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Race report by Jason Hillcoat
Round 4 of the South African on road electric championships was held at the Meyersdal Model Car Racing Club just south of Johannesburg, drawing 121 entries from all over the country, weather was really hot, 34 degrees and track temps in the high 50s all weekend add to that very windy conditions bringing dust from nearby construction made for tough conditions but the weekend could not have gone any better for me.
I won the first 3 qualifiers and was the only driver to do 21 laps in every run and as its best 2 of 4, I did not need to run the last qualifier to save my tires. Our mains are best 2 of 3.
In the first main I had a challenge from XRAY team mate Shaun Schutte who put up a great battle, but after 3 minutes of racing Shaun made a small error which meant I had 3 second gap which I maintained till the end, second main was more to the plan and I made a good gap from the start, but after maintaining a 3-4 sec gap to second place with about a minute to go I had some esc issues and my esc went into blinky, losing all boost ! Just after that 2nd and 3rd place had an accident which now left me with about a 4-5 second gap to the new 2nd place man (Shaun) who was now hunting me down as he could hear I didnt have the straight line pace anymore, I could still manage fairly decent times but he was closing at 3-4 tenths per lap, he managed to close right up but as they say, I was saved by the bell, winning the first 2 mains I did not need to run the last main.
So in summary I had tone to tone qualifiers and mains, which also wrapped up the back to back National Modified Championship title for me.
Overall A Main Top 10 final results:
1. Jason Hillcoat XRAY T4
2. Shaun Schutte XRAY T4
3. Hein Kotze
4. Wouter Ferreira
5. Deon Gove XRAY T4
6. Antonio Caroli XRAY T4
7. Willie Du Plooy XRAY T4
8. Anderton Smith
9. Henri Kotze
10. Marc Van Der Zon
Race report by Shaun Scutte
1/12th qualifying saw a fierce battle develop over 3 of the 4 qualifying rounds between me and XRAY team mate Andre Greeff who kept the pressure on me for the full 8 minutes in the first 3 qualifiers, in Q1 an exciting battle went on over 8 minutes as lapped traffic would play a part in the result with me just having the edge by just over 3 seconds from Andre in 2nd place after 30 laps.
Q2 was a much cleaner run with backmarkers not getting involved in incidents with the leaders, I would take the win in Q2 by just over 5 seconds from Andre again in 2nd place with better track conditions Q2 was a 31 lap run.
Q3 went smoothly for me again and I would take the win again with a 31 lap run which secured me the overall class TQ with Andre a further 7 seconds back. Having taken TQ I sat out the 4th round of qualifying and this would allow Andre to take the win in Q4 and secure 2nd on the grid with 3rd place also taken by XRAY driver Willie Du Plooy.
In the first main I had a good start and created some space between myself and Andre in 2nd he made an error in the technical section and he dropped back into the pack which took some pressure off me and from there I could control the race to the end, the first main would end with another XRAY driver Neville Menezes 1 lap back in 2nd.
In the second main I had a clean start and would have a tone to tone win which secured me the overall win for the event followed home by XRAY drivers Willie Du Plooy in 8 seconds back in 2nd and Andre Greeff in 3rd.
The third main went very much the same way for me and I would take the win this time with Andre 8 seconds back in 2nd place and Willie Du Plooy 1 lap back in 3rd.
Overall 1/12th A Main Top 10 final results:
1. Shaun Schutte XRAY X12
2. Andre Greeff XRAY X12
3. Willie Du Plooy XRAY X12
4. Neville Menezes XRAY X12
5. Marc Van Der Zon
6. Morne De Noon
7. Fanie Viljoen jnr
8. Peter Plint
9. Paul Van Der Westhuizen
In 13.5 turn touring an intense battle for TQ honours developed between me and Hein Kotze.
Q1 did not go to plan as wind early in the morning had blown dust all over the track making track conditions very slippery, not a complete disaster though as I would eventually finish the Q1 round in 4th place.
Q2 came around and the track condition had improved and I would end the round in 2nd place just 0.14 seconds behind 1st place. In Q3 I was on a potential round winning run when I was involved in an incident with a backmarker re-joining the track in front of me after a crash, losing 5 seconds in that incident my chance of overall TQ had disappeared finishing the round in 4th place.
Q4 would see me put in a run only 0.08 seconds off the previous round TQ run, this result secured me the round win but would put me 2nd on the grid.
The first main had all gone to plan, I had put the leader under immense pressure and forced him into an error which put me in the lead which I held until the end of the run, however the timing system had stopped counting in the last 30 seconds so the result would not stand and a re-run would have to be done.
The first main re-run went very much the way of the first and I heaped pressure on the leader unfortunately no mistake came this time and I finished 0.2 seconds behind the leader. The second main was a 5 minute long battle again where I was stuck to the leaders rear bumper until my car got loose in the sweeper which gave the leader a 1 second gap which he held to the end of the race.
Overall 13.5 Turn Touring A Main Top 10 final results:
1. Hein Kotze
2. Shaun Schutte XRAY T4
3. Ashley Hurley
4. Deon Gove XRAY T4
5. Anderton Smith
6. Wouter Ferreira
7. Kallin Kolmel
8. Dillon Du Plooy XRAY T4
9. Pedro de Gouveia XRAY T4
10. Willem Janse Van Rensburg
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