If you’ve never been to Vereeniging Kart Track (Laserfiche Raceway), you’re missing out. Of course, for karts it’s a brilliant venue, but as a once a year venue for streetcars it’s even better. This is why the Volkswagen Club of SA makes the effort to secure the venue for a day of dynamic handling, wicked cars and great people, and that day was this past weekend. While the event is a far drive out for some, it’s one of those events that are well worth the effort. Well, if you like driving fast in a safe environment of course. What makes the event so popular is the fact that it’s a fun and technical track without being too fast, so it’s easier on the driver and (in most instances) the car. The bigger and more powerful cars will still cross the 100km/h mark in some of the longer sections though, and if you’re not paying attention you can still have a bit of a hairy situation on your hands. Luckily people have a little fear built in that keeps them in check, if not fear of getting physically hurt, then fear of breaking cars. Also, this event does attract proper enthusiasts, so even the track novices have some decent experience under the belt.
There was a pretty decent turnout of supporters and spectators, and as far as we’re aware, every available entry spot was taken. Oddly though, there weren’t too many actual club member rides out on track, but that’s not really much of a problem in this instance because with the club allowing anyone to join their ranks all sorts of cars pitched up. There were more newcomers than usual too, which made for palpable excitement. It was great to see some of the usuals attending to support their club though, some are properly hardcore. Like Wikus from DRD who managed to shear the front left hub off on the same corner he killed a CV last year. This time he headed back to his shop, sorted out a new hub, returned to have the crew sort his Caddy out, hit the track and then run a new personal best lap time. Props meneer! On that note, the Caddy dropped below the magical 1-minute lap mark on the twisty one-kilometer track, which is huge achievement as you’ll see when you check out the results list.
It was mostly an incident-free day, one times Mk2 Jetta almost went tits up, but luckily control was maintained, much like that mean sounding Skyline that tried a Honda impersonation and shredded some grass. Overall a great event, if you’re there without a car, this is definitely one of those events that instill the need to get a car, sort it for the track and have ridiculous fun. We even spotted a couple of bagged cars kicking it around the track, but don’t tell anyone that, we’re begging you. Bagged cars can’t do track stuff…
As usual, power event by the VWCSA committee. Well done to all involved, and we hope you guys keep kicking it hard with the committee changes on the go. This was the last event with Club Chairman Ian Foat in charge, he stepped down at the event, but daaamn, kicking out with a bang. You will be missed Sir, thanks for all the awesome events, laughs and brilliant times! We’ll see you VAG at the next wicked club event, as is the norm. Check out these pics, and then check out the results below them.
Fastest VW – Wikus Dippenaar – VW Caddy – 59.572-seconds
RWD Class Winner – Jono Vilaca – Nissan 350Z – 57.592-seconds
FWD Class Winner – Macaire Cox – Ford Focus RS – 59.395-seconds
AWD Class Winner – Derrick Joseph – Porsche 991T – 57.787-seconds
Overall Fastest – Jono Vilaca – Nissan 350Z – 57.592-seconds
