Ho Ho Ho

Tis that time of the season and some much needed time we can now dedicate to our families and loved ones.  Unfortunately those loved ones also include our race cars for they shall not be neglected, ever.  As December slowly comes to an end and businesses and people start their holiday journeys, some still prefer to keep the nose to the grinding wheel until the very last minute in preparation for the 2012 season soon to dawn upon us.

I was down recently for the annual prize giving and while there I spent some time doing work on my Datti which is awkward and impractical to do during the season, or so I believe anyway.  As such I stripped some cracking interior floor paint work, cleaned up the floor surfaces, primed them, resprayed them, and made it all look pretty again for the new season.  While there I also redid the under carriage, the rear axle, the leaf springs, the brake backing plates etc.   I also removed the grill, patched it up as best as possible, masked it up and resprayed that making it look all new again.  The boot area was stripped as best as I could without removing the fuel tank and the entire interior of the boot was resprayed and neatened up.  Finally a new set of slicks and rims were fitted to don the new season with.  Admittedly its all mostly cosmetic stuff but all adds up at the end of the day and after all that is what part of the whole historic scene is about - the devotion to our cars.

Of course while that was being done, elsewhere more serious attempts were in progress on the much loved old BRE Datsun SSS a once time class A contender in 4-door trim.  Well after much  research having been done during the season and the eventual acquiring of decent photographs of the original 1970 BRE Datsun the decision was made to build a replica.  Yip, a replica which meant that the 4-door would have to be converted to a proper 2-door of which they were only ever originally found in the USA during the early 1970's.  (The 2-door body is completely different to the 2-door Coupe body.)  An entire rusted coupe body was eventually found of which only the center door posts and doors themselves were removed and kept. (The 2-door doors are longer than the 4-door front doors.)

The original BRE John Morton Datsun (Click on picture for full resolution.)

Almost a month of solid day and late night work eventually saw the transformation of the old 4-door now standing in 2-door rivalry.  A full exterior respray was done in the original BRE colours and the entire interior was also later taken from previously being all white to complete black.  As per the original 72 BRE Datsun so too does this one now sport widened front and rear fenders.  Not to neglect the under bonnet area the motor was removed whereupon the full area was resprayed to match the interior of the car.  While out, the motor received some TLC after the last damages incurred after its last outing being the All Tar rally we did in September.  That now completed the engine was once again fitted into its new freshly resprayed compartment tucked away all neat and tidy.  Although the original BRE set of rims was not obtainable, it now sports a set of 13" Minilites instead of the 15" it previously sported when in 4-door livery which further meant a change in diff and gearbox ratios just out of interest.  The replica BRE was soon afterward fully sign written with new decals and is now virtually ready to race.

In the last remaining working days of December the 140Z was also recovered from the pit garage at the track and brought back to the workshop as it too needed some work done.  A dry sump gasket was replaced among one or two other serviceable items to ensure safety and compliance.  It will now probably have the engine removed and opened up and where necessary refreshed for the February event.  Unfortunately time is catching up and soon the workshop will be closed until the new year whereupon the final race prep will be done.   In the meantime we also still patiently wait for some specialized parts to be made and finished up in JHB for the Datti and hopefully we will receive such in early January in anticipation for the new 2012 championship season ahead.

This is in dedication to a man hell bent on racing and always ensuring that tomorrow can't wait.  There's never any time like now and just when the opposition thought they knew your game plan he was yet again one step ahead. Thanks as always 'boet' for the hard work and dedication made throughout this season and the much already completed work for the new season.  It's now time we open our presents from our selves to our selves and hopefully get a little ho ho ho on the side as well.

Merry Xmas 'Boet'

One, two is good enough.....for now!!

What a season, what a year, what can I say.

Well for a start, I thoroughly enjoyed ever bit of this past seasons racing never once having any regrets or maybe we should have done something differently or maybe we could have tried something differently.  Nope, none of that.  What we set out to do we did and what we wanted to achieve we achieved.  Better than that in this day and age is asking a bit too much.

The 140Z has now been around since June 2009 and has made many sit up and take note but more importantly I believe it has provided excitement, pit banter, amazement and has given something to the spectators to keep asking wanting to come back and see more.  The amount of spectators, visitors and past racing drivers that still think it sports a 16V turbo  inter-cooled power plant are absolutely gob smacked when upon opening the bonnet it reveals a 8V normally aspirated L series Datsun motor.  Not much has changed since then and still at the end of the racing season in November of 2011, they still pop their heads in and ask, 'what motors' it got?'  Towards middle of 2011 along came competition, serious competition in the form of a big 6.8 litre V8 in the disguise of a Chevrolet De Ville.  Behind the wheel was a very competent ex drifting champion and once oval tracker who had one ambition and that was to beat the 4 cylinder Datsun.  It was no competition initially and admittedly such due to it simply destroying a set of tyres on every race.  Eventually a set of slightly worn slicks were donated and that made a difference.  In October of this year it got it's first win over the 140Z while in the last and final race meeting of 2011 it won both heats but not without a fight to the last meter.  Yes the gearbox has had enough with damaged synchro's and badly worn selector gates, a motor that has up till now never been opened or refreshed so a narrow loss to a behemoth is acceptable given the circumstances.  The engine, gearbox and axillary bits of the drive-train will all in due course receive a refreshing but for now it needs some rest before a new and fresh attempt will be made.  For the 2012 season another Datsun is in the 'extreme make-over' department and all willing should strut its stuff by February 2012.  Watch this space.

The other little Datsun GX also delivered above expectation all things considered.  This season was in many ways an experimental season which afforded us to to try different things, combinations and engine modifications.  The results sometimes were mind boggling while at other times it gave us just what we wanted along with a great dose of further encouragement.  For the 2011 season the Datti spent its entire season in class B sneaking in a few wins here and there just to keep things interesting.  Admittedly it's competing with far bigger engined race cars but that's not the point, we managed to keep up with them and in particular the last two race meeting were absolutely brilliant, so close and I could not ask for better.  We will now take this much needed and afforded time and package together many of the things were learned and experimented with and will come back even more determined to improve our performances.

What is so often ignored and forgotten about are our immediate families who often make big sacrifices so that we can do what we love doing best, race.  A lot of time is spent away from the office and at home and when we do finally get home after racing we're bushed, tired and need let the adrenalin settle down.  To them we say a huge thank you for being a part of us even although they are not always there in person.

Finally and as always I cannot thank my 'boet' enough for the dedication. the long hours of work, effort and time that he puts into my race car throughout the entire season, for every race meeting and for each and every race itself.  If it was not for him, we would probably have a class F car filling up at the back. 

Thanks 'Boet'

A 'Titanic' battle.

After nearly 2 month since our last race the classic boys were rearing to go.  A healthy field of entries were received and made it one of the biggest for the season.  Meanwhile behind the scenes changes were in place since the East London away trip.  Due to the length of the St Georges circuit, we had to use a five speed gearbox for the long straight of almost 1.8Km.  This was something I had never tried before in the Datti.  It seemed to work well and above all it allowed  us to experiment with the rev range.  The decision was made to implement the use thereof for Killarney which meant that we had to also change our diff ratio.  In addition to all these changes, the motor used in East London was taken out and the spare motor with near standard head was replaced for the remainder of this season, all going well.  The 140Z seemed to take a bit of a back seat during most if this time but it was soon evident that the camshaft was being chewed up and on its way out.  There was no time to import new and so the basics of repair and damage control had to be implemented for the October race.

The Friday afforded me some testing with the new gearbox and ratio which was near perfect except for the exit of turn 1 (Hoals) which was a little short.  A change of MSD chip sorted that out and our best time achieved for the day was a 1:29.56 on old tyres.  As the season was nearing its end, I was not going to splash out on new 'boots' and had to make do with what we had to our disposal.  The 140Z after some fine tuning took to the track and although the valve train was a tad noisy it too posted a respectable 1:22.9 during its test session as was deemed fighting fit.

Saturday we had a late qualifying time slot but we still got to the track around 07h45 and performed our usual pre-qualifying ritual.  The weather conditions were cool and overcast and were good for racing.  We took to the track at 09h30 for our qualifying stint in which come hell or high water the little Datti could not post better than 1:30.1 but was good enough for 2nd place in class B next to Dave Alhadeff who took pole for class B.  The 140Z was heard to be under severe pressure from fellow competitor Zack Groenewald who was adamant to beat the Red Devil.   The 140Z managed to post 1:22.8 while 'Titanic' posted a PB of 1:22.6 and thereby taking pole for the race and class S.  A change or 2 was made to the 140Z in compensation for the race ahead but the heavy weight Chev was always going to play a role in the outcome.

Race 1 was off at 12h30 and at lights out the Datti held onto the back bumper of the Opel Kadette of Williams going into turn 1.  Alhadeff was to my outside and I managed to catch and hold him still on the outside of turn 2 but had to back out for tar territory through the kink.  Some of the faster cars that qualified from behind had started coming through from further back and eventually it was just myself and Dave left to do battle.  It took me about 3 laps to reel him in and from there on it was a close encounter for the remainder of the race.  The Datti managed to slip through on the inside of turn 3 on lap 6 and I held the GT Junior off until turn 1 again when the GT Junior once again got through the inside of T1.  The 140Z on the other hand was wide awake and all to cognisant of the fact that the Chev meant to do business but by the exist of turn 1 from the start the 140Z took the lead with the 'Titanic' filling up the review mirror for most of the race.  The constant hard driving soon showed in the tyres going off on the big V8 but Groenewald was determined as ever.  No matter how hard he tried he could not catch that Red Devil and finished 3.89 seconds behind the 140Z at the finish.  It was no easy task and both were drenched after reaching parce ferme.

Race 2 was almost a scare in that we were already strapped in and suited up when 'Mr Weatherman' decided to release a few drops of rain which had some including myself wondering if this was worth going out on slick tyres.  Thank heavens the delay in getting underway soon resulted in the rain holding up and by the time we were waved out onto the track had hardly been wetted, thankfully.  I had psyched myself up for this one as who ever lead at the finish was bound to take overall for the day as the 0.14 split in race 1 was too close to defend.  Again at lights out I gave the Datti some serious 'welly' and tried out gunning the GT Junior from the start.  We were once again side by side, into turn 2 but by the exit I had found my way past and was hell bent on not relinquishing my slender lead this time. Through turn 3 and 4 I peddled as fast as I could knowing full well that if the bigger engine GT Junior got a whiff of my tail it would be game over.  Almost out-braking myself at times going into turn 5 I held the Alfa at bay and pulled a good gap before hitting turn 1 again where the GT Junior made up considerable ground.  This went on relentlessly with the Datti slowly opening up a gap which was 2 seconds dead at the finish.  Revenge was sweet and we live to fight another day.  The 140Z had nothing more to offer on the day in the tune-up department and at lights out the behemoth nailed it into turn 1 and lead the 140Z.  This was now serious 'game on'.  The Chev was at times at very acute angles to the road ahead but a determined Groenewald was not going to give this one away for all the tea in China.  The 140Z was at times pushing the Titanic through turn 4 and at one stage had 2 wheel on the dirt.  Some that were watching from the clubhouse swore it was all over as the 2 could not have made it safely through.  But they did just that.  Down the long back straight the V8 showed a clean pair of heel to the 140Z but at anchor time it was 'no you won't' time yet again.  This went on for the entire full 8 laps and at the final flag the 140Z trailed the 'Titanic' by a mere 1.77 seconds giving the race win to Titanic and handing the 140Z an overall win for the day.  Prize giving showed what a classic gentleman was made of when my 'boet' went up to collect his 1st prize trophy and said a few words.  Then he called up Zack Groenewald and said that that was a brilliant race and he deserved the 1st place trophy as well as his 2nd place accolade he was bestowed on the day.  Fantastic and a brilliant show of true sportsmanship.

We were both over the moon with our Datsuns performances and can't wait for the final show down which takes place on the 12th November.

Thanks once as always boet for putting in such late and extra hard work on gettting the Datsuns to perform well on the day.

Thanks 'Boet'

Potter Balls

Rather late than never but I forgot entirely about this blog due to all the excitement we had at East London.

This trip was planned close on to 9 or 10 months ago and it all finally came to a head on 27th August  2011 at the Prince Georges Circuit in East London, better know as East London GP track. Both our cars required that our ratios be changed as all calculations showed that we would both run out of revs half way between Potters and Rifle bend.  The little Datti had a no options available in the differential department and our quick fix was to simply replace the 4-speed box with a 5-speed box while the already 5-speed 140Z needed diff ratios.  After much looking around I managed to source a rather scarce 37:1 crown-wheel and pinion in JHB which I sent down to Cape Town and which was subsequently fitted.  Everything else had been thoroughly checked and both Datsuns were finally ready for EL.  The Datti was sent up by transporter along with 9 other cars while the 140Z was towed up on trailer in convoy with fellow racers and petrol heads. 

Everyone including the cars arrived on the Thursday and the off loading of cars and the unpacking of race equipment, tyres, fuel and spares began. In between we managed to force down a few hydraulic sandwiches all while the sun had started to set.  The smell of fresh sea air coupled with the smells of race cars just does that something to every race junkie.  We finally locked up at the track and went to our 'rondavels' approximately 3km away from the track.  Before long the fire was going, the jungle juice was flowing and the stories started coming out with plenty of laughter added.  In between we managed to tan some meat and at least filled a gap.  By 22h00 quite a few heads and eyelids were already getting heavy as most had traveled from around 03h00 to get to East London by 15h00 in order to still off load.  By 11h00 we were horizontal and couldn't wait for the next morning as neither of us had ever been to or driven the EL once famous grand prix circuit.

Friday morning arrived with a cold and chilly wind with even rain predicted by late afternoon.  We received our race schedule, completed the necessary documentation and had our cars scrutineered.  Soon afterward we were told that the first practice session scheduled for 09h00 was canceled due to track repairs that needed to be completed.  So we stood around, found some coffee and a toasted sarmie and paced around ever so eager to get onto the track.

At around 10h20 we finally got our chance and the 2 Datsuns set off heading for Potters at crawling pace as we warmed our tyres and brakes.  It first seemed to carry on forever finally straightening out on a slight downhill towards Rifle bend which was not as long as envisaged but then got slightly steeper doiwnhill towards the sharp right hand Cocabana corner.  By now we took the revs up a bit higher on a very slight uphill ans heading for the Esses,then Cox corner leading onto the up hill Back straight until we approached the very sharp and off camber Beacon corner which brought us back onto the main straight.  Peddle to the metal and balls to the wall, this is what we waited for.  Approximately 300m before Potters I hooked 5th gear for the very first time in the Datti and what a sweet sound it makes dropping just on 500RPM but by 100 meters the left foot said its time to break, you're going far to fast. So I dabbed the peddle and slowly floored it once again.  Who ever said you can take Potters flat out.  They're mad.  Coming out of Potters man I felt like I was flying, the 140Z already off my radar detector and I was now heading for Rifle.  Again a slight lift but no brakes ere necessary although it's still a little uncomfortable.  Now we're downhill with Cocabana approaching at a rapid rate of knots.  Out of Cocabana and now we're off at 8000Rpm up towards the Esses again braking hard just 50m before a sudden right, then a sweeping left and then a gentle right, short shift to 4th gear pulling 6500RPM up now towards the dreaded Beacon.  At around the 70m mark it was hard onto the brakes only to find I braked too early but at least Beacon was now safely out of the way.  Man this was an absolute blast.  Another lap and it was getting faster on every lap, or so it felt.  The 140Z was completely outta sight blitzing the East London tarmac.  On my 5th lap coming out of the Back straight and heading up towards Beacon I was bumped and put onto the outside muddied field, holding it in a long slide and praying that the wheels don't dig in else it would be a certain roll over.  I came to a halt only meters away from the marshals post and slowly crawled my way back to the pit.  On arrival I was the only one back while the 140Z was still out there showing Potters who's boss.  With only a totally destroyed left rear rim and some minor body damage I was happy to replace the set of tyres with a full spare set and was ready to go out again. By this time the 140Z had pulled into pit and we exchanged our experiences, race lines and brake markers.  I had in the interim manged to get down to a 1:46 and off target while the 140Z was already down to a 1:37 and well within target range.

We refueled our cars, re-inflated the tyres and allowed the cars to cool down before we again took to the track.  I had noticed the Datti breathing rather excessively during my first outing and was only concerned that the engine might not last for the entire weekend.  We decided to just add some Wynns Charge as a safety precaution and that was that for now.  On our next session was after lunch and with slightly warmer conditions we again took to the track.  This time I was given some advice as to how I should approach Potters.  The only concern was that the advice was coming from someone who was on 10" rubber while I was on old 7" rubber and the footprint was a completely different ball game.  But I heeded the advice a was adamant to put it to the test.  This time I was however more concerned with getting Cocabana, the Esses  and Beacon spot on as this is the only place where the smaller car could make up any lost ground.  The straights were simply too long, but oh so much fun.  Upon our second return to the pits we were both relatively happy with our sessions although the Datti's engine was breathing like a well stoked steam train but we would now have to wait for qualifying which was to be done from 15h00 onwards.  Again we filled our fuel tanks, re-inflated our tyres and did the all round check.

We got our eventually got our chance at around 15h20 to do our qualifying times and we both took to the track almost at the same time.  The 140Z did not hold back and was gone in seconds.  The Datti on the other hand likes to be warmed up a tad before stomping the loud peddle however the biggest concern was the breathing which I was trying to nurture.  The 140Z was attacking every corner with aggression and took every bit of advantage of the long 1.8Km straight before bellowing down upon Cocabana corner.  It was smooth yet almost at its limits through the Esses, through Cox's corner, short changing up towards Beacon before hard on the brakes to once again head down on the straight.  The 140Z finally posted a 1:35.782 and was placed 2nd on the grid just 3 hundredths short of pole man in the Mazda Rotary.  Meanwhile the Datti managed to post a 1:47.686 placing me 24th on the grid.  I duly pulled in and called it a day.  We made the decision to change the MSD settings and chose to play it safe rather than sorry.  Some further adjustment were made with timing in this regard as well.

Saturday morning up bright and early we prepped both cars as per usual and awaited our final moment of truth.  At around 11h00 we got our chance.  My stomach was full of butterflies in anticipation of dicing through Potters.  Who would lift or back out?  The rolling start was done at a rather slow pace but due to the size of the field probably the better choice.  The 140Z being on the outside of the track probably had the better line going into Potters while the Mazda had to make the best of keeping it tight or possibly even backing out.  The 140Z was not going to surrender and held out through Rifle and getting in and out of Cocabana first.  Not long afterward the V8 Capri was also in the chase and soon evolved into a battle between the Mazda as to who would take second place.  The Datti meanwhile was heavily involved with a dice between the Ford Anglia's of both Jaco Lambert and later even Claude Justice often loosing out on the legs down the main straight, but come the corners and the Datti was again all over them like a rash. The pressure was hot and relentless and Jaco eventually went wide and out braked himself into Cocabana.  Claude manged to get past me down the main straight and drove well to hold me off till the flag.  In the interim I had managed to post an improved time of 1:45.0 and finishing in 13th place overall.  The 140Z went on to win the race as well and also posted an improved time of 1:34.635 with the Capri finishing 2nd and the Rotary 3rd having also posted a better than qualifying best of 1:34.4

For race 2 we made no other adjustments on the heavily breathing Datti except some mind changes and an attempt to try things slightly differently.  The 140Z meanwhile now had to contend with a V8 Capri in second place on the grid and a rasping Rotary behind him.  I again had both Jaco and Claude to chase.  Race 2 was off at 15h15 again with a rather slow pace but hey, I was here for a fun time.  At lights out the V8 Capri had the legs on the 140Z but was little match in the corners (when they eventually came).  Ferdi jnr drove the wheels off that V8 to keep the 140Z at bay and no matter where the 140Z put it's nose, the V8 Capri held on only to pull a slight gap once back onto the straights.  This pursued relentlessly for the entire race which had the crowd rooting big time for there favorites.  A brilliant race was won by Ferdi with the 140Z crossing the line 0.860 seconds later. Further back in the pack the Datti was dueling once again with the Fords with Claude eventually pulling off after 3 laps.  I pushed as hard as I could but used a different stratergy this time as planned in the pits with 'Mr Datsun'.  It pulled off with me again running out ahead of Jaco who finished 6 seconds behind me while in the interim I manged to knock off another 2 seconds of my race 1 time posting a final 1:43.006 and finishing 11th overall out of 33 starters for race 2.

To say I was over the moon is an understatement.  To say we didn't enjoy this trip is a blatant lie.  We thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it and the Datsuns ran brilliantly.

Thanks 'Boet'

Look Ma, no legs!!

Murphy's law, if you plan something it probably won't happen, if you don't it probably will.  As many would already know by now, this month sees the Ford & Friends tour taking place at the East London Grand Prix circuit this year and one I definitely don't want to miss this opportunity as it may not happen again.  As such, I sacrificed the club races of the 23rd July as well as the 06th August in order to ease costs for this planned away trip. To cut a very long story short, by last Monday (01 August) there were simply not enough entries to ensure that the event for classic cars could go ahead and in addition it was unlikely to count towards the championship as the rules state that a minimum of 12 cars have to start in order for such to happen.  Now it is simply a fact that many (myself included) wanted to save our cars for the East London event and not have to endure any unforeseeable damages incurred by chancing a race beforehand.  On the other hand, I couldn't allow a championship to potentially go out of the window due to it being short of one race car for one race, so I gave in and offered to come down to Cape Town and race the Datti.

Due to the late arrangements I only managed to jet in at around lunch time on the Friday which was still wet from overnight rain.  As such I would only have a chance at the late afternoon and final session for classic cars of the day to do any testing.  Just as well, as my session did throw a curve ball in that on my 3rd lap heading towards T4, the Datti simply died as in cut engine, 'mors dood, vrek' ignition lights still all ablaze.  Not knowing what it was but for certain knowing it wasn't terminal nor that any noticeable smoke was ever observed in the rearview mirror I coasted to within 100m from parc ferme where I eventually ground to a halt and had to pull onto the right hand side of the track.  A quick peek under the bonnet revealed absolutely nothing and I duly closed it again and waited in anticipation.  After the session 'Mr Datsun' came over to assist.  I explained the scenario and he popped open the bonnet, asked me to try and start it and 1, 2, 3 found the problem, accelerator linkage and come loose.  A quick work around at least saw that I could start the car again and drive back to the pit where it was fixed properly.  I made some quick arrangements with the marshals and I managed to squeeze in a quick 3 laps with the clubman session.  At last I was satisfied that everything was now making the right noises, pops and squeaks and retired the car for the night.  Of course without fail we lit a fire, tanned a few chops and sausage, washed it all down with a few hydraulic sandwiches where after we headed for home some 30 minutes just before pumpkin time.

Saturday morning was probably one of the colder days in the mother city and by my guess, perhaps too cold for any decent lap times.  Although this sounds contrary to popular belief, the cold temperature ensured that any decent tyre temps were almost null and void.  I tried to compensate for this by using different pressures from my usual tyre settings.  On leaving the pit area I already spun the tyres rather unusually just leaving the pit lane, then started weaving to generate some heat into the tyres until just before reaching T1 where upon I gave it a blip on the loud peddle.  Rudely and abruptly the Datti spat me out like a piece of used toilet paper in the middle of turn 1 leaving me rather red faced.  I rejoined and tried again, this time being a tad more cautious.  My final qualifying result produced a 1:30.6 just 0.2 seconds behind Ferdi jnr in the Alfa GTA and putting me 5th on starting grid.

Race 1 and we were afforded 2 out laps to warm up even although by now the temperature had warmed considerably compared to 07h30.  I had made allowances in the tyre pressures but in hind sight, probably not enough in the end.  Ahead of me was the Scirroco of Johan Swart, Ferdi van Niekerk to his right with the 7.0 litre V8 Chev Deville on pole ahead of Swart with Sandro Biccari in second place to the pole-man.  The start lights were extinguished at the last second and I caught both Swart and van Niekerk off guard and managed to stick the Datti between the two of them, outrunning both into turn 1.  I now found myself in 3rd place which I fought tooth and nail for going into turn 2, Swart now on my outside.  I held on but by the Kink Swart had already managed to regain his third place.  I managed to hold onto forth place with Ferdi close behind me as we headed towards turn 4 where the GTA had a lot more cornering speed that the Datti.  Coming out of 4, he slip streamed me and then dived out making his way past me towards turn 5 where I maanged to break VERY late and in so doing once again caught up with him going side by side through turn 5.  Onto the main straight and the GTA showed it legs once again but I was not going to give up that easily and once again managed to outbrake to regain forth position.  This trading of places carried on until lap 5 when the Datti could no more as by now the tyres had got too hot and were sliding and thereby loosing time.  Ferdi got one over me and there was little I could do.

Race 2 was the last race of the day and I again started from 5th position on grid.  This time both Ferdi and Johan were well aware of the looming 1471cc Datsun ready to take any slightest advantage on offer, but it was not to be.  Instead we found the 3 A class and 3 B class cars bumper to bumper going into turn one, no touching by any one and by turn 2 we were all still jockeying for position and a little too close for comfort.  The V8 and nimble 2 litre plus Scirroco's took to the front and I once again managed to pip the 2 litre GTA going into turn 3 and held him off until reaching the back straight once again.  This time Ferdi again had a good run onto me and passed me comfortably heading towards turn 5.  This time the V8 up ahead was like a waltzing Matilda snaking its way into T5 and we all caught up to it.  By now the Scirroco's had passed and it was obvious that something was wrong with the 'Titanic'.  By T2 I had also managed to squeeze passed and there after it was a somewhat lonely race other than for a mistake made by Swart in his Scirroco which saw him run off at turn 5 and in so doing I now found myself in 3rd place overall.   We ended like that with Ferdi taking the double for the day and me having to graciously admit that there is simply no replacement for displacement and that I simply didn't have the legs to keep up with the much bigger engine cars.  But don't write me off just yet as I am determined with the help and the race ingenuity of 'Mr Datsun' to still come back later this year stronger and even more determined.

To say that I had a brilliantly prepared car that ran like absolute clockwork is an insult, it was far better than that.  My only asking is that it stays together and that she runs as brilliantly in East London on the 27th August.

Thanks 'Boet"