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Monday, 08 February 2010

A 'cracking' start to 2010.

The start to the 2010 race season proved to be a rather expensive one to begin with for the Datti 1400GX. It all started going pear shaped from the airport on the Thursday night already but that was completely out of my control and I had to put it behind me albeit R2000 later. The commencement of the new season was now in full swing and I had to get some practice under the belt after nearly a 2 month lay off. The Datti had again been thoroughly prepared mechanically and only needed to be cleaned and the required new sponsorship decals applied. This was all done and accomplished by lunch time leaving me with 2 full sessions available for testing purposes. I took to the track at 14h00 and slowly got back into the swing of things but by the 4th practice lap the dreaded miss as suffered last December was back, so into the pits I pulled. A check by Mr Datsun himself confirmed another blockage in the needle and seat area. This was again removed and cleared without much effort. So we went out again at 16h45 to retest everything. The Datti was sounding as sweet as could be but coming down the main straight past the pit area I noticed a metal object hurtling along the ground which had come from under the car some 150m ahead of me. It looked like about 200mm in length and simply cartwheeled onto the bonnet front-end and into the windscreen blasting a hole and a huge impact shatter. Now I realized what Filipe Massa must have gone through. Luckily it did not penetrate and only splintered the glass that was shot into the car. All said and done, I was happy and was still able to see through the windscreen damage albeit with some difficulty.

Saturday morning qualifying was at 09h30 and it was perfect race weather with light cool winds and overcast while the track temp was just right. I was now faced with the fact that this was a start of a new season and yes, I was still in class C but had to now raise my efforts if I was to remain within chase of any glory among the much bigger and powerful cars. The Datti was absolutely brilliant and on lap 3 I manged a personal best ever of 1:32.0 and was so chuffed I pulled in satisfied that it should stand me for good. After checking the results it left me in 2nd place within class C with the 2L Alfa Junior of Dave Alhadeff in 1st position.

Race 1 was off at 14h00 and I gave my best but was never ever able to catch the much quicker Alfa and so settled for a comfortable 2nd place in class C. Upon reaching parc ferme, the scrutineers took a look at the windscreen and decided it was too dangerous to continue and would have to replace it. So that evening we fetched my spare and fitted it ala NASCAR style.

Race 2 was on Sunday which was a much cooler day with a hint of rain in the air. The first heat was due off at 11h00. I firstly took my car down to the scrutineer bay where they re-issued my certificate to compete after having now replaced the windshield overnight and were satisfied that it was now safe to race again. The grid was made up from the results of the 1st heat and was next to Dave again. The start was of medium pace and was now in a close dice with the pack. Going down the back straight and into T5 I over did it under braking and found myself in the marbles and ran very wide off the circuit. I manged to hold it and keep going and got back on now a further 6 places down the field. I now had a race for my life as I was determined to regain the lost ground from my mistake made. It was not easy but I kept a cool head and picked them off one by one. Lo and behold on about lap 7 it started to miss again but I was determined to just keep going. Slowly all the ground I had made up was being lost and those that I had past were catching me again . Luck was still on my side as after Keith Andrews had now passed me, he too slowed down again and I retook the position still with the misfire. On the last turn now heading for the chequered flag I had no option but to allow the Alfa Sud through of Mike Napoli and finished 0.4 seconds behind him at the finish and in 3rd place in class class C. So we again had to clean the needle and seats of each carburetor. It was now evident that the fuel hosing had to be replaced for our next event in March.

Race 3 was due at 14h30 and the weather had now cleared quite a bit and was quite hot. Starting from 14th position on the grid I now had to put in a good result if I was to stay in the running for a top 3 position for the weekend. The rolling start was done at a cracking pace and it was a cooker from lights out at the start. I was always in with a shout but on lap 4 I spun in the huge oil spill coming out of T2 and other too followed suit. I suffered no damage and managed to get the car started again and was off this time ahead of Dave in the Alfa who also went off in the oil. No sooner had I regained to the track and the race was red flagged only to have to do it all over again this time with only 6 laps. At the restart I found myself in a comfortable 2nd place knowing that Dave was now out of the running and that I was never going to catch the Northern region entrant of Wenzel Nortman in the 2L Toyota Corrolla SR5. In the end the final results for class C were Nortman from Richards with Napoli taking ovrall 3rd.

After all said and done it was a great weekend with many ups and downs but I was most satisfied with what was achieved by the Datti and among also some great fellow competitors.

Thanks 'Boet'