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South-Africa: Serpent takes many titles in Nationals ! (17/11/2011)

By:
Reporter



Serpents dominate at 411 debut National.

Serpent cars bounced back onto the South African Electric on-road National racing scene when they took first place in the two premier 4w/d Touring car classes as well as the 1/12 class at the final round of the South African Electric On-road Championships that took place at the new Key West track in Krugersdorp, Johannesburg.

This new track is just a few kilometers from the original Key West track that was used for the Electric Worlds in South Africa.
The track was also very tight and we had to deal with never having run the modified car on rubber tyres before, as well as getting the new 411  cars onto the track for the first time.
Mike Wiseman who is finishing his studies at Varsity in Cape Town and has not raced electrics for over a year,  was immediately on the pace in practice and once the qualifying started, he set the marker by setting TQ times in both the 10.5 class as well as the iunlimited modifieds. He hung onto the top spot until the final round when Antonio Carolli snatched the TQ spot from him. Still some learning to do with the rubber tyres as the track cools in the afternoon!
Not running traction additives also made it a bit tougher but Mike put in a great run in the first Mods final to slip past Antonio at the half way mark and easy away to a fine win.
He repeated this in the second final as well, securing the overall win for the day.
10.5 was a very close affair,with just fractions of seconds seperating the drivers after qualifying. Mike again had a good scrap with Antonio before he found a gap to slip past Antonio to take the first final. The second final was again very close with Mike putting all the pressure on Antonio  but a touch of an island saw Antonio get clear to finish with a time just slightly slower than Mike's first run, which gave the overall win to the Serpent 411 driver.


Wiseman takes 1/12 win with S120 on debut

Dave Wiseman gave the S120 Link car its Nats debut and had great handling all weekend, which gave him the edge on the pre race favourites who all seemed to have difficulty with the tricky traction available.
Dave's win in the finals for 1/12 gave Serpent 3 wins out of the 6 classes contested at this event.
With more Serpent 411 and S120 cars being run at the Nats next year, Serpent will look foreward to challenging for the full years events and Championships overall
 


Serpent takes 2011 200mm-733 and 235mm-835 titles

Serpent drivers again retained the South African Championship titles in both the 200mm Nitro Touring class as well as the 235mm 1/10  2w/d Class. for 2011
With 4 rounds of the Championships held around the country running from February till November, all the Championships went down to the final round at the new tight track at Middelburg near Johannesburg. Single points seperated the leaders in both classes but consistant drives in both the heats and the finals, saw Derek Noddings drive his Serpent 835 to his first SA Titles after a long and dedicated career.

Another veteran, Dave Wiseman, had his Xceed-Mega powered Serpent 733 working well and he held off the youngsters to notch up his 17th SA Title by taking both the Sprint and Enduro Championships in the 200mm Nitro class.
The superb Middelburg venue provided some very close racing throughout the weekend and this track promises to be a drivers favourite in the forthcoming seasons.

Team Serpent South-Africa - Wiseman