20 Jun FMM slot car championship
The first half-year final round of FMM’s Slot Car Championship was held in June and proved to be a close-fought affair. All the leading contenders made an appearance along with some new entrants with their cars who joined in the action.
Competitors race against each other over two time-controlled heats on a challenging track designed by experienced slot car organiser Jon Lederle, and the aggregate laps determine the finishing positions. There are two championship categories, Touring Cars and Sports Cars, with classes for modern, historic and non-magnetised cars in each. Points are awarded to every competitor based on their finishing position, and a bonus point is awarded for the fastest lap in each category.
On the night, Thys Roux was the one to catch in the Touring Car category with his Maserati MC Trofeo, recording the highest number of laps and setting the fastest lap time of the night in the process, scoring maximum points. Mike Monk’s Ford Zakspeed Capri finished second, three laps behind, in the 15-car field, fractionally ahead of Joe Inus’ Fiat Abarth TC1000. When all the points were added together with those scored in the previous three rounds, Thys was crowned the championship winner with 49 points, followed by Joe with 45 and Mike third with 39. Joe won the Historic class while further down the log; Wayne Harley won the non-magnetised class with his Fiat 131 Abarth.
Fifteen cars also contested the Sports Car – ie Le Mans and DTM – category and Jon Lederle’s run of straight victories with his Audi RS5 DTM was finally eclipsed by Mark Venske and his BMW M4 DTM by one lap, 70 to 69. Mark also registered the fastest lap by just one-hundredth of a second to take maximum points. Japie Aranjies Chaparral was third a further two laps behind. The final log positions showed Jon in first position with 48 points, followed by Mark on 39 and Japie, who also took the Historic class, on 33. Jon scored a double by taking the non-magnetised class with his Ferrari F50.
All of the overall and class winners were presented with bottles of Protea wine from the L’Ormarins estate by FMM curator Wayne. As usual, the museum’s Deli offered some welcome nourishment throughout the chilly evening’s racing, this time some hearty vegetable soup and rolls to complement the regular refreshments.
The second half-year championship season begins in July and early testing suggests that there will be even closer racing than is already the case, some new cars putting in a couple of eye-popping lap times. An extra endurance-race format is being formulated to increase the race programme. Meetings are held in the evening of the first Wednesday of each month.
