{"id":63,"date":"2019-03-18T11:13:19","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T11:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.richardsbrothersracing.co.za\/about\/?p=63"},"modified":"2019-04-04T13:35:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T13:35:27","slug":"just-for-old-times-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richardsbrothersracing.co.za\/blog\/just-for-old-times-sake\/","title":{"rendered":"Just For Old Times Sake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I received a phone call on Wednesday 13 March asking if I would race Bryon Bedien’s<\/g> car (my old race car<\/em>) as Bryon would not be able to make the event.  Now, normally I would decline as I just don’t feel comfortable racing someone else’s car at 10\/10ths knowing full well the possibilities that could go wrong.  This one was somehow a little different and besides, Mr. Bedien was of the opinion, racing is racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


All necessary arrangements and email notifications were made to complete the driver change as well as filling out the necessary paperwork when next thing I was notified the car is smoking and may not be ready for the race.  Either way<\/g> I was still going to Cape Town, come racing or not.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n


I flew down on the Thursday 14th March and got notification<\/g> that they had now opened the engine to find the oil rings were damaged ad that a new complete set of rings was to be fitted that morning.  Well, all the paper work was in and waiting and by 1pm<\/g> on the Thursday<\/g> the car had not as yet been completed nor ready to fire up.  Then I got the final call at around 3pm<\/g> to say its alive and ready and will be at the track by 5pm<\/g> after loading up and getting through all the traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


I took her out at 17h15 for a shake down and only minor issues were encountered whereupon they were addressed and I then went out again at 17h45.  Not having raced the car since I had sold it and with many changes having been made in the 2 years it took a little getting used to but hey, it was a car on the grid for Saturday and I was only too happy to have the chance to race my old Datsun GX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Saturday morning we arrived at track<\/g> to do final prep and we qualified at 08h20.  I tried to slot in where there was the least amount of traffic just so that I could get a few more laps under the belt as well as get a little more milage<\/g> on the refreshed motor.  Increasing my speed on each lap I eventually managed a 1:33.572 which left me 22nd on the starting grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Race 1 was off at 10h20 and with a few butterflies still in the stomach at the start (they felt more like bats out of hell)<\/em>  I was soon catching a few that were quicker than me.  I just loved that fact that the ‘baby’ Datsun GX actually beat the ‘big’ Skyline of former Wesbank<\/g> fame……….but that’s a whole different story.  Picking them off one by one along with a few others that dropped out I managed to get up to 12th place after a great dice between myself and the Pre-90 VW Golf Mk2 of Layne Hutchings and finishing only a mere 8\/100 of second<\/g> behind him while putting in a 1:31.874 during the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Race 2 was off at 14h05 but rather a little warmer than it was at 10am<\/g>.  I had a fair start but was unable to jump the pre-90 cars who simply had more power than me but ‘hang on snoopy<\/em>‘ I sure did.  It was really a carry on from race 1 where I simply again found myself staring into the back of the Mk2 Golf back window and try as I may I could not find a way through.  I watched for possible areas where I could make a move and eventually found 1 on lap 6 entering turn 2 where the Golf made a small mistake and I got through on the inside.  My only chance was to keep the momentum as I simply did not have the power to open a gap other than being quicker into and through the corners.  I held off the challenge through the Kink, got through turn 3 with a slight gap now on the Mk2 Golf coming out of 3 but approaching turn 4 was a slow car which momentarily slowed me down a fraction and the Golf now had a slipstream down the back straight.  With not too much effort he passed me heading into turn 5 and I was hoping for him to run in a bit hot so that I could do the undercut coming out of 5.  It worked albeit only for a few meters before their legs got the better of me yet again.  Again it was nose to tail through turn 1 and again up into turn 2, with me desperately trying for a way through perhaps in turn 3.  Sadly on the Joubert straight, the water bottle pushed out its contents and the heat gauge went to full tilt.  Game over.  I had no option but to retire from the race and call it a weekend.  I still managed to beat my race 1 lap time albeit only by a mere 1\/10th of a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you once again to Yulbrunner Bedien and his son Bryon for the chance to race his car and to my ‘Boet’ for helping with setting the finer engine settings.\u00a0 I really needed that race.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received a phone call on Wednesday 13 March asking if I would race Bryon Bedien’s car (my old race car) as Bryon would not be able to make the event.  Now, normally I would decline as I just don’t feel comfortable racing someone else’s car at 10\/10ths knowing full well the possibilities that could go… Read More »Just For Old Times Sake<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racereport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t