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'
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