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First test TOTAL MAHEM RACEWAY PRETORIA
We arrived in South Africa 9.30 Thursday 6th
Feb and were taken straight to the track where the cars are
being stored in a workshop, the first test was to take place
on Saturday so time was short for setting up and testing.
During the official practice on Thursday night we had our
first glance of the opposition, the South African cars run
to American Midget spec. and are direct drive with no clutch.
They have to be push started and once they are running they
cannot stop. They can also have engines up to 2.8 litres and
one of the fast guys has an estimated 350bhp - we've got our
work cut out then!! Lap times from the South Africans range
from 13.8 to 14.6 secs. Fastest of the UK team was Rob Sayell
with 14 secs dead, followed by Gordon Pooley at 14.2. Gary
Granger's engine let go in spectacular fashion leaving him
with no camshaft and a hole in the side of the block. A local
Hot Rod driver came to the rescue by lending Gary an all steel
1700cc which was installed in double quick time.
On the night of the first meeting the temperature
at the track was 42degrees for practice and a few drivers
were having tyre and cooling problems. UK team captain Gordon
Pooley had a meeting with the African Capt. Theo Broussow
who did not realise that we were only running 1300's, Gordon
won the toss and elected to take pole for the meeting. The
whole meeting was set to be a challenge with the UK team rolling
starting and the Africans not having mirrors and twice the
power, when God intervened and the heavens opened. I don't
think I have ever seen anybody so pleased to see rain than
the UK team who duly fitted wet tyres.
After the team introductions and national
anthems the first heat got a way with Gordon Pooley on pole,
Andrew Bilby on row 2, Chris Phillips on row 3 and John Bilby
at the back. The starting procedure is quite alien to us as
the cars have to be push started and when they are all running
a green flag is shown and 3 laps tyre warming is allowed,
then the pole sitter holds station and everybody lines up
in single file. The starter then stands in the middle of the
track and signals to form up in grid order. When that happens
(on average 4 laps later) a white flag is shown indicating
that we will go green on the next lap.
On the green Gordon got the drop and took
off into the sunset. Andrew Bilby's VW went down to 2 cylinders
as the wet gremlins set in. The Africans, still on slicks,
had a lot of problems with grip and quite a few stoppages
left the UK team in a good position with Gordon taking the
win from Chris and a South African, John Bilby driving round
the outside of two Africans with a lap to go and Andrew spluttering
in last place.
Heat 1b was business as usual for Rob as he
got the drop on the flag. Neil Clarke had a brilliant start
and was soon up behind Rob leaving the Africans in his wake.
Gary was having problems with the new engine got stuck behind
the leading African, Quentin Saayman, and could not get past.
UK 1st 2nd 4th and 8th again.
The second heat was held in even worse conditions
and this time the UK took a 1, 2, 3, 4 across the line, Gordon
leading Andrew, John and Chris home. In heat 2b Rob got bogged
down on a restart and Neil took advantage and swept around
the outside leading the UK to another 1, 2, 4, 8.
By this time the SA captain was getting a
little agitated and Gordon agreed that we would take off our
wet tyres for the final, which was now dry anyway. The final
took even more time to sort out as all 18 cars were on the
track and the circuit only has 2 push vehicles!!! At the flag
Rob and Gordon had a good start but the power of the SA cars
soon showed. On lap 3 Gordon was touched from behind and sent
into a spin, the SA cars have quite poor visibility and Rob
managed to stop abruptly. Unfortunately the car behind him
did not stop and ended up on top of the National points champ
causing damage to his rear wing, upright and radiator. Under
SA rules the person who causes the damage gets eliminated
as well and both cars were pushed to the centre green. On
the restart Gordon lost a plug lead and pulled off and the
SA team took the lead. Meanwhile Andrew Bilby was making light
work of the slower cars from his back row starting position,
eventually overhauling Neil for 5th place and was the first
UK driver home.
On the whole the meeting was a learning curve
for everybody, including the promoters. The UK team won the
first test 199 points to 132. A good all-round team effort
as every place finish has points attached. We did see in the
final what the SA cars are capable of and I can't see us beating
them on a dry track. But to finish first you must first finish
and of course we can always pray for rain again!!!
John Bilby - Pretoria ( 32 degrees in thunder
storm!)
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