A heavy project....

Packing for Sani2C I cant believe a year has passed since I last did this event, my favourite race on the calender. Running my own business has made it much harder to spend the time in the saddle that I want to, in fact I believe I might have rode more last year.

I do believe that I am better prepared though as I have been training with a structured plan thanks to John Wakefield who used the Science2sport system. This allowed me to use my available time for structured and planned sessions. Evidence that quality outshines quantity is that I have bettered my times in all races I have entered compared to 2011.

Although I'm not actively involved in motor sport for the 2012 season I often use my 23 years of racing experience to make my cycling more fun. Small things like well prepared equipment makes a world of difference, the last thing you want to do is battle with a misaligned chain while climbing a mountain pass. Then there are the bigger things like weight, motor sport teams spend crazy amounts of money on carbon fibre and titanium to save a critical kilo or two. Being a bit of "weight weenie" when it comes to my equipment I am happy with a 29er Scott Scale that tips the scale at 9,3kg. It is a carbon fibre frame with some bling bits attached, yet still strong enough to be reliable.

My frame is a different story altogether.... After losing focus over the holidays I just about broke the scale at my new year weigh in. Changing the batteries in the scale didn't help either as I kept seeing a figure of 96,5kg....that being the only figure in the bathroom at the time!

I promised myself last year that I would weigh 84kg for  the 2012 Sani.........holy crap. I lost weight the year before but felt terrible and packed it all on at the slightest sight of food. I needed a drastic lifestyle change and with thanks to my wife Dagmar who made eating healthy much easier I must admit that I still wasn't feeling very positive about reaching this goal. The second person who's help made it realistic was John who gave me eating guidelines that would not kill me and still allow me to push hard on the bicycle when I had to dig deep. Then there was Albe Geldenhuys (Mr USN) who offered assistance to make my mission easier. I was handed a hamper of USN goodies, many that I was familiar with and some new products to try out

I must be honest that it at times all I wanted was a huge meal as I love food, I even got called all kinds of cruel names by Dagmar and John because of my moaning. This didn't last long as I soon got used to the portion sizes and I figured out how to use the USN products to control my appetite with their convenient supplements and snacks.

I don't want to bore you with the details but despite the odd cheat meal and not starving myself I reached my goal for the Karkloof race with three weeks to go before Sani!, 12 kgs in 4 months! Karkloof was a great race and I bettered my time by 45min from the year before. The next weekend I went to race the four day Panorama tour with good friend Guylin van den Berg and although I didn't do his featherweight frame any justice on the climbs we had a lot of fun in the mountainous roads of the Lowveld in and around the town of White river. This is one road race I would recommend to everyone, a great vibe with hard racing, long climbs and endless descends!

That's all for now as we are nearly off to Underberg to start the three day Sani2C race, watch out for team Helivac-USN!

Keep those wheels turning, we'll chat soon!

Reggie

Wings, wheels and woofies!

It is crazy to believe we are in November already, X-mas carols and decorations are up all over to remind us that the silly season is ready to pounce.

The last couple of months have been a roller coaster ride with trying to get my powder coating business up to speed, at least I cant complain about life being dull as new challenges and curve balls are thrown every day from all directions. It was thus a great distraction when my friend Graeme Nathan phoned me and asked me to share his new GTI 6 in the 2 hour endurance race at Zwartkops. There are two endurance events through the year and as these score double points it was crucial for him to have a good event to keep him in the running for the championship. Gary Formato is leading after some consistent results where he has manged to set the pace during the latter part of the season.

We were planning on a test session but logistics just didn't play along and I got to put my bum in the seat for the Friday practise only. I knew I'd be a bit rusty initially but I must admit I was chuffed when I equalled Graeme's laptime on my third lap. Despite not racing a front wheel drive for many years it all came back very quickly, although challenging at the limit they are so much easier to drive than a rear wheel drive car and compared to the BMW 335i I raced last year it all felt very comfortable. The fact that we have always ran a very similar setup did help as Graeme also like the car to be set up nervous yet forgiving if you decide to throw it up the inside of an unsuspecting victim, possible removing his side mirror in a moment of sheer enthusiasm. (the officials would describe this a bit different though)

As the championship positions determine the cars weight we had to run very heavy with around 80kg's of lead bolted to the floor. The sprint races didn't go that well with Graeme going off on the first lap and dropping well down the field. This put even more pressure on us for the long race. Rules stipulate that three compulsory pit stops has to be made by each entry and we decided that I would drive stint 1 and 3 with Graeme taking the reigns in 2 and 4. Despite it being a long time since I started a race the overwhelming surroundings of the warm up lap felt very familiar. With your senses taking in 110% of your environment you try to get yourself comfortable in the seat, eye out the opposition, warm the tires, keep the engine cool and get ready to pounce in that first lap. I lined up in fourth behind Shaun Duminy who was there for one reason only, he had to protect Formato and I knew I had to get past him very soon. He did this perfectly by allowing his teammate in pole position to get away as I was not allowed to pass him before the start line.

It took me two laps to get past him and the Opel OPC of van Rooyen while the leading Ford opened a huge gap. This is where these races gets tricky as it is a very fine line between being too conservative and pushing too hard. I was slowly closing the gap when I felt the left front tire starting to delaminate resulting in my pit stop being earlier than scheduled. This was a potential disaster as I wasn't driving that hard and  we didn't  expect a problem after only 12laps while I was scheduled for 28. An efficient pit stop where driver's were swapped, tires changed and car refueled we slotted into sixth position. I knew that our tires were not going to last and we had to back off our ideal pace to make it to the end.
I must admit that I was very relieved when we clawed our way back into second position and despite the Ford winning after a dominant display I think that the team's damage limitation  was impressive after the circumstances.
Although the weekend put a huge dent in Graeme's title winning chances the fat lady is still sitting down as I am sure she is all to aware of how quickly things can swing around at the last race meeting of the year.

It was great to behind the wheel again and who knows, maybe it can become a more frequent occurrence in future!

On a more relaxed note, since moving to kzn I have been spending more time on my favourite hobby being that of flying model planes. My prefered models are Gliders that we fly of the many picturesque mountains in the area. Planes vary from high speed aerobatic composite adrenalin pumping machines to graceful five meter scale gliders which make light work of even the smallest thermals. With many slopes around I spend most weekends with a great bunch of like minded chaps soaring up and down steep cliff faces. Holly my Spaniel anounces every launch with wild barking and she is there with every landing to show you where your plane is, she has so much fun!

With the mountain bike racing season being over it is time to ride more at a leisurely pace and enjoy the scenery while trying to keep the weight down and staying relatively fit before the 2012 season is on us.
We are not doing 94.7 cycle challenge this time for the first time in years as the travelling and logistics just make it difficult at the moment.

If you in the Ballito area for your holiday and a keen cyclist, make sure to come ride the trails at Holla, 300km of pure bliss and lots of flowing singletrack.

Thanks for sharing my world and till Reggies's next ramble..... keep it slideways!

Camera, action, ....lights out!

Who ever said life would slow down when moving to Ballito? Life here is a blessed with winter weather that I could only dream of before. This will probably be the first year where I will cycle through winter without the cold interfering and putting an end to ambitious cycling schedules.

I raced Sani2C with my good friend Donavan Roscoe and despite a slow start on day one we went better as each day passed. This was definitely the best I ever felt for this event due to coach Russ making me ride even more hills than normal. Farmer Glen impressed us with even more single track than in previous years making this event stand out as a must do for any cyclist.
My Scott spark behaved perfectly as always and despite not having jumped the 26er ship yet I loved carving those trails with long travel duallie thats a featherweight and super stiff on the climbs. Day two left me with a puncture which I plugged quickly, but time trialing back to Don had my tong dragging on the ground...... I'm sure he put the hammer down as I stopped!

The KZN mtb scene is very healthy with a classic (45km) race nearly every weekend, I grinned at these as I teased the locals with being soft with me being used to much longer races in Gauteng. They had the last laugh though, crickey!..... these races are technical, straight up and hot but awesome fun. Believe me, it is worth the odd 6hr trip from jhb as they are a hoot. People are so friendly, the norm in Gauteng is for everyone to race home as they cross the finish line....here they sit around telling war stories around a braai till dusk!
The last race was the John Dory's 50km race on our doorstep at Holla trails. With a 10K purse there was some big names on the starting line with Brandon Stewart, Rourke Crouser, Waylon Woolcock, Neil Macdonald, Tyrone White and Guylin van den Berg being favourites. Brandon eventually won it in a sprint with Rourke in a close second. I didn't feel that great on the day and gave up chasing Donavan who came all the way from JHB for the race. I still had a great time with coach Russ building all new single track for the event.

I got my backside back in a racecar as well which was great! Racing the Afrox BMW 335i in the Phakisa 2hr with Etienne van der linde we finished a close second to the Audi S4 of Johan Fourie. Despite me being a bit rusty initially I quickly I found my driving feet. Etienne had a tire problem in the first stint and we dropped to last place after an early pit stop. My first stint went great and and I stayed out for a long stint and fought my way back up to first position, by the time I stopped to hand the car over it was pitch dark. Etienne kept the momentum going and handed me the car back for my last stint while still leading. Unfortunately the safety car had to come out after the Subaru of Hennie Groenewald caught alight causing me to lose our 30 sec lead. The restart was chaos and after a risky move Johan did well to pass me for the lead in the second corner, despite having the pace to challenge him I ran out of time as there was only one lap left handing the Audi a well deserved win.
Hopefully I will be back in a racing seat full time in the near future, I cant let those hooligans have everything their own way!

Still behind a steering wheel I also did some precision driving for the local movie "Platteland" which is being released later this year. Being the stunt double for local singer/actor Bok van Blerk I had to jump an old Ford F250 bakkie off a 4m high rocky ledge! This jump worked great as I had a great team setting it up under the watch full eye of motocross legend Wayne Smith. Later in the day I had to roll a Hi-Lux bakkie, this didn't go exactly as planned as I got a hard knock to side of the head which left me a bit dazed and concussed...it looked spectacular though which made it all worthwhile!



 I recently acquired a powder coating business in Ballito which is very exciting as I have jumped in the deep end. I see great opportunities for this and other businesses on the KZN North Coast as thing are expanding at a rapid rate! I think the secret is out and more people are flocking here.

Till Reggie's next ramble, go fast and hold on tight!

Living in Ballito (to the tune of "Living in Miami!)

Although I finished the 2010 racing season on a high the team knew that without new sponsors I might have to sit on the sideline as it was Rough Rider's last year of being involved in production car racing. Unfortunately this has happened and although it is terrible not to be there banging mirrors and contributing to the panelbeaters's Xmas bonus I know the right thing will happen. There are current negotiations, so lets hold thumbs and hope for the best....or I'll be forced to start contributing to the traffic dept's Xmas bonus!  

Not racing and leaving the hijackers, pollution and spruit behind for the greener pastures of KZN's sugarcane fields has put my mind in a great place........and I nearly completely almost forgot about this blog...

We arrived in Ballito in mid December and settled in nicely, half the people were very friendly and by January they were all friendly when the grumpy half went back to Gauteng. We had two days to unpack before Coach's (Russell White) urgent sms's started flowing freely with messages like "Salt rock beach swim in 5min" or "Hops-Run, swim run 10mins" or my favourite "French club hill repeats at 4h30" which normally comes through at 4h15! The guys TRAIN down here.....I had to escape to Mozambique (twice) just to get a break! It is great suffering with top Xterra, moto-X, MTB'ers and other athletes and it just forces you to up your game

Holla trails is a mere 10 min (easy warm up) ride from my house with 300km of trails including awesome single track and more uphills than downhills. Following Russell, Tyrone, Daniel, Guylin and many others I had to hang on for dear life on my now almost obsolete 26" bike as the 29er revolution seems to have happened here decades ago...

My fishing trips were awesome with the last one being the best fishing we have ever seen on Inhaca. My "boetie" Greg was adamant that we will find Marlin and we got five hook ups landing three. The last one was a Blue Marlin weighing +- 260kg's. We don't know exactly as we release all the fish after carefully reviving them. A dozen GT's (Giant Kingfish) over 25kg's were landed with my PB of +-48kg's.

The only bad thing has been my Dachshund's sudden blindness after Retinal detachment, I think we were more upset though as she still runs flat out on the beach following the Spaniels everywhere. These three delinquents are already well known, mostly for the wrong reasons unfortunately!

Although not racing cars I have raced in some events down here. The first was the Mudman Xterra in Hermansberg, then Wartburg MTB race, the SA marathon championships at Inanda and finally last weekends Golovane Boxlee race at Holla Trails. As it was a team event I paired up with Daniel Carlton-a top X-terra triathlete. The race was tough, 85km and 1600m of climbing was hard enough but after having lost my rear brakes only 10km in I had some very anxious moments in the mud as it was pouring with rain. Despite this I don't think Daniel even broke a sweat while my tongue was dragging on the ground.

Dagmar has done very well in these races and have upped her game nicely, winning the ladies event in Sunday's race and buying us lunch with her prize money.... a favour I would love to return someday!

We are racing Karkloof this weekend with my Sani partner Manbearbig also known as Donavan joining us for the weekend.

Although I really don't miss Joburg I really miss my riding buddies and would be very happy to show anyone the way around Holla....even if I shout directions from behind!

Keep it sideways

Reggie #111

  

Soviet Eyewear

Reggies ramble...

After a disappointing result in East London due to two blown turbo's and tire problems in all three races I had no idea what to expect for our final round at Kyalami.

Returning from two hard cycle races, first van Gaalens MTB race and then 94.7 roadrace where my wife came up with the "great idea" to do two laps I had a very clear head and approached Kyalami with the a good mindset.
My plan was simple, have fun, drive the wheels of my Rough Rider BMW....and stay out of trouble-which I have been fairly good at lately...

Team ADF race Engineer Vic Maharaj asked me to come do a couple of shakedown laps at Zwartkops on the Friday before the race. My first frustration came after being stuck in traffic and arriving late.... I arrived to see Anthony out in my car setting some quick times. I don't mind him driving my car as he is a great teammate, honest and fair. I slid into the familiar cockpit and felt that the car has changed dramatically....for the better! Traction and power delivery was optimised and I knew it was up to me to make this weekend ...or break it.

As we shared the Kyalami event with the international "Superstar" category we were to race on Sunday for the first time with qualifying and practice on Saturday.
Leaving the pits behind Anthony I saw that I had a slight edge on him which meant one thing, I was on it for the weekend as he is never slow, despite running a 1mm smaller restrictor and more weight he has a crafty way to hustle his Afrox BMW to the top of the time sheets.

Despite being quickest I felt that we could improve slightly by eliminating some oversteer through the fast corners, this was a bad move as the understeer got worse and I lost some mid corner speed.

*Note:
Oversteer: when you go through a right hander and look through the left window (M3)
Understeer: when you go through a right hander and look through the right window (Golf)

We found the sweet spot for Qualifying and I managed to put it in 2nd position for the first heat and in pole for the feature (longer) race with Hennie's Subaru showing a great turn of speed. The Subaru team has been allowed more freedom on modifications which has clearly helped them. This has happened a couple of times to ALL teams in the championship and I cant help but feel that these "amendments" are costing everyone money over time as the the goalposts gets moved by different teams every race.....

Hennie had a brilliant start and I slotted in between him and Johan Fourie as I know there are two wild guys on the first lap with Johan being one of them....the other one was lying in second position.... ;)
It was soon clear that Hennie had brilliant pace and despite me applying as much pressure as possible he didn't put a wheel wrong and took a much deserved victory.

For the second heat the first six cars gets reversed on the grid which means I had to start in fifth. I had a great opening lap moving up to third before Anthony made my life easy by opening the door for me to hunt down Johan which had already built up a small lead. I put my head down and pushed  hard as I knew I could close the gap and that a titanic battle was about to unfold...keeping in mind Freddie telling me to look after the car for the last race. I got onto his rear bumper and I was starting to plan my attack when the V6 Audi engine exploded in a great plume of expensive Indy Oil smoke. As much as this handed the race win on my plate, my heart bled for him as he retired through no fault of his own and with Johan being one of the spirited drivers I knew how it would upset him.

I started the third race knowing that it would be a fine balance between getting away from a hungry pack while still looking after my precious Bridgestone Potenza's... I did a fairly fast warm up lap and went hard from the start with Hennie snapping at my heels. Despite the black rain clouds moving it was still very hot and I saw the Subaru dropping off slightly before he got passed by the Audi of a hard charging Tschops Sipuka. Despite setting the quickest lap in two of the heats it was the first time he challenged for victory on the day and I knew I had my work cut out for me as I saw him getting slightly bigger and bigger in the rear view mirror. While concentrating as hard as I could on hitting the apex at every corner and not sliding the 335 around too much I saw the team signalling that I must slow down with arms waving over the pit wall. A combination of both Anthony and Melvill suffering with tire problems and our cars being fuelled for 10 laps when the race was lengthened to 12 laps without our knowledge caused some serious concern.
On the second last lap entering the famous Sunset corner I felt the all too familiar vibration of a tire delaminating but thanks to a 2 second lead I could nurse the BMW to the finish of the final production car race in first position. It was the first time in many races that I shouted with jubilation as I crossed the line.... and said to myself "this is why we do this!"

I could not thank Team ADF enough for a perfect car and I was totally overwhelmed by the support and well wishes in the form of hugs, high five's and more from all over!

This was a very special weekend for me and I would be honoured to dedicate it to my very good friend Bevan who passed away recently. I would love to say that he was in the car helping me but we were just not sideways enough to believe that!
Bevan showed me that it doesn't matter how sideways things get, you keep fighting the wheel till you catch the slide.....in racing and in life.

The end of the season has come and gone and I am looking forward to an exciting 2011. If all falls int place I will be in a "fresh" 335, and my aim is to start off where we finished this season.

I know coach Russell is gonna keep us in shape over December with many miles to be cycled, stairs to run and blood to be lost to be stronger, fitter and faster for the production car and cycling season ahead... bring it on!

Thank you for all the support, and keep an eye on this page for the odd ramble, rant or laugh!

Reggie A111