For the sixth round of the modified production cars we had a slight change from the usual double sprint race and instead had a 2 hour endurance race , which was to be a lot more challenging , luckily we were allowed to have a co – driver but also a mandatory tyre change in the race

I elected Craig Marais as my co driver for the race and the weekend unfolded something like this

Midday Thursday I made my way to a dry and dusty Welkom and on arrival set up shop for the weekends Racing, Gale force winds and putting up a tent don’t go well together and I replicated a scene from mr bean chasing the tent around the camping grounds, eventually beating the wind I decided to get the car out on track for a bit of a shake down and to bed the new Powerbrake Braking system kindly sponsored by Louis and Audrey Visser, The Car was Perfectly balanced,I proceeded patiently bed the brake pads in,retired the car,allowed the brakes to cool and would see what they had to offer in the morning

Friday Testing
Friday morning and up at sparrows, the track was a buzz and filling up very rapidly with competitors, first session out and time to test the new brakes, and what a difference, one jab at the brake and I was sent hurtling towards the windscreen , luckily the four point harness was in place, I gradually built the car up to pace and was happy with the cars setup, throughout the day I spent time playing with setup , Wayne Heidemann from Gemini auto sport kindly leant his expertise on final wheel alignment and together with Geoff and Neil Stephens we played around with tyre temperatures and minor tweaks to get the car perfect, we did need more rear camber to get the car perfect , but unfortunately the Honda suspension did not allow adjustment for it , something to think about for the next race,
My co driver craig arrived late afternoon and it was time to get him acquainted with the car, I had throughout the day worn the rear tyres and they were not performing as they should , wanting to save the new tyres for the enduro I sent Craig out with the very loose rear ended Honda , he quickly got to grips with the car but the rear was becoming an issue , We brought the car in and Billy bunker kindly loaned a set of second-hand semi’s to help Craig’s swinging hips , Craig’s second session out and he was immediately on the pace , dropping from his initial 2.00.05 lap time to a 1.58.2 and on the second last lap blitzing in a 1.57.8 , we where ready and decided to save the car for race day

Saturday Race Day

We decided for the upcoming qualifying session to leave to old tyres on and have the freshest tyres for the race, with a final check on the car I was out to do qualifying, the very worn front rubber caused disgusting under steer andthe 65 other cars out on track carrying on like it was a sprint race made for a bad qualifying, with no clear lap I managed to put a best time in of a 2.00.8 placing us in a lowly 18th position (out of 63) on the grid , the race was however 2 hours long and qualifying didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things

Before the race we fitted the new rubber, filled the fuel to the brim and checked the engine coolant and oil levels, the Firequip Honda was ready to roll

The start,due to the sheer number of cars, was to be a three lap rolling start .

After completing the three slow laps and adequately scrubbing in the new tyres it was go time, approaching the last corner before the start I had a sweeping Juan Gerber cut to the inside line and was off with the rest of the field, getting the car up to speed I had made the error of slipping a gear and frantically tried to get the car into fourth, the rest of the field had pulled 8 car gap but luckily I hadn’t been passed by anyone behind me, the race was on and my first objective was to catch up as quickly as possible, by corner two I was within a car length of Juan Gerber ahead and by turn three back on his bumper , out of turn three I made a pass of Jeffery Kruger and lined Juan Gerber up for a pass up the inside of turn four, hitting the back straight and the chase was on to catch Gary Gordon and Mike MC up ahead ,

Gary passed Mike into turn two and I had the Pex golf in my sights , by turn three I was on his bumper and attempted a pass , but the golf slammed the door forcing me to abort and pulled a gap , I again chased hard , before turn nine I had lined up the pex golf on the outside , but Mike MC came sweeping across to take the wide line again I had to abort (later finding out that mike couldn’t see much due to all the vinyl’s on the car and didn’t see me there) by turn 6 the class A Nissan exa of Laverick had come past, I jumped into his slipstream and followed hard , he dived out to pass Mike MC down the back straight and I followed, next thing I knew the Nissan exa was on the brakes way too early into the fast turn seven right hander , I held it together and into turn eight dived the Nissan up the inside, the quicker Nissan however had the pull out the corner and I proceed to follow him into turn 9.

For the next few laps I focussed on putting in consistent lap times and settle into a rhythm , but was still being hard chased by the class A Pex golf , into turn 6 and with a slight drop in concentration I apexed to early and ran wide leaving the track but keeping the car pointed towards the next corner, mike mc had just piped ahead and I was back on him, 2 laps later with better drive out of turn 6 I passed him down the back straight, I had to find a rhythm,a two hour battle would spell trouble as this was not a sprint race and there was a long way to go, but defending from the golf behind me I decided to let him past, it was not a car in my class and I did not want to bin it
The bunker pit crew indicated that it was time to come in to refuel and get Craig in the car , on the final lap the temperature on the Honda had risen into the red, I brought the car into the pits, Team Stephen 2 where onto the tyre change while Rob Crosbie and Tony from Benoni refueled, Craig and myself decided the damage may be critical, and our race was done, I advised rob and tony to stop refuelling(which was later to bite us in the rear) we pulled the car into the pits and examined the damage further, and decided to hell with it, we where going to fill the car with water, watch the gauge carefully and finish the race , come hell or hot water. we got the coolant system brimmed to the top , Rob still queried if we had enough fuel to which Craig and I decided the half tank in was enough, we had through all of this wasted 13 minutes in the pits, We strapped Craig in and he was off , with Craig running consistently and other competitors falling off due to mechanical failure I counted and suspected we may be placed 3rd in class,

I went to the control tower to confirm this and was right, things where looking up with the next competitor 6 laps down on us , we could afford one or two pit stops to top the coolant levels, I watched from the control tower and a few laps later Craig was in and in need of some H20, I jumped on the team bunker scooter and headed for our pit, Rob and Tony where already on it and within a few minutes we had the Honda back out , still in 3rd but with a diminished lead, Rob mentioned that we may have needed fuel, and during the panic I decided there must still be enough, with Craig back out and running well , I proceeded to the pit wall to feast on my finder nails . 5 laps later however Craig signalled he was coming in, he was out of fuel………..

Rob and tony quickly got 15 litres of Shell v power into the Honda , and we where back out, we still had a decent lead but if he had to come in for another pit stop it would cut things a little fine, with 10 or so minutes left of the race we where all doing hail mary’s for the car to hold out, Craig again came into the pits and needed water, with only a few minutes left we again topped the levels and he was off , finally the race ended and we weren’t sure if we had been able to keep our 3rd spot, 30 minutes later it was confirmed, we had finished 3rd in class but by a mere 11 seconds from Dave Haydon and Stuart Mack’s entry, elated with result no matter by what margin the celebrations began

Overall a hard-fought Race and when working out the time wasted in the pits on breakages , we could have been on the same lap as the overall winner should it not have happened , but ifs and buts don’t count ,and we still came out with a pleasing result

In Car Footage

For the next race we will rebuild the Hondas motor, with it getting a little hot we do not want further issues for the closing two races,

As always a huge thank you must go out to the following People

FireQuip- Dave,Allison,wade and the rest of the staff for the on and off track support
And also for providing us with a new branded gazebo

Louis and Audrey Visser for the support , it is invaluable and much appreciated

My wife Stacey who keeps the cogs turning in the background and always supporting me wholeheartedly

My co Driver Craig , who helped me work with what we had and get a result

Shaun,Charles and Coleen from 959 Panelbeaters for looking after the bodywork for us

Rob and Tony, our east rand pit crew who did great job , and sometimes knew better especially regarding refuelling :p

Billy,Chad,Gav and Pete from Team bunker for the tech support, haircut and help on the day

Geoff and Neil Stephens from Stephen2 Racing for the advice and help

Jakes from JDM Tuning
Ross and Bern from Rbts Racing

Join us for the next round at the Zwartkops Raceway on the 25th of September
Lat/Lon hddd°mm.mmm’
S 25°48.614’ E 028°06.732’

From Johannesburg There are a number of ways to get to Zwartkops from the Johannesburg area.

The most common way is past Kyalami – just keep going for 26km on the R55 towards Pretoria West.
This road can become congested on big international race days.

From Johannesburg, get onto the N14 (Krugersdorp Highway) and head North. Take the R55 off-ramp and turn to Pretoria West. Keep going straight through the traffic lights, and after about 10 minutes you will reach Zwartkops on your left.

The next best alternative route is through Erasmia. Take the M26.
This is the road that goes past Diepsloot (William Nichol R511) becoming the M26.
Just follow this road through to Erasmia – look to your right and there is Zwartkops. At R55 T-junction (traffic light) turn right.
Zwartkops is on your right. From East Rand From the East Rand – travel on the R21 – pass over the Polokwane/Pretoria Highway (N1).
Take the next turnoff (M10 Hans Strydom Drive) – turn left at the traffic light towards Pretoria West.
Follow the M10 – At the 8th robot turn right (R55) – Zwartkops is on your left + 2 km. From Pretoria From Pretoria go past the old Iscor steelworks follow the R55 South past Laudium.
Zwartkops will be on your right hand side.

Race Report – Zwartkops Raceway – 24/07/2010

With the Firequip Honda’s successful Debut at the Midvaal race approximately a month back I had in the interim concentrated on getting the cars appearance up to scratch and started with getting the dented exterior sorted and the Firequip decals on the car, I had also fitted a seat and Repositioned a few items on the interior to make driving the Honda a little more comfortable. I had found the cam belt was at less than suitable tension but with no more time decided it would have to do as i ‘ d run out of time with the car spending most of the interim either at the panel beaters and sign writers

Friday Practice

The Crisp Friday morning Prior to race day had finally dawned and I was headed for the Zwartkops arena circuit, With a few final checks and fuelled up I was out in the first session and the car felt well hooked up from the get go. After a few shake down laps I was happy and parked her,

Second session out and I was more than happy with the Honda and decided to get the car cover on and avoid unnecessary incident or breakages

Saturday Race day

5pm and I was awoken by a very monotonous blackberry alarm tone, but on realisation that it was race day I emulated a gazelle and leaped out of bed ,getting Stacey out of bed however was to be more of challenge,

By 6:45 we had arrived at the track and where greeted with beautiful weather, it seemed winter had taken leave for the day, our 7:45 qualifying was approaching and with a few final checks the Honda was ready to hit the track

Qualifying

I lined up near the front of the pack as to avoid traffic, but with the 22 car field this still proved difficult, the car was on rails but traffic still plagued me from getting a quick lap in, Crossing the line after 5 laps I noted 37 seconds left of the session, with clear track ahead of me this was to be final attempt, I put together a good lap until turn 5 where the brake Peddle hit the firewall and I barley came to a halt before the tyre wall, I put it down to the ABS not kicking in and Pulled into the pits on the same lap, I had qualified 5th , with a mere 0.002 Separating me and the fourth placed Juan Gerber . Adrian Dalton, Jannie Van Rooyen and Jose had qualified in the low 1.13 second bracket and had broken the previous lap record by more that 2.7 seconds

Race one

Starting from the outside line, which would become the inside line for turn two I had good prospects for the race ahead, I had Juan Gerber directly next to me and the much Quicker Class B’s ahead of me, Bunched up and with race about to start stayed Glued to the bumper of the car ahead, Turn one and all was well, Juan still adjacent to me and when approaching turn two I slammed the brakes hard and attempted to out brake him when…. Nothing, the brakes where non-existent, with one of the major advantages of the Honda being the brakes this was to be a huge disadvantage to my race result,

Through turn Four George Economides and Jannie Van Rooyen had perhaps tagged each other and where pirouetting into the gravel track, luckily the field got through the mayhem with no incident

Through out the next few laps I had fallen prey to Juan and Andy Gossman, my old Rival, by Lap 2 I had a fast approaching JP Nortje in his Toyota and Rob Prece Just behind him, with the car being near impossible to Drive I considered Pulling the car in as it was not very safe driving with no brakes, with a quick slap to the head I stopped my homosexual tendencies and soldiered on, I found that if I braked 200 meters from the corner the Remaining brake pads that where working just slowed the car down enough, and with the two fast approaching cars behind me I had to go defensive into every corner and lost loads of corner speed , Luckily I had a straight line advantage over Rob and JP, , Rob did eventually get past but I soon caught up again and made a pass, Where evades my memory though, with close to Zero braking power and defending my position from the two vultures behind me the last lap board came out, with JP breathing down my neck he stayed to on the outside line through turn 5 and followed me through turn six and seven , into turn 8 he had the inside line and I had no choice but to relinquish the position, rob followed the line but luckily I pipped him by a ¼ car length and the race was done, Well Challenging but slightly nerve racking

After the race I stripped the Pads out and Found there was no more Pad on the Left Front Disk, Problem found and I was off to beg borrow or steal some suitable Pads, Gary Gordon From Honda spares Came to my aid with a good second-hand set of Ferrodo’s and I quickly changed the steel plates gripping my brake discs for some Race Pads. Rookie mistake which wont be made again

Race Two

With a Sorted race car for the second heat I found myself way down the field in 12 place , with the field tightly bunched up the race was ready to start, I had the inside line into turn one but the outside line in the nearby turn two ,I stayed glued to the car ahead of me and passed jp up the inside of turn one and with enough corner speed I drifted the car onto the inside line for turn two and dove up the inside of Juan Gerber and found myself right next to him with Jurgen just ahead of me

it was a drag race all the way from turn 2 into three and by turn four I attempted a move up the inside, Juan was quick enough into turn four to hold his position , into turn five I dove up the inside, side by side we went into the shoebox complex, I had made the pass but had Juan breathing down my neck, with Jurgen just ahead i chased as hard as I could, he was quicker into turn one but I had advantage over him into turn two, we stayed glued together with Juan Still hard chasing from behind, we where also catching Andy Gossmans Golf a little ahead, a lap later into turn 7 Andy and Jurgen touched sending Jurgen into a bucking slide, I saw a gap between the two cars and took it but unfortunately Jurgen’s uncontrolled car pounded me on the rear bumper unsettling the car, I kept composure and Jurgen and Andy continued ahead, I still had Juan Gerber tailing me throughout the ordeal , I again got close to Jurgen and with better drive out of turn two put myself on the inside of him approaching turn 4, Side by side we went through Turn 4 and I out braked Him into turn 5, with Andy a good 5 car lengths ahead I put my head down and attempted to catch him, two laps later and I found myself on his bumper out of turn two, the old rivalry was reborn and I knew the battle ahead was not to be an easy one, I attempted a move up the inside of turn four but had the door shut on me, again I gained position up the back straight and tried to get Andy up the inside, while on the power I drifted toward Andy and tapped him, and lost ground to him again ,

falling back to Jurgen and Juan, for the next lap I defended with all I was against the two chasing golf’s and finally found a bit of space , with three laps remaining and a slightly battered car I again set my sights on Andy ahead,

when crossing the line for the final lap I was a car length behind and we remained glued together through turn two and three, into turn four I tried to make a pass up the inside but was again cut off , ½ a car length between us into turn five and I out braked Andy, but he was still next to me out of turn 6 we where still joined at the hip , Andy flat on the power drifted into my side Returning my earlier nudge I had inflicted on him, but there was enough in it and I crossed the line just ahead of him ! 4th in class but what felt like a F1 win at Monaco!

The second Race certainly reminded me why we race, although not at the sharp end of the field the best race I have ever taken part in

With a Decent gap to the Two Hour Endurance at Phakisa at the end of august we hope to extract some more horsepower from the little Honda as well as ensure reliability for the Race, with a now good understanding of the Honda Hopefully we can challenge the boys at the front next time out

As Always Huge thanks must go to the Firequip Family, Dave, Alison, Wade and Daleen, and a special thanks to Dave and Elms for making their way to the track for the first Race

www.firequip.co.za

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)

For the new season we did a series of upgrades and tweaks to really stamp our authority on the upcoming season, having picked up an additional sponsor in the form of studio 55 I was underway to get the car that little bit quicker

The Battle scars from last years tussles where also sorted out by 959 panel beaters and spray painters

We started with an Individual throttle conversion which was undertaken by Sarel at 8 Valve performance, with a few space issues here and there we finally got the upgrade done and the car had a newfound bark to match its bite

With only a few days left to the season opener it was a mad rush to get the car tuned and new signage applied

Bern and Ross from RBTS kindly squeezed me in on the Thursday before the race and tuned the car

Next was Signage, originally I had been let down by the signage company with them blabbering excuses about there computers having crashed, but with some course conversation they agreed to squeeze me in late Thursday and we completed the signage just in time

In fear of heavy rain on Saturday I decided to get some brand spanking new tyres with lots of tread to fit for the Saturday.

Rob, Elton and myself then headed for the temporary bunker headquarters in the form of my workshop to do a few odds and ends , 23h00 and loaded up I was ready for the weekend ahead

Friday morning I landed my rig at the Zwartkops raceway and by 8h00 had battled the very anal scruteneers and documentation was done, the time to see if all the upgrades had made a difference had arrived

First Session out and with the roar emanating from the throttles. the car felt exceptional, and like it was on rails around the corners , so happy with the car I pulled it in , checked for any small faults, with Sarel from 8 valve performance at the track he had installed a fuel pressure regulator to make doubly sure the motor was getting all the go go juice it needed. One last final burn to check everything was ok , unfortunately I had a minor accelerator cable failure , but other than that the car was on song , Sarel quickly remedied the problem back in the pits

During the break I checked the wheel alignment along with Wayne from fast by Wayne, all seemed good

Second session out and the car was faultless! I decided to pull it in, park it and prep for Saturdays race

Saturday morning and equipped with my new tyres it was off to the track, I quickly fitted the tyres and was ready for the qualifying session, I positioned myself right in front of the queue as not to be bothered by slower traffic and put in 7 blistering laps without any fail,

I Qualified First in Class, ahead of my newfound rival Adrian Dalton and Jurgen Pillhoffer, mere tenths of a second ahead of them and was third on the overall grid with two class A cars ahead of me

with the new tyres being new however the rear of the car was a little too grippy for the cars ideal setup, with no signs of rain I had wondered if going for the newer tyres had been such a good idea after all, I tweaked the suspension setup a little to encourage the rear of the car to break loose and was ready for the first race!

Race One!

With the starts being changed from standing starts to a rolling start we exited the Pre Race Paddock, staying close behind the pole sitter Sean Laverick and keeping heat in the tyres the safety car was in and we where headed for the lights as the lights dimmed I slammed the throttles and was connected to the back of the pole sitting class A car, as I pitched the car into the first turn —– BAM!!!! —- the right side of the car had collapsed and sent me hurling for the sand trap and ever nearing tyre barrier, with little to no steering I guided the car away from the barrier and stopped approximately a meter from the tyre wall , with a rush of emotion I exited the car and quickly hopped behind the tyre wall, from there spectating was to be my only participation in the race, to make matters worse , directly in front of the Firequip gazebo
At the end of the race the marshals and I loaded the car onto a lowbed and were bound for the pits to investigate the problem, I snapped hub carrier was the culprit. This being a custom part to accommodate the bigger brakes spelt doom for the rest of the weekend, after much brainstorming between myself and Dave from Firequip we decided there was nothing we could do to fix the problem as a new part would have to be engineered

Overall a very disappointing weekend and I can only look forward to the next race, Where losing will not be an option

The next Race will be on the 24th of April at the Kyalami Grand Prix circuit, Please come and support , we will also have a firequip Gazebo up with a few drinks and boerie roll available

A Huge Thanks must go out to the following supporters

Dave ,Allison , Dirk and Wade from Firequip for the support on and off the track www.firequip.co.za
My parents and Studio 55 for fully supporting my ventures of driving around in circles as fast as I can
Stacey for pouring her heart into my passion , and putting together with Allison an excellent courtesy gazebo
Sarel From 8 Valve performance for the excellent motor and trackside support sarel@8vperformance.co.za
Wayne from fast by wayne for the trackside assistance
Ross and Bern from RBTS Racing for the tuning on such short notice www.rbtsracing.co.za
Billy from Bunker Racing  www.bunker.co.za

i was in line for the MPC class B title, if i won both heats , heres how it unfolded

Having gone testing on sunday at the supertrax day prior to the weekends Race i decided to skip Friday Practice, save the car a bit and shoot through on saturday morning

on Friday i went to Vw techniques and Oom Piets son ( not sure which one of the 12) soon had the gauges on the car and did a quick check on the alignment to find it was horribly out, we got the wheels pointing in the right direction and i was off to an afternoon meeting

i then got a call from Craig precision informing me billy bunker had run bearings, afer a few calls we sourced a new one and Wayne from iron horse collected it for us while i finished off the meeting, that night we swapped all the bits over and by 1am that morning Robs Golf was again breathing life.

Saturday morning and still half asleep i was bound for zwartkops and the 8h35 qualifying session, Final checks and everything was good to go , on the warm up lap the car had a horrible vibration on the brakes and what sounded like a swarm of wasps under my bonnet , with rain spitting i tried to at least get one lap in and feared the pressure plate or clutch where having a major failure, the noise eventually became too bad and i retired the car to the pits, With a spare gearbox and clutch , i was preparing myself to start ripping the old box out but on closer inspection found it was the clutch cable rubbing on the vernier pulley , what a relief , but still my qualifying session was botched and i was placed eighth on the grid

Robs motor that we had built the night before had again run bearings,with disheartenment the order of the morning in the bunker pit i offered the Firequip machine to my fellow racer so at least he could partake in the silvercup Races, he would start from the back of the field in 26th , finish 13th and leave me with my heart in my throat for the entire race watching from the sidelines

Race one

With a blistering start i flew past Adrian Dalton and had myself on the outside of Juan Gerber entering turn two, with better drive out of turn two i quickly dispathed of him and found myself challenging Jannie van Rooyen in his monster VW Scirroco into turn 4,We dragged up the back straight, his much faster scirroco made a few meters on me but i dived him into turn 5 and held him at bay for turns 6.7 and 8 , Jurgen Pillhoffer had in the meantime pulled a gap from us , but the much faster car of van rooyen soon had me up the inside of turn 4,through turns 5,6,7 and eight i had my car glued to the side of his , i was fighting a loosing battle and by the time he hit the back straight again he was off, he quickly passed Jurgen ahead of me and i had Adrian and Juan hounding me from behind, i managed to catch up to Jurgen a lap later and left the hard chasing Adrian and Juan in my dust, into turn 5 on lap 4 i stuck the car up the inside of Jurgen and forced him wide, set my sites for Jannie and drove the pants off the car, i made up some ground on Jannie but unfortunately the race ended and i placed 2 seconds behind him, 3rd overall and second in class, We found after the race that the front toe angle was horribly out, during the race the cars handling was not at its best, and last-minute camber adjustments had caused the toe to be so far out

i quickly sorted the toe out with Wayne’s gauges and Craig speedophiles help and was confident for a race win next time out, we also replaced the clutch cable which had been damaged in Qualifying, thanks to mical for for the cable

Rob went out for his second silvercup race in the chariot of Firequip, and was soon up from 13th to 7th with a blinding first 2 laps of driving , unfortunately the new clutch cable settled and he was left with a slack cable and no gear shifts, the field soon consumed him and he ended up finishing 13th, disappointing but luckily in hindsight it didnt happen in my MPC Race

Race two

Lined up in third, Second in class and staring down my rival Jannie Van rooyen to my left, lights on , lights off and we where away, i bounced along side jannie into turn 1 and held my line to have the inside line into turn two, with awesome drive out of the turn i was off and Jannie’s scirroco was slowley getting alot smaller in my rear view mirror, for the next lap i ran on jy own, but watched as Jannie’s car got ever closer every time we hit a straight, the pace of the scirroco was incredible and i was preparing myself for his arrival onto my tail. by lap two he was back behind me, i got my block face on and was adamant i wasnt going to let him past, for the next 3 laps i defended my position with all i had, often   my rear view mirrors to see Jannie’s arms flying all over his cockpit, he clearly wasnt happy with my tactics but i wasnt concerned with his newly found issues, on lap 4 however Jannie lined me up down the back straight and walked away from me with his superior power, with two laps to go and chasing with all i was worth the car picked up a small miss at 7000 RPM, with a quick hail mary i begged for the car to hold together , i had enough gap on the third place man Adrian Dalton to lighten my pace up a bit and resorted to shifting at 5000 RPM and make the finish, the water temp had also bounced up to 115 degrees which is very uncharacteristic of the car, happy to see the chequered flag, Second for the race.the day and unfortunately the season

Overall a hard fought Race day with decent results !

Looking back at the season it has been one of many lessons , close racing and finding the fun in racing again – which is ultimately why i do it

I’d like to thank Dave,Elmarie.Alison and Dirk from Firequip for the support on the day as well as the backing for the year, you guys are a huge part of where i and the car am today – www.firequip.com

Stace for still scaring small children , supporting me with your entire heart and being louder than the commentary system at the track whenever there are mm’s between me and my competitors

The bunker Boys Billy,Craig,Craig 2 , Elts , mic and Geoff , your presence and support at the track is invaluable!

Sarel From 8V Performance for the amazing motor and always being ready to get stuck in should anything go wrong

Wayne H from ‘fast by wayne’ for all the tech support at the track and always being behind me

Ross and Bern from RBTS for the faultless tuning

Next season will be time for new bigger things ! watch this space!

Kyalami 26/09/09

Friday Practice

After Running some Friday morning errands shaun from 959 and myself headed for one of if not the most technical circuits south Africa has to offer , Kyalami With his new Mazda BT50 we were bound Midrand and my does it tow like a dream On arrival we met up with rob and mic and had a whole pit to ourselves , rob however was not having a good day and was trying to find the mysterious problem with his car I did a quick check on on the car and headed out for my shakedown session, with no timekeepers at the track , we did not have any idea of times , but the car felt well hooked up and not wanting to put too much strain on it we packed it up and cracked a beer, Rob finally found his gremlin in the form of a chaffed wire running through his firewall and the PEX Golf 2 was soon up and running again

Saturday Qualifying

Our modified production car race had been combined with the silvercup races so I had entered myself into both race series’ figuring it a good idea to get two results out of one race , however there where 49 cars of various shapes and forms in the race,I knew it was important to get out in front early as to avoid traffic , lined second to go out in the pit lane I was then re directed to pre race paddock where I was greeted by at least 30 cars lined up before me, the silvercups had been pitting on the pit roof and I had no clue they had lined up already, with an abundance of slower cars ahead I got the car warm and pushed my way through the traffic , on my hot lap and heading for sunset corner I was fast approaching ian smith in his red scirroco when the marshals had there yellow flags out for a spinning car ahead,under yellows naturally no passing is allowed, I was stranded behind ian and I had to wait for the following lap to get a decent time in .the car had become very loose while completing that lap and headed for turn two on my next lap I had it completely sideways by turn 4 the red flag was out , a Nissan skyline had blown his oil cooler and coated the track with oil, ending the session prematurely I had ended qualifying 8th in silver cup but more importantly 1st in modifieds , with my old nemesis and championship rival Andy Gossman right behind me on the grid

Race 1

13th on the overall grid, I again had a lightning start and passed silvercup racers Kevin Paytner and Rory Eland into turn one/two and had a fast charging Andy Gossman behind me, andy and I tussled through sunset,clubhouse and into the esses , I held him at bay for the first two laps but he eventually had better drive out of clubhouse on the 2nd lap and slid up the inside going into the esses, I stuck onto his tail but on entering the terrifying turn two went a bit wide and andy pulled a slight gap, we had caught up to the turbo alfa and andy was having a battle royal with the alfa, through the esses I was pasted to Andy’s bumper when his car gave a slight hiccup, I thought he must have slipped gear and couldn’t believe my luck, but afterwards found out he had broker a crank and had to retire, I backed off slightly on the final two laps as my nearest competition was out of sight, final lap and into the bowl after the mineshaft, hard on the gas and my faithful golf gave a massive misfire, but was still going , through the second last corner she completely died, I couldn’t believe my luck, but free wheeled the car thought the final turn and had just crossed over the line before it came to a stop, unfortunately Mark Du toit had just caught me on the line and finished one second ahead of me,the issue also demoted me from 7th overall to 13th I had placed 2nd in Modifieds class B and 4th in Silvercup class B

After the race we Frantically tried to find the issue, I had Craig from precision performance helping me change the throttle body, ignition module, coil and checking fuel pressure, my arch rival andy kindly donated the parts from his stricken car to help get me up and running again but to no avail, Sarel from 8 V performance and Craig Marais then stepped in and re thought the problem, they hooked up the laptop to the engine management and found there was no signal coming from the throttle body, we had already tried three different throttle bodies , so put the fault down to wiring, soon they found a wire from the throttle looking a bit suspect but still connected ,Sarel was off to hi jack a throttle plug from Legend motorsport, while Craig stripped the wires and I sourced a soldering iron, in no time the plug was on and the dodgy plug was indeed the problem,

Race Two I had Lined up near the front of the que and ready to go out, swinging the car from side to side to get as much heat in the tyres ,up the mine shaft my throttle went flat, the accelerator cable had worked itself loose , i quickly parked the car and dashed to the front end of the car, bonnet off and with the car still running opened the throttle and reconnected the cable, with the engine screaming on rev limit I gave the plastic section a quick squeeze popped the bonnet on and hoped for the best, the whole grid had passed me and getting to the start line as quickly as possible was priority, I re strapped myself while going up the mineshaft , tried to get my gloves back on down the mineshaft and crammed the safety net which was flapping out the window into a ball while going through the bowl corner.on arrival at the grid the cars right at the back where just taking there positions and I was allowed to rejoin my position further up the grid Off the line I had a reasonable start, but with my tyres not being as warm as id liked I took an easy approach to the first corner, I had a gaggle of modified prod cars behind me, Jurgen was close to my tail but through Nashua 2 he lost it and backed up all the cars behind him, I snapped changed my way through the  few laps as not to come on and off the throttle in case the accelerator cable came loose again. On lap three I had massive brake fade heading into the ultra fast turn two and nearly ran off the track, with enough of a lead in the modified class I nursed the car home pumping the brake pedal for some stopping power on every corner , I finished 10 seconds ahead of Andy who was in his sons car and 1st in class B Modified production cars,giving me the overall class B win, to my surprise I had also finished 3rd in silver cup which I later found out at prize giving had given me a third in silvercup overall for the day

A huge thanks must go out to -

-Andy Gossman for the use of his broken car as spare parts to get mine running again,

-Matt Taylor for the throttle body

The camaraderie in motorsport definitely is something special

Dave and Wade from Firequip , for helping me get myself and the car to where it is today, and your endless support

Sarel from 8 Valve Performance and Craig Marais – with out your help I wouldn’t have started the second heat-

Craig From Precision Performance – for helping me brainstorm the issue and being a great help at the track

Stace for probably screaming the accelerator cable back on when I didn’t come around with the grid and as always being my number one supporter

Shaun and tam from 959- My bodywork specialists, transporters and supporters

Wayne from Gemini auto sport, for technical and moral support

Everyone who came to support me at kyalami Dirk and Allison from Firequip Mike, Michelle and Ethan Rob I am (the steaks where wicked!)