Glorious sunshine beamed down upon Killarney and the race fraternity this past weekend bringing some welcome relief to the rain drenched Cape. Spectators were plentiful and racing was good.
During the previous event of September and now (October) a little refreshing was done to the Datti 1400 GX and clearly the times were proof of that as she constantly ran 1:33's throughout the day even allowing me to clinch pole in class D ahead of Jaco Lambert with a 1:33:64 on the Friday evening. (Just for the record my 1400cc posted an unofficial 1:32:55 during Fridays practice even although I had a good tow from being behind Rob Ferrolli's Jetta)
Saturday dawned and our first race was off at 10h20 with Jaco Lambert in his Escort 1700cc plus on my left going down the straight into turn 1. I managed to hold Jaco until turn 2 where he managed to get ahead of me while I held Glen in the class C Anglia at bay. Unfortunately it was not for long as Dougie Davids dumped his sump from turn 2 all the way around turn 3 making the race line almost impossible to follow. Being fully aware that Jaco was nowhere in contention as far as points was concerned, I settled for second place in class D for the first race with Arnold Lambert 0.2 seconds behind me in his 1600cc plus Anglia.
Having refuelled the Datti with another 10L of 102 octane propellant, Race 2 was off at 15h05. My closest rival was in class F as far as the championship went but he only managed to finish 3rd in class F during the first heat due to a spin resulting from the oil on the track. This took a little more pressure off and allowed me some slack which unbeknown to me was going to come in very handy later on. Again I was in the 1:33's posting a best of 1:33:36 in lap 5. Jaco was again well ahead of me with both Mike and Arnold hounding me like hound dogs chasing a fox. Lo and behold in lap 6 I picked up a miss which suddenly had me in a flat spin. I wasn't too concerned about my position as I had already done the necessary calculations before the race but was more concerned about not finishing the race at all. I slowed in the event that I was running low on fuel and finally crossed the finish line in 4th place after allowing both Arnold and eventually Derek through as well. Upon returning to the pits all the electrics and plug wiring was double checked without any finding but a tap on the fuel tank produced a rather very echoing and hollow sound clearly indicating that the liquid propellant required for proper and efficient internal combustion had been rapidly consumed through normal aspiration and combustion leaving the remainder of 102 liquid propellant well below the pickup.
My combined total race time resulted in me finishing 3rd overall for the day and un-officially the championship should now be out of reach to the rest of the classic car contenders as my closest rival Peter Harrison posted a DNF in the second heat thereby putting him out of further contention. It hasn't quite sunk in yet but with one race left I still have one final move to make on the 15th November all while we wait for the official points results and announcements.
Again it goes without saying that without a person with the vast amount of race knowledge and engine technology such that my 'Boet' Martin has, I wouldn't find myself in the position I now am. I will go publicly on record and now declare that there isn't a more experienced person in South Africa today that knows more than Martin when it come to racing Datsuns/Nissans.
Finish and Klaar!!
Thanks 'Boet' my CHAMP!!!
