader and when Warren had a hassle on lap 116, Phillip regained the lead and took Quinton thru with him, dropping Warren back to 3rd.
The father and son team of Peter and Andrew Plint, who only bought cars after watching the Durban Nat in June, were also having a steady run as they circulated and gained good experience with Andrew putting in a fine !8.4 sec lap during his run. They can look fwd to a good TVR Nat in March 2010!
Phillip stayed steady and consistent to the end to take the win, three laps clear of Quinton with Warrem holding on to 3rd. Phillips run would see him finish with a fine 3rd overall for the Mains.
A Main
This 7 up Main had the usual suspects with the addition of Riaan Diedericks, an experienced R/C driver, who was well up the grid, having sprinted to 4th in the sprints.
From the go, as expected from the sprint pace of Saturday, it was Wayne out front but Mikey had jumped from 3rd to immediately put pressure onto Wayne. He had found more handling than he had had on Saturday and we really had a classic race to watch.
The leading two cars were never more than 5-15 meters apart as the gap opened and closed as these two set a blistering pace which was going to be hard to maintain for 45minutes. Arnie had locked down 3rd spot with Riaan a bit wild but secure in 4th.
The dice at the front continued for the first 3 fuel stops and with the pace being very low 16 sec laps, for sure a tire change was going to be needed.
Unfortunately as the race at the front was getting really close, Mikey clipped a disc at the end of the main strait and the car went airborne and broke a rear suspension arm against the outer barrier, his race was over.
Wayne eased his pace slightly but Arnie was pushing so there was still no allowance for any mistakes. Riaan had a big stopper at the 40 lap mark, pushing him back to 7th while Wim Hoek started his climb up the field.
For those who wonder how Wim has scored the high points he has this year, look at his finishing record, He doesn’t just run wild but sets his goals to finish every main he starts and this he does in great style, this race he was 7th on lap 9, 6th on lap 39, 5th on lap 47, 4th on lap 67, and 3rd from lap 82 till the end. Great patience and mature driving in traffic as well.
Wayne kept his 4 lap buffer to the end to secure another fine win, Ahead of the fast charging Arnie, with Wim 3rd. Riaan got back up to 4th while Derrick plank grabbed the 5th spot ahead of Pete Moller’s mechanic Sean, who too the 6th spot after stopping early with a tech problem.
All in all some great racing and with the first Nat of 2010 back in Arnie’s “ back yard”, lets hope we can look foreword to even bigger entries and more classy racing.
See you in 2010!
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