My first race

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III. Renault Club meeting, 24.9.-26.9.1999, Jablonne v Podjestedi

More info and pictures at Renault Club

This was my first ever car meeting. I was looking forward to it very much, mainly as I was a fresh owner of R19 Cabrio and did not have a lot of experience before. From the internet I knew, that last meeting was attended by two other Cabrios, so I was hoping I will exchange some words with the owners as well.
What I was not so much after was any kind of racing. Not that I do not like it, I just do not want to finnish last. However, I would have had a good excuse if I loose. Doing it first time, you do not have to win, do you?

Unfortunatelly, things have gone different than I thought. No Cabrios besides me came... And I did the races, and not bad at all!

Before getting to my success:-), very few words about the meeting. I have never seen anything of this kind organized so well. Very friendly people and not a minute to be bored. Just imagine, that we had a former military airport rented for the drag race! Organizers even had to bring chemical toilets to get the airport... It did not really matter that it was raining.

The only thing I would like next time is to have some Renault owners from other countries.

O.K. Now to the races. It was organized in several parts.
- Renault quiz
- Skill race 1
- Drag Race
- Skill race 2
All these were evaluated separatelly, and also added together to get a final winner: MISTER RENAULT 1999.

In the test, I made a lot of mistakes, as I came to the start very late and did not really have time - my fault.

But I had a big help during skill race. First advantage was the Cabrio itself - there is nothing to restrict your view. And I received a big help from my friend - navigator Standa Kubinec. The result was that we only collected 10 penalty second and with good time we finnished second. Only Renault Medallion (21 from Canada) with automatic tranmition was better.

Drag Race was not the best for me. There were much stronger cars and finnished in front of me. However it was not only question of car - I have finnished in front of Renault Clio 1.8 16v! Wonderful car has won the race. Renault 25 Baccara 3.0 V6 Turbo...

Skill race 2 was great. Not only because I won it, but I simply enjoyed it.

And how did it finish? I won the skill race (combination of the two). And overall, I finnished second. What a shock for me - first race ever and I almost won Mister Renault!

What to end with: did not matter how I finished. I thank all people who organized the meeting for wonderful time.