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"
