Wednesday, January 6, 2010

race reports

On this Blog.
by Pierre Martins

There are race reports and race reports. Some are boring as hell, written by outsiders and/or journo’s. I’d like to believe my race reports are different in the sense that I share them as I’ve experienced them. Sometimes I’ll even put you in the car with me.

Plus, I believe racing should be fun and you should always learn something new, that’s why I make a point of throwing in a good dose of humour and fortune cookie wisdom for good measure. I hope you enjoy these -


Little Porsche 924 fun & games

IMG00024-20090829-1323 (1) My friends have said I should write a book about all the funny shit we’ve experienced at race tracks over the years and this story would most certainly feature in that book if I ever decide to pull my finger out my ass and actually write it. Come to think of it, I’m certainly not short on funny characters, so let me introduce a couple of them and the stupid shit they (we) do…

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Shelby Can-Am – May 2010

DSC_8320 Nestled in the Andaman Sea on Thailand's Indian Ocean coastline about 850km south of Bangkok is a little tropical paradise island known as ’Phuket’.  It has next to nothing to do with this race meet or motorsport in general, but if you deliberately miss-pronounce the name ‘Phuket’ in the English lingo it takes on an alternative meaning…

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2010 David Piper Invitational races

IMG_3679 The hairpin and table top sections were the most fun for everyone. Come in there as hard and fast as you dare and turn in… With no grip the car would immediately plough into a prolonged under-steer until you woke up and realize ‘hell, I can’t let this go on forever’.  Back on the power hard to bring the ass around. Uncoil the steering wheel quickly to prevent going into a tank-slapper! 

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2009 Kyalami Nine Hour Retro

_DSC5043 One thing lead to another and I found myself behind the wheel of Keith Rose’s spunky ‘73 Porsche 911 RSR in a One-Hour endurance race at Kyalami…

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Altech GT Challenge 2009 – Round 1

220309549 I was somewhat un-prepared for for this season’s GT Challenge. Hell, I didn't even know whether I wanted to race in this series or not…

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Altech GT Challenge 2009 – Round 2

IMG_0406 Well, this time there is not much to report on, except that I won both heats in my class by a country mile. The racing was utterly boring though, with two lonely races in a row.

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Altech GT Challenge 2009 – Round 3

PT300509004b Unlike the boring round I had at Zwartkops the actual racing turned out to be fantastic this time. Had a titanic battle with youngster Dillon Miller in a lightweight 2.9 911RS in class E…

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Altech GT Challenge 2009 – Round 4

Phak200609005 This one turned into a heated battle right from the start with youngster Dillon Miller in the lightweight little 911 RS. It was like a continuation of the Kyalami races, with me piling the pressure on in bucket loads…

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Altech GT Challenge 2009 – Round 5 to 8

Okay at this point in the season I got lazy when it came to writing. I did put some notes down about the last four races of the local ‘09 GT Challenge series, but I can’t remember where I saved it on my computer. I should actually dig out and finish the reports for the sake of posterity, but don’t hold your breath.

Please check back later.

 

250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 1

HPIM1179b In my wild teens I told people I’d never see twenty with the way I carried on with fast cars and bikes. I was an accident waiting to happen.

Then I turned twenty and changed my line somewhat. I said I’d probably crash and burn before the age of thirty. Fortunately I had to move the goalpost twice since then. Well, here we are in the year 2007…

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 2

for sale 2

Tadaaah! – New kart is ready! Brand new PVP chassis courtesy of Sean Moore who brought the chassis and other parts in from PVP in Denmark, at cost, plus I didn’t have to pay any freight. Hey Sean, thanks bud. I owe you a few beers…

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 3

IMG_31691 Jeremy Burgess put Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi through multiple world championships and he once said: “It is important what you learn from a race, regardless of your result. With a good result it’s important to know why you’ve done well, so you can repeat it again. With a bad result it’s equally important to know why, so you know what to fix for the next race.”

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 4

PE3 Don’t know where to begin, but how does qualifying on the front row and cleaning up in heat one sound for starters? If that's not enough, try icing the cake with an overall win for the day and the driver-of-the-day-trophy as the cherry on top... How sweet is that?

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 5

KDSC_9225 They say your first win in 250 Karts is always the most difficult, but I wonder how hard the second win is going to be? Yup, you guessed it, the bastards wouldn’t let me take another win this weekend, but I managed to scrape the barrel for the final spot on the podium…

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 6

team pts 2 Wheel-spin in fourth gear coming onto the back straight is something I experienced in the 900hp Porsche GT2 I drove at Zwartkops earlier this year. It’s certainly not something I expected from a puny little 250 kart, so let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised with power from the ‘new’ engine in the first session on old slicks and a slippery track.

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 7

Sean I didn’t see the actual contact between Veron and Sean, so I can’t comment on what really happened there. All I can say is we need to put safety first. We don’t need intentional bumping and barging. That style of driving belongs in tin top racing, not open-wheelers and if we continue to allow unnecessary contact it is only a matter of time before someone hooks wheels and lands up seriously hurt or dead.

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 8

DSC_9839_S This story actually started two weeks prior to this race meet. Picture a Porsche 944 TurboCup going flat out down the back straight at Midvaal Raceway, with me in the passenger seat coaching a rookie driver. At the 100m mark this guy threw anchors and what happened? The brake pedal fell to the floor...

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250 Superkarts 2007 – Round 9

Pierre Zwartkops 17-11-07 I never got around to writing this race report, even though it turned out to be a good day for me. – Two second places for the day and third overall in the championship… It’s still locked in my memory somewhere, so maybe one day I’ll write the report… Or maybe not.

 

Cheers,
Pierre.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

pierre martins said...

Thank you.

Pierre.