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He spent the entire qualifying session spectating from the driver's seat - this error put him stone last on the grid in 37th place.
The recovery vehicle managed to pull FAT KIMI (dented ego and all) and the stricken POWERFLOW TOKAI golf out the mud and tow him back round to the pits, where he promptly set about with a hosepipe to clean the dirt off the car.
In Race 1 Greig got off to a fantastic start and carved his way through the field to finish 8th overall and 2nd in Class B, only 3 seconds behind class winner Jason
Thornton.
There was no time to muck about as there was literally just over an hour before Race 2 was due to start.
All fluid levels and tyre pressures were quickly checked and race fuel was topped up. The driver would have to wait until after the race before he could get a top up in the form of plenty Mainstay and Coke's.
At 2 pm the cars formed up on the grid to take their positions for Race 2. The fun was about to start.
The race got underway smoothly and Andries van Eeden (Class A) led the field into Turn 1, with the rest of the pack hot on his heels. On lap 2 Class C driver Jeandre Pepper dropped a moerse lot of oil halfway through turn 1. This caused every single car behind him to spin in a sort of "synchronsied car ballet" - thank goodness no contact was made between cars but the red flag came out immediately and the race was duly stopped. My heart was in my throat and I was quickly doing sums in my head of what the repair bill would cost BUT Fat Kimi and the car emerged unscathed from this drama. The marshals quickly set about mopping up the oil with cement dust and brooms.
The race re-started again with a furious pace. On lap 2 of the new race Faraad Khan lost it coming out of Turn 3 with Greig FAT KIMI Edwards right behind him. Greig narrowly missed him and tapped off the gas slightly, while behind him Jason Thornton took avoiding action and took to the grass on the outside of the track. He lost control in a big way and hit the wall hard ! - hard enough to destroy the left front of his car and tear the entire left front suspension and wheel off - EINA !!!!
Faraad Khan could not regain control and also left the circuit and hit the wall doing some huge damage to the left front of his red Class A Polo - double EINA !!!
Greig again emerged unscathed and clung on to the class lead through Turn 4.
At the same time as all of the above happened Class C drivers Eugene van Zyl and Andrea Bate entered Turn 1 side by side, with Andrea having the inside line but a nose behind Eugene. There was some contact and Eugene spun his car and stalled it in the middle of turn. Three cars quickly followed side by side into turn one - the two outside vehicles managed to avoid Eugene but the yellow and black C65 golf of Ghalieb Saalie hit Eugene's car hard, smack in the middle of the front door.
There was absolute chaos all around - The Clerk of the Course, Brian Hoskins, was going absolutely mental on the outside of turn one, flapping his arms like a helicopter and squawking like an Egyptian goose stuck on my roof in the middle of my night.
The red flag came out again and Race 2 was officially cancelled. No points would be awarded.
We were very fortunate to come out of this race meeting with the car and driver unscathed and intact.
The level of competition has risen dramatically and the okes are taking their racing very seriously in the GTi Challenge.
The end result is that GREIG EDWARDS and TEAM POWERFLOW TOKAI are still lying second overall in the championship and first in Class B.
We look forward to the next race meeting on Saturday 5 September and look forward to seeing you all there.
Once again many thanks to our generous sponsors - please support those who support us
MACE Service and Performance for the supply and fitting of the Go-Tech and the mapping and dyno tuning thereof
RENCO Precision Engineering for all the specially machined bits, wheel spacers and wheel studs
AUTO DETAIL CENTRE for the bodywork and re-painting of the car to our colours
STEVE'S AUTO SERVICES for the brakes and their assistance with the fine tuning of the suspension
ROBBY'S MOTOR SPARES for all the oils, filters, spark plugs and other consumables
DRIVELINES for the custom built driveshafts and CV joints
BOSAL INDUSTRIAL TUBE for the steel tubing required to build the roll cage
SIGNWORX and GRAPHIX for the signage
POWERKOTE for the ceramic coating of the branch manifold
CK COACHWORKS for all our panel beating requirements
and to all 3 POWERFLOW store in the Western Cape, namely BELLVILLE, SALT RIVER and TOKAI for their assistance and generous contribution in sponsoring the POWERFLOW GTi CHALLENGE racing series
See you at the track !
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