This race took place on Saturday the 20th
of May 2000 at Northern Circle Burners, Irene (which is between Pretoria
and Johannesburg), South Africa. The race started at 09h30 CAT. There where
two teams entered, Team A, flying in the open class and Team B, in the
goodyear class. The open team comprised of Peter Lott, Alan Smith and Lionel
Smith who each flew and pitted a Lil Quickie with a Nelson 15 SE Diesel
and as the spare plane a Pitts Special (Lil Monster) with a PAW 15 GTS2.
The goodyear team comprised of Peter Maris, Fred Schulze and Vaughn Swallow,
Vaughn and Peter piloted with Fred doing most of the pitting, they entered
a Lil Quickie with a PAW 15 GT with a 30cc (1oz) fuel tank.
Team B started out well doing about 29 sec 10 laps and a pit stop every 35 laps or so, Team A with the open entry where running at around 27.5 sec 10 laps with a range of 180 laps on 120cc fuel. At the first safely stop, we had done 1000 laps and team B had done 647 laps, we changed pilots and carried on to the second safety stop which came when we reached 2000 laps where again we changed pilots. At that point the goodyear team started to have problems, first with a wheel which came apart at one of the landings and then with the shut off. They then had to run the tank dry between stops, which caused the motor to get quite hot, resulting in an engine which was difficult to start. When we reached the 3000 lap point we changed pilots again and carried on, at about 3800 laps I was caught off guard when the motor stopped by its self, when I pitted it I found the shut off closed so I filled the tank and sent the plane on its way, 2 laps later and it stopped by its self again, we now had a shut off problem!!! I repaired the shut off by filing the slot deeper and then it was all right again, but a bad vibration could be heard, so again at about lap 3950 I called for a pit stop and checked the plane finding a cracked engine mounting plate, not too bad only 50 laps to go to the next safety stop, so I started and let the plane go. At 4000 laps we stopped and changed the plane for the spare as the mount on the original had broken completely through, we also changed pilots again. The back up plane had a much smaller tank on it so pit stops where at every 85 laps or so. We proceeded to the end of the race with out any more difficulty and set a time of 5 hrs 3 min 23 sec less 20 min for the safety recess which works out to 4 hrs 43 min 23 sec. At this point the goodyear team decided to withdraw after doing 2357 laps and some 75 pit stops. If I have worked it out properly it gives them a score of 30.5 points, which is an excellent and note worthy effort.
In closing I would like to thank all the time keepers, lap counters, circle marshals and safety officers for their hard work, it's very much appreciated by all competitors.
There are more pictures on Peter's Home Page.
Following are a few thumbnail pictures of the event with links to larger pictures:
Above left is a picture of my pilot, Peter Lott, pitting, centre in Peter Maris and myself flying and left is Fred Schulze from the goodyear team pitting. Fred pitted about 65 stops in a row!
Above left is Team A. left to right, Peter Lott, Lionel Smith and Alan Smith. Centre is a pair of lap counter, time keepers who did the job to perfection. Right is Team B. left to right, Vaughn Swallow, Peter Maris and Fred Schulze.