Cape Town - David “McFlash” McFadden gave the Suzuki South GSX-R1000 L5 a dream debut at Round 7 of the Mike Hopkins Regional motorcycle series, winning overall for the day after two incredibly close-fought battles with defending champion Ronald Slamet on the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R.
Behind them, the Young Guns gave the Old Guard a lesson, and a 16-year-old celebrated his second consecutive regional title.
In contrast to the Kawasaki, which has had several seasons of development and for which there is a wealth of tuning information available, the new L5 Suzuki is an unknown quantity. McFadden had put in a week or so of intense work on the machine to prepare it for the track but conceded he was at a disadvantage against the incumbent – a machine that, ironically, he himself had helped develop.
Slamet put that motorcycle on pole with an electrifying 1m10.616 qualifying lap, more than a second quicker than McFadden – or anybody else. But when the lights went out for Race 1, the blue Suzuki was all over him like rash, with Gerrit Visser, Andre Calvert and Trevor Westman, each on a Kawasaki ZX-10R, in close attendance.
McFadden, visibly down on top end, was losing ground on the straights but making it up under braking and in the tight sections of the circuit, as the two swopped places at least once on every lap of the race, screaming out of Turn 5 practically side by side on the last time round – but it was Slamet who was ahead by just 0.055sec at the line.
They were followed by Visser, Westman and Brandon Haupt (MX Clean ZX-10R), who held off a late charge from Gauteng visitor Garrick Vlok (BMW S1000RR) by less than a quarter of a second.
Veterans David Bolding, Malcom Rapson and Jan-Lucas de Vos, each on a Kawasaki ZX-10R, were split by teenager Hayden Jonas on the ASAP World ZX-6R, the first 600 rider home and clinching his second consecutive 600 Challenge title with seven races still to be run - two days before his 17th birthday!
Wessel Kruger (Yamaha R1) took Class B from similarly-mounted Jacques Ackerman by just 0.175sec, while Mike du Toit aced Class C on his all-black Triumph Daytona 675.
RACE 2
With battle lines drawn the second outing was, if anything, even more intense as McFadden and Slamet carved each other up at the end of every straight, each knowing where the other was faster, each trying to cancel that advantage.
In mid-race Slamet made a small mistake, losing about five bike-lengths to the Suzuki, but was able to reel him in with two laps to go. He made his decisive move going down into Turn 5, only to have the door slammed smartly in his face as McFadden dived round the outside.
He never got another chance and came home about a second adrift after one of the best - and hardest - rides of his career, with the bigger margin handing overall victory for the day to McFadden.
Visser notched up another fine third ahead of Vlok, Haupt and Westman, while Ackerman got his revenge on Kruger, taking Class B by a scant 0.156sec, and Du Toit underlined Class C with a six second win over Wesley Lewin’s Yamaha R1.
POWERSPORTS/CLASSICS
Calberg team-mates JP Friederich and Warren Guantario again dominated Powersport proceedings, banging elbows and fairings for eight laps and finishing with Friederich just 0.045sec ahead, 14 seconds clear of third-placed Mike van Rensburg on the MVR ER6.
Abdul-Kader Dalwai’s Field GSX-R600 was the first Clubman bike home in fourth overall, Jamey Hendricks’ Bikers Delight CBR400 the first 400 and Tony Jones’ Suzuki GSX-R750 Pre-Sling the first Classic across the line.
The first half of Race 2 was even tighter, but Guantario’s ER6 seemed to lose pace in the closing stages and Friederich was able to open a gap of 0.727 at the line - a huge margin by these two close rivals’ standards.
In the absence of non-finisher Dalwai, Dale Field on the second Field Suzuki did the honours in the Clubman Class with fourth overall, albeit 17 seconds adrift of third-placed Van Rensburg. Jamey Hendricks was a surprise fifth overall, while Jones brought the Suzuki home 11th, almost half a minute ahead of the next Classic rider.