WET WET WET MIDAS CLUBMANS SPLASH SESSION – Posted: 14/07/2010
Long before the sun rose on race day the rain started to fall and there was little doubt that all and sundry were in for a wet but possibly exciting day at the track. With the timed session a rumor all that was available to get the feel of the circuit was a “free” session for the GTi Challenge and the Clubman’s lads and lasses together short before the meeting started. The continuous rain never abated and the fellows that went out had a serious taste of things to come but never the less learnt a lot about the characteristics of a wet Killarney.
Given the depleted entry the decision was made to put everyone into a single race and with the rain barreling down the race began with a rolling start and a mammoth of prayers following the pack into turn one.
Achmat Achmat held the class A and BMW flag high by staying on the island and winning both heats from Gavin “Mr Chairman” Serff who managed to lead a few laps briefly in heat number two. Bennie Lodewyk did quite fine in the first heat but sweated it out and was third in class but a little further back in heat number two with a third overall for the day.
Class B lost two of its biggest contenders early on in heat one with Andre Johnson doing some serious off roading at turn five when he ran out of road and ideas at the same time at high speed in turn five and ended up with the car well dug into the kitty litter. Jeremy Smith lost the plot into the kink as he crossed ”the kink river” and was turned into a spectator as the car aqua planed in the deep side and he ended up too close to the wall for comfort. Jano vd Westhuizen kept it on the island all day except for a mega splash session exciting turn one in heat two and the consistency gave him overall class honors for the day. Gareth Easom in the new car picked up a well deserved 2nd and a 3rd which secured overall 2nd for the day ahead of Francois “trappies” van Tonder who managed a third overall after a 3rd in race one and a visit to the tyre wall in heat two.
Mark smith was the man on the move in class C with two class victories on the day and having said that he was trading places with driver’s way up the pecking order in a normal dry race. Leon Swart did a end swopper in turn three but got the car back on the island to post a distant but effective second in heat one with another 2nd in heat two sealing 2nd overall for the day. Five seconds adrift was Anton Jacobs in both events to secure 3rd overall in a safe but still exciting slip and slide in the wet. Carlos Lawrence had a motor die on him to reduce his point’s collection for the day while Simon Balie lost the circuit in the storm in heat one just past the kink and ended in the pond next to the wall ending his paddling session. Nicolas Walker also went paddling at the entrance to turn 3 in heat one but got going again and ended race two to collect a few points for the day.
In class D the ex Grant Geyer car was ably piloted by relative newcomer William Niksch and in the absence of a lot of the drivers in the class he took his chances and dominated the show with two class victories and had a massive dice with Redelinghuys and Lemmer with Anton Jacobs joining in the fun as well. Ex Stock car driver Truspe Schoeman secured a second overall with a well guided safe run in the atrocious conditions with Dewald Erasmus pulling off a mature third overall in the pool.
Pieter Kanemeyer was the only class E entry and he logically picked up overall class honors for the day.
Ex oval racer Sarel Neethling is welcomed to the class and we are so happy that he weathered “the storm” while it is great to see ex biker Hilton Redelinghuys getting smart and climbing into 4 wheels. The disappointment for the day was that the expected entry of Andrea Bate did not happen after the car she was promised did not make it through the GTi race due to a stripped cam belt.
Given the cost factor for wets and the number drivers who have the aforementioned item on the shelves at home, the entries on the day was once again a spirited and warm effort from a close knit bunch of motoring enthusiasts and we salute the brave swimmers for their efforts.
Till we meet again ... the next one is on the 31st of this month and you better make sure that you do not miss what will once again be the biggest and most entertaining class on the day.
MIDAS CLUBMANS RACE REVIEW – Posted: 20/06/2010
On race day the sun rose over a carpet of clouds that was low lying enough to mist the whole circuit out until close on 10h00 the morning before sight was sufficient to get down to some serious low flying. This meant that qualifying was out of the question and calculators replaced stop watches to determine the order of the grid.
In the absence of the class A Beemer boys the front of the grid took on a whole new look with Kobus Claasen, Dave Kopke and PW Louw the only class A entrants. This was quite fine from a commentating point of view as variety is the spice of life but that picture changed on turn two of lap one when Kobus got the Nissan out of shape and parked it lengthways across the exit of the corner. All went well in the land of evasive action until Mark Smith arrived at the scene and the traffic suddenly opened up to reveal a beautifully prepared road block called Kobus Classen and he buried the Golf’s nose into the right side of the Primera. Red flags halted the show and on the restart, in the absence of the two cars involved in the incident, only PW and Dave were left to fly the A flag. That ended six laps later with Dave retiring for unknown reasons and PW admitting that he had forgotten to fill the tank. Heat 2 in class A saw Dave taking victory over PW Louw
Class B was pretty tight with Ian ”ex chairman” Long getting to serious grips with the rear wheel drive Beemer and winning the session with newcomer to the front end of the class Jano “wheelstud” vd Westhuizen a very close second and Adriaan “Teng Tools” Mossop clipping back his ears to pick up third. Andre Johnson in an open diffed Audi (he bust the LS at the last Saterday practice) did what he could with Jeremy, Phillip and Gavin “the chairman” Serff in close attendance. Heat two was a clear indication that Ian was now mastering the new car and he zoomed into the distance with Gavin in 2nd and Jano right on his tale.
Class C was a happy place for Francois “trappies” van Tonder who posted his first ever class C victory a mere 0.045 seconds ahead of Gareth Easom, also in a VW product. Hayder “Mr Goodlooking” Mohamed was not far adrift in the 318i BMW with series sponsor Peter vd Poel in 4th a few seconds down the road. Heat two saw Gareth recover from his near miss with victory and return the favor to Trappies by beating him by 0.041 of a second in a fantastic dice which I am sure they both enjoyed immensely. Hayder once again beat Peter by a mere second but they were a little distance behind the front two. With relative newcomers to the class Leon Swart, Tony Leca, Lance Arendse and Anton Jacobs improving meeting for meeting this class is soon going to be a very tight affair.
Class D boasts three very close competitors up front with everyone in with a chance of victory. Dean Meyer secured the first heat by less than a second from Simon Balie and they had a mere three second gap back to a hard charging Carlos Lawrence. Carlos returned after the luncheon interval with the elastics tied up even tighter and posted a very happy class win, Simon again securing a second and Dean dropping down to third. The rest of the class was somewhat spread out behind that.
With nobody left in class F the 4 class E contenders were hard pressed at the back of the pack to hold on but they also achieved some personal bests of their own in the process. Relative newcomer Willem Niksch is coming on strong and posted a first and a second for the day in competent form with ex gravel oval racer Truspe Schoeman also doing a 1-2 on the day and overall race times determined the overall winner on the day.
With breakouts to many to mention there is no doubt that the standard of cars and drivers is improving drastically in the class. The days of 12 and fifteen entrants behind the class D field is long gone. In a way this is great but we must never forget that that is where most of your new blood enters, and that must always be a source that is jealously guarded. As long as we feed the pack at the back the rest will come naturally and the Midas Clubmans formula will remain arguably the premier class at WPMC.
Till we meet again...many thanks to MIDAS SPORT for making the DSTV coverage of the Pro Tour leg possible, and for those who have not seen it yet keep an eye on Rapid Motion Africa for reruns.
MIDAS CLUBMAN’S SERIES WESTERN CAPE – Posted: 20/06/2010
World Cup, Rugby, F1, NASCAR, Le Mans all in one month as well as the crowd favorite at Killarney raceway being the Midas Clubman cars and their exiting machines.
Previous edition of the race in May we had TV coverage brought to us with compliments of Midas and we had one great show so much so that other circuits are amazed at the quality and numbers we produce race after race.
We can be proud to be a true home grown formula with the rainbow nation displayed in all cultural as well as male and female drivers giving each other a hard time on the black stuff. We have had a really good start to our season with class A growing at each event to now 12 cars with Spur racing Golf with Gavin Cerff leading the class but closely pursued by the BMW squad. Class B is in the hands of Andre Johnson in his new Audi as well as Jano VD Westhuizen in his Golf grabbing points each time out. Class C is a walk over by Mark Smith but he had a major front end during the last meeting but still leads the pack fairly comfortless. Peter VD Poel is second but some way back in his Toyota. Class d is hotting up as suddenly new drivers are making waves in the hands of Truspe Schoeman and Willem Niksch. Class E is Paul Dalton who swapped his Charade for Golf and is now constantly bringing home the silverware.
Overall we have Mark Smith leading on 43 points with Gavin Cerff on 38 and Shureez Brenner from Namibia on 37 so there is still a lot at stake with 6 rounds still come. We are in for a hell of a ride as every meting we have a gaggle of cars filling the 55 plus field giving the organizers and stewards a handful with great racing all the time.
The Midas battle will continue at the next round being the 31 July and hopefully we will give the ever demanding spectators a good showing of our series and make our major sponsor as well as associated sponsors proud to be involved with our winning formula.
Enjoy the World cup and may the best team win, see you all next time so start your engines and get them ready for one hell of a battle of the giants as Midas Clubman’s brings you closer to the real thing in this adrenalin filled series.
CLUBMANS PREVIEW – Posted: 01/06/2010
With the Midas Clubman chasers back in the limelight after missing out on the most recent regional contest, interest in Saturday’s meeting is running high.
There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the current championship leader is popular veteran Mark Smith in an aging 1996 VW Golf 1, a car that was originally campaigned by wacky Springbok biker Mike Cameron. A model of consistency, Smith has been able to build up a small lead over a pair of more glitzy BMWs in the hands of Shureez Brenner and Ashraf Ariefdien.
A long, but so far unsuccessful competitor in Clubman events at Killarney, Smith’s performance is seen as a giant killing act and there has been no lack of crowd support for his effort.
More importantly, he also has the benefit of the class system. With 169 registered drivers, the Midas Clubman category is easily the most well supported grouping in the Western Cape – possibly even in South Africa. And although not all of them are currently racing, it nevertheless still justifies a breakdown into six point scoring classes.
But while these are all equal, there are some that are more equal than others. Maximum points are only awarded if at least five cars in the class start the race and drivers in less well supported smaller categories often suffer at crucial times.
Then as has happened in the high profile class A, Brenner and Ariefdien with occasional assistance from fellow Beemer top gun Roshan Khan, have been sneaking points away from one another and all three have suffered as a result. While Smith is in class C which always has its full quota of entries, his main problem seems likely to come from reigning champion Peter van der Poel, whose Midas Toyota Conquest was classified as a new entry and began in the non scoring class X, before being reclassified in class C.
Andre Johnson’s magnificently turned out new Audi A4 turbo, could also pose problems. Johnson is another who began in class X before graduating rapidly from D to C. He is now due to start Saturday’s clash in class B for the first time, with talk that his ultimate objective is a place among the hard chargers at the head of the field in class A.
It all sounds like a meeting not to be missed.
