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Round 3 of the 2009 GTi Challenge took place in a down pour at Killarney on Saturday 25 April.
The rain fell in sheets, all day long, with not a dry line to be seen.
Our race car, fresh from 2 weeks of furious repair work since our last race meeting, was eager to hit the track again. Greig Edwards (aka Fat Kimi the Racing Queen) and the team at Powerflow Tokai really pulled out all the stops to make sure that the car would be ready on time.
Friday afternoon's practice went well with no mishaps - but it had not started raining yet.
After a hydraulic dinner at Killarney Bar Fat Kimi retired to bed because he had to get up early to make Qualifying at 08h00 on Saturday.
Greig did 5 laps in Qualifying, only 2 of which were without spinning off the track on the slippery wet surface, and managed to put himself in second spot on the grid in Class B for both heats.
Race 1 went off at 10h30 in the absolute pouring rain . After 4 laps our Racing Queen was lying 4th overall and second in class. On lap 5 he did a beautiful pirouette in the kink between turns 2 and 3 - he spun several times and nearly got stuck in the mid on the infield when he stalled the car - this caused him to lose several places but he rejoined and screamed through the field to finish second in Class B behind Jason Thornton.
Race 2 started in even heavier rain and was much the same affair as Race 1. Fat Kimi told me that he was "s&%^ scared" as the car was slipping and sliding all over the place and he feared he may get stuck out there and not make it back in time before they called last round at the bar. The kink between turns 2 and 3 caught our Racing Queen out again but this time he only did one graceful little 360 twirl on lap 4, not losing any time or any places. He finished second again in Class B behind Jason Thornton, who drove like a champ to score two very convincing wins on the day in only his second GTi Challenge race - WELL DONE JASON !
All jokes aside - huge praise must go to Greig Edwards for working his butt off to repair the car after the huge crash at the last round. The car performed very well and did not break or miss a beat.
Round 4 of this year's championship is going to be very exciting - it is our one and only away race and will be held at Phakisa Freeway (outside Welkom in the Free State) on Saturday 23 May. About 20 cars from Cape Town are being towed up and we expect some stiff competition from the Joburg boys too who will be joining us there.
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