The fourth round of the 2015 South-African ORE national championship moved to Welkom RC Club over weekend 22 and 23 August 2015. The asphalt indoor track had great traction with a technical but fast layout for the event. Alexander Hagberg made his way to South Africa to compete and show his skills in the modified touring and the 1/12 modified class.
The popularity of Formula 1 showed again with 17 entries for the event. The normal four-round qualification was held with one 10 minute final on the Sunday. Kallin Kolmel showed very good pace from qualification round one and managed to take TQ. He was closely followed by youngsters Farhaan Basha, Pedro de Gouveia and Jonathan Wilken with their XRAY X1â™s. The 10 minute A Final was enjoyable and showed good racing with Jonathan eventually passing Kallin for the win. Two XRAY cars on the podium was a good result for the team!
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In the TC 17.5T class, it was an all XRAY affair as well, where the young drivers continued their good form, showing great pace and skills. XRAY team mates and 2015 championship contenders Dillon du Plooy and Jacques Myburgh had a great battle the entire weekend with Jacques taking TQ and the two of them taking a final each. Dillon eventually took the overall win.
The 13.5T TC class was very competitive with some fastest laps of the day recorded by these drivers. It was the local man Antonio Caroli who set the early pace and was closely followed during qualification rounds by Shaun Schutte, Willie du Plooy and Anderton Smith. Antonio showed great pace and consistency taking the TQ for the A mains and winning both finals. The finals were very competitive and team mates Willie du Plooy and Deon Gove completed the podium, to make it an XRAY podium lockout.
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With Alexander Hagberg in the field and hosting a RC workshop, the rest of the South African drivers really pushed hard and went faster all weekend. Alexander once again showed is skills and pace as a professional driver and dominated the event from practise through qualifying and into the A finals. The battle for the podium was really hot with great runs from Anderton Smith, Deon Gove and Shaun Schutte. Finally Deon Gove managed to take the runner up spot, making it a 1-2 finish for the XRAY T4.
The workshop as well as the XRAY dinner on the Friday night was a much appreciated feature for all XRAY drivers. Once again I was very impressed by the strong position of the XRAY SA team, which is dominant on the EP scene. It is a good group of guys which not only works professionally together, but are having a lot of fun with their hobby. Special thanks to Antonio Caroli for making this trip happen. I can't wait to come back and race in South Africa again!
