Reduced to race by ‘Invitation’.

In December of 2015 we bought the Datsun J-Series SSS in Mayfair, Johannesburg and drove it to Fourways fully knowing that we had a full year to build it without any rush whatsoever as the Western Cape had been given the whole of 2016 by Motorsport South Africa to get their house in order in preparation for Pre-80 as from January 2017.  Of course we couldn’t waste any valuable time and as such we had virtually stripped the entire interior to bare metal by the time the weekend was over and within a week into the new year of 2016 it was put onto a transporter and was heading for Cape Town to be completed.
Without dragging out the whole run up to events there was a requirement that the Western Cape Historic section had to meet by August of 2016 which for all intent and purposes it missed.  By the end of October 2016 the Datsun J-Series SSS was complete and needed to have a shakedown before its first race which was scheduled to be the Passion for Speed event to be held in February of 2017 at Killarney Raceway. We managed to schedule a test in November 2016 which produced many teething problems on its first outing. Those problems were as best attended to and resolved and we again arranged yet another test day in early December of 2016 before the track closed for the holidays and which although should a big improvement, was still not perfect nor to our satisfaction.

February 2017 finally came and we took part in the Passion for Speed event under Pre-84 Invitational which was a great feeling of being back on the track after being out of the seat for quite a few months.  With more work still needed before the first official race of 2017 we knew we still had a lot of work to do if we wanted to be anywhere near competitive during 2017 and as determined as ever, plans were put in place to do just that.
Meanwhile it soon became evident that the controllers had screwed up so badly on a number of administrative issues which sadly resulted in them not being able to move to Pre-80 for the 2017 season and which further resulted that once again they (Western Cape) would have to compete under the former Pre-77 regulations for yet another year until they get their house in order.
This of course somewhat took the wind out of our sails after putting in all this work and effort as it now means that our 1978 Datsun J-Series SSS is now no longer eligible to compete under Pre-77 as it falls outside of the cut-off period.  Besides not even being afforded an opportunity to have the car checked for technical regulation compliance we now simply have to accept that another year will have to pass before we can hopefully enter it officially and get the chance to race it as it was meant to be.  
So if you may ever be wondering why the RBR Datsun J-Series SSS is not out there, let it be known that such is due to none of our own wanting or doings but is rather totally out of our hands, at least for this season.
We remain hopeful that sanity prevails and that the right decisions are made in the best interests of historic motor racing.

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