After the longish gap since 5th June meeting, all were eager to get into action again. Fine cars continue to draw new members and this meeting was no different. The Porsche camp was bolstered by Francois Steenkamp’s 911 and Charl Visser’s 944. Volvo made a welcome return to the track in the form of Jan Stander’s 122, this being the first time we have seen this make at Killarney in many years. Rico Koegelenberg added his Ford Sapphire V6 to the regular Ford boys. David Enticott in his Escort Mk2 joined after being absent for some time as did William Boucher following his engine rebuild in the Renault R8.

The program showed a varied field of 29 cars but some no shows and pre-race problems saw this number whittled down to 22 for the start of Race 1.

Heat 1
With heavy cloud cover and a cold wind blowing across the track, conditions were slippery and kept the field on their toes for the first few laps. The bog standard Volvo of Stander was first off, having overcome numerous mechanical maladies just to get to the track, followed by Bruce Valentine’s Mini which was also a suffering a bundle of mechanical tricks. Milanie Bekker in her Alfa GTV suffered an early exit and parked on the side of the track before completing a lap. The rest of the field soon settled into the conditions and got down to some hard charging, none more so than Jackie Swart in the Dart. He had found some more speed in the car and made a strong charge through the field with some close battles for positions with Francois in the Porsche and then swapped positions with Floris’ Sapphire a couple times before finally outrunning him to the line on the last lap. Steve Bekker in his normally quick Passat had a disappointing race with his car not running well. Herman de Kock had a good run through the field, but lost out on the last lap as his Sapphire started losing power. Roger Wood with his bellowing Tiger once again displayed some of his old form and speed to storm through to take 3rd place, demonstrating why he has the number 2 on his door. Stephen David (Marcos) as always ran a consistent race and was coming on strong on the last lap and in the run to the line. Steenkamp proved very competitive in his first race in his quick 911.

Arnold Lambert, Tony Kent (both Anglia’s) and Dave Kent (Stanza) kept each other honest and in close proximity for the entire race with Tony slipping inside Dave in T3 when he went wide on lap 4. Chris Kotze (BMW 330) had an unfortunate race, as when he was overtaking Visser’s 944, the black flag was shown to Visser. Kotze thinking it was for him pulled into the pits on the second last lap, thereby denying himself valuable points in the championship.

Heat 1 Results
1 Jackie Swart
2 Moose Watt (Porsche 944)
3 Arnold Lambert
4 Roger Wood
5 Tony Kent

Heat 2
By race 2 conditions had improved, with the sun peeking out between the clouds here and there. The track had warmed up a bit and after some furious work in the pit garages to fix carbs, fuel systems and the like, the field formed up again for another battle. Herman did not make it to the grid, his motor suffering from suspected bearing failure, while Visser was also a non-starter. Arnold swapped driving with son Jaco in the Anglia.

The eagerness to get going at the start line was obvious, as many laid down rubber and made smoke like it was Saturday night after the drive-in! For the first lap or two all held station in their start positions, but gaps closing up a bit more every time round. Stephen and François got through and continued their way up the field, leaving Roger and Floris to continue battles, only finally settled on the last lap when Roger hesitated for a slower car in turn 3, leaving the narrowest of gaps for the Sapphire to squeeze through. Jackie and the Dart were flying again and he was the first to catch up and overtake, Francois’s Porsche the first one in his sights, Floris’ Sapphire was the next to get left behind after a brief battle going into lap 4. Roger and his Tiger left the door slightly open in turn 2 and the Dart powered up the inside to turn 3, dragging the fast closing Sapphire and Porsche with him. The entrance to turn 4 proved to be not wide enough, something had to give and it was the Sapphire that took to the grass to avoid swapping paint. This set up a few laps of very close racing between the Tiger, Porsche and Sapphire, soon to be joined by Stephen in the flying Marcos.

The Kent’s and Bert Upton (Porsche 944) continued their battles with Bert pipping Tony to the line. Dave Kent fell out of the three way tussle when his brakes turned to fresh air in the final lap.

Meanwhile, Steve Bekker with his car back to good form took advantage of starting near the front of the grid and stormed off into the sunset chased, but not caught, by Kotze. Rico Koegelenberg who suffered engine problems in race 1 plodded around the track with a misfiring motor to come in at the back of the field.

Final results show that half the field got hit with the dreaded DQ as improving track conditions and improved car performance caught quite few out in heat 2.