Robot Racing #2 at Killarney, WPMC

On Wednesday, 27 January 2016, I attended the second Robot Racing event held at Killarney Race Track.

The event was a success as before and people were crowding the fence in anticipation for drivers to take on the track. The vibe was awesome. We had lovely cool weather and the smell of burnt rubber kept the car fanatics in awe at the start line as cars wheel spin to warm up their tyres. For most events held at Killarney, people drive from around the Western Cape to attend the events, as well as this one even though it is held on a week night.

The variety of cars tonight was not as much as the first Robot Racing event; however the turnout of drivers was as pleasing as before. We had our fair share of RunXs’, Hondas’, Mercs, VWs’, Fords’ and other cars as well. I was mostly intrigued by the CPi tuned cars this time around as they were “killing it” on the track. However, Jason James with his Ford known as the "CPi Killer" was the only car that was unbeatable for the evening.

I recently had a chat with Eldrid Struis, who had attended the second Robot Racing event on Wednesday, 27 January 2016. He saw the event on Killarney’s Facebook page, and then decided to participate. Eldrid confirmed that everything ran smoothly and the queue to race went really quick which had him impressed.

Here’s a little bit about Eldrid and his racing addiction:

Eldrid always had a love for cars since he was little. When he turned 18 his parents bought him his first car, an Opel Corsa Lite. He then started modifying it to make it stand out and it was eventually featured in the Die Son Newspaper. It had Lambo styled doors, 17” wheels, lowered with a free flow system and also a nice sound system to top it off. First time I had ever seen a Corsa with Lambo style doors!

Sadly, he was in a car accident with the Corsa and the car was written off. He then bought his first performance hatchback, VW Golf 5 GTi DSG started with ECU software, intake and exhaust , next was a big turbo conversion, which he made last in the region of 280kW. He is currently busy with a rebuild but it should be completed by next month. The G5 was more for power figures; it only attended Killarney Street Car Track Days.

In 2013 he bought himself a 2011 Ford Focus ST, CPi ECU Software with Dream Science exhaust; he never raced this beauty at the track but adored the sound of the 5 cylinder. He then traded it in after 1 year for the G7 GTi.

This is the car that he participated in Killarney’s second Robot Racing Event. It was a 2014 VW Golf 7 GTi DSG with CPi ECU Software. That was the first time that car was racing at Killarney and he had no issues with anything on the night of the event. He enjoyed 2 runs as per his preference.

Overall I can say that I thoroughly enjoy Robot Racing nights, it keeps you locked onto the track because there are less than 5 minutes between each race. I will definitely be at every Robot Racing event held at Killarney from here on.