Kyalami Race Report 24/04

Kyalami Race Report

With great excitement I approached the race at South Africa’s premier circuit, much discussion had gone down to whether or not the weather was going to hold out….

I arrived at the race track on Friday morning with great enthusiasm as I had checked the Firequip racer 5 times over and was not was not having mechanical gremlins ruin my weekend this time round … boy was I in for a surprise

First session out and the car was horrible, folding over itself into every corner and handling like a lazy hound, I soldiered on and wanted to at least get some seat time in as I hadn’t raced the circuit in a while

3 laps in and going through turn 3 my accelerator snapped, I limped it into the service entrance before turn 4 and idled back to the pits

On inspection I found a steering rod end had stripped its threads which was causing the handling dilemma, I quickly sourced another and sorted the accelerator cable out .

Back out for the second last session the car felt well hooked up and was back to its old self , I got some decent laps in when suddenly there was a horrible groan from the engine bay and the car began backfiring , back in the pits Sarel from 8 Valve Performance found it to be a cracked manifold rattling onto the head , the bunker crew offered a hand and in no time we had the manifold and branch off, unfortunately it was after five and there was no way we would get the snapped exhaust branch repaired on the Friday

Saturday morning I arrived to a very wet and snotty Kyalami ,a very eager Chad assisted me with rain setup while I went off to the nearest superquick and waited for them to open to get the branch welded, by 08h10 I was back at the track with a functional race branch in hand, with what became a beehive of activity around the golf ,with one hour to go until qualifying, we had Chad doing wheel alignment , R ob , myself and the appy’s reassembling the intake and exhaust manifolds ,finally w e got everything done and the blue racer was ready to go!

A competitor had earlier dropped oil on the rainy circuit and the officials had decided to shorten the qualifying session due to the delay as well as cut our race day from two 8 lap races to one 12 lap Race

With a dash of fuel and a quick chat to Chad on wet driving I was headed out onto an ominous wet Kyalami for qualifying

The wet track became as bad as the N 1 on a Friday afternoon , with traffic everywhere and it being near impossible to pass in the conditions I decided on my second flying lap to ease off and gain a gap to the next competitor ahead, I left myself about 400 meters and went for it, unfortunately by turn 5 I had caught the snail paced traffic again , but I had George Economedies with me , we finally ate through the traffic and started the third flying lap, I stayed with George for the lap but into the last corner on the flying lap we came up to a slower car , went three abreast into the corner with me on the slippery line sending me into a  pirouette. The chequered flag ended the session by the time I got to it, George put himself on the front row while my error demoted me to 15th .

Race one (and only)

The Start

The rain had stopped and we quickly decided to put the car back on a dry setup, but on the warm-up lap there where still rivers of water making its way across the track, the setup would be ok for the dry sections but impossible on the wet areas

With our rolling start about to get underway I was tucked up behind the Renault Clio of Ralph Kernes

Pre Green Flag

As the green flag was shown I blasted up the inside of him into turn four , two wheels on the grass there was no turning back, he had a cluster of cars on the outside of him and by the end of the corner I had gained 4 positions

I quickly chased down Wayne Heideman in his class c leading caddy and overtook him into clubhouse, George Bezuidenhoudt had in the meanwhile spun with the pack narrowly missing him, with Kevin Miller a few lengths ahead I got a better drive out the esses and drive him up to the wesbank hairpin passing a few more cars into the AA Bowl I soon had the second place class B Car of Adrian Dalton in my sights for the next lap I chased him down and by lap 2 I put the car along side him into the AA bowl after the mineshaft, and pipped him up the inside of the penultimate corner , and put myself firmly second in class , with Rob Prece, Jose and a slowing George Economedies ahead of me, George eventually fell off with electrical problems and I was third overall with Rob and José a few meters ahead, I chased down Rob slowly catching him , but I knew I had to push harder if I was to catch Billy bunker in his flying 16V

Chasing Down the flying PEX Racer

With the track still very soggy things where very hairy

Closing up on R ob I pushed what was to be a little to hard into sunset corner , the car under steered for gravel trap and I had become a passenger in a car heading for the barrier , I tried to get the car steering right but the back end came around and I was watching the rest of the field pass by as I connected with the barrier wall, relieved the car didn’t dig into the soft soil and roll over I accelerated out and hey presto the steering was still working, albeit with the alignment knocked out and a vicious vibration

The Damage..

Battered Fenders from the wall kiss

With a battered car I worked my up the field again and passing a few of the class C cars , Jurgen Pillhoffer later lost it up ahead but I was close enough to take advantage, for the next two laps I chased him and through turn one I lined him up and passed him into turn two , with the car a little worse for wear I pushed hard but Jurgen was breathing down my neck , We where approaching a backmarker into wesbank corner and I dove the slower car on the inside line , which also had rivers of water running across it , the back-end stepped out, I corrected it but the car snapped the other way and then BAM ! Jurgen connected the rear of the car , I kept my foot flat and straightened the car out ,Jurgen with shards of broken glass where still the main attraction in my rear view mirror, Jurgen still pushing hard behind me eventually lost grip through turn three…

Jurgen Spinning and his Ding from our incident

At last I could breathe easy and nursed the very battered race car to the flag, third in class, a welcomed result for the drama the day had produced

As Always thanks must Go to Dave from Firequip for the support on and off the track, Wade for dragging himself from bed to come watch me go round and round, Dirk, Alison, and the virgin Firequip Race supporters Nyoka and Daleen

www.firequip.co.za

Studio 55- Audrey and Louis for all the support

Bunker Racing – Rob, Chad, Big Shane, Craig the Emmines Brothers and my new favourite Appy’s. Your help on the day made it all Happen

959 Panelbeaters –Shaun, Coleen and Uncle Charles – Sorry for ruining your perfect paintwork

011 918 1065

And finally my supporters, Sam, Ty, Kelly and my wife Stacey (who is now Scaring adults too)

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