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Phakisa Race report

Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 2:46 pm
by Dodging
So Friday morning we left home at 4am, got to Phakisa without incident at around 7am. Offloaded the car, set up camp, did the documentation and whatnot, and soon enough went out for the first practice session. Having never gone around Phakisa, I decided to take it very easy to try figure out the lines before trying to build up speed. I saw Hilton waiting for Willem to show him the lines, and decided to just follow them to have a look. Next lap I started picking up pace, and times came down nicely. Did a 2:15, 2:13, 2:11 and 2:10.

Next session I went out with a bit more confidence, and times came down into the 9's. End of the session I found a horrible ticking noise in the engine, and general consensus was that is a gudgeon pin coming loose. Stood around wondering if I should just pack it up and head home, but then Alex offered me a seat in his car. Went out in the third session in a car that I knew nothing about, and spun it in turn 1. Thankfully I didn't hit anything, and ran a 2:12 on the next lap, shortly after losing the rear again and getting stuck in the kitty litter. End of practice... We had a chat about our plan for the race, and decided that we will rather run on my Corsa's tyre's as they had much more rubber on them. We also had to make a plan with the wheel alignment that kept on going out, but that all got resolved before qualifying

Race day:
Alex took the car out for qualifying, and posted some good times. We were however underweight by a huge margin (We always knew we were going to be), and after penalties were applied we ended up 4th from last on the grid. Alex took the first stint, and started running some excellent times. He got hit by another Golf on the rear right, but managed to keep things together and kept going, all the while making up positions. He pulled in for the mandatory pit stop, where we filled the car up, and did the wheel change. So out I went with fading light, and a car I knew very little about. The car felt so much better than the day before with the alignment sorted and more rubber on the wheels. I was however in survival mode here - I could see very little on the track, and could not see the gauges on the dash as their lights were not working. I decided on nursing the car as best I could, and just concentrate on staying on the blackest stuff I could see. Managed to pull that off successfully, and brought the car safely home.

End of the day we finished 4th in class, and 29th out of 56 starters. Really chuffed.

Just a big thanks to Alex for offering me a drive - the weekend would've been a total loss if it wasn't for his kind act

Some photos:

Alex's car sporting my wheels from the Republic of Blingola
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Qualifying:
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Race time!:
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Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 2:47 pm
by Dodging
Pit stop:

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Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 2:48 pm
by Dodging
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And here is me (I think haha)

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Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 3:18 pm
by Stef
Ahh lekker :thumbup:

Pity about your engine though, understand the frustration especially when you spent the money and committed the time.

Pics actually makes me miss my kart racing days ...

Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Tue May 05, 2015 3:30 pm
by CasKru
Lekker Andre.... well done

Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Wed May 06, 2015 10:20 am
by Haboob
Congrats, Hope you get your CAR sorted...

Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 7:12 pm
by Dodging
Small update - results have been revised

We finished 3rd

Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 7:16 pm
by ChrisF
nice :)


may your tires end third next time - with YOUR body hovering over it !

Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 7:23 pm
by 4x4BEES
Awesome :thumbup:

Congrats on the result :clap: :clap:

I see you still have to go some time before you get a F1 style pitstop going for you :lmao: :lmao:

Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 11:21 am
by Dodging
And then some

For what it's worth, our pit stop took all of 1 min 40s. Not bad for a fuel top-up, wheel change, driver change and a windscreen wash :D

Re: Phakisa Race report

Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 12:29 pm
by Thunder02
Well done Andre :clap: :clap: :clap: