Cape Town - With 25 entries for the Superbike races and 33 for the Powersport/Classics contests, it seemed almost every rider in the second round of the Mike Hopkins Regional series at Killarney on Saturday had somebody to dice with.
The glaring exception, however, was defending Regional champion Ronald ‘The Red Baron’ Slamet on the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R, who romped away to emphatic wins in both Superbike races.
Hopes of a serious confrontation at the sharp end were raised when Slamet, Trevor Westman (Mad Mac’s ZX-10R) and Kawasaki ZX-10R privateer Malcolm Rapson all qualified at less than 1m12s, but when the lights went out for Race 1 Slamet went away at more than a second a lap to an unchallenged win.
Behind him, however, Gerrit Visser (Kawasaki ZX-10R) came up off the second row to mix it with Westman and Rapson in the dice of the race, the three never more than a bike-length apart until Rapson went down a gear too far into Turn 5 and lost two seconds.
Westman beat Visser for second by just 0.042sec, with Rapson fourth, less than two seconds adrift.
600 Challenge arch-rivals Hayden Jonas ASAP ZX-6R and Adnre Calvert (KC Transport ZX-6R) carved each other up at least once a lap until Jonas’ bike suddenly went onto three cylinders, two laps from home, and he dropped back behind an even tighter duel between veterans Jan-Lucas de Vos (Kawasaki ZX-10R) and David Bolding (PJ One ZX-10R) who finished in that order, 0.169sec apart.
John Oliver on the Glass It R6 took Class B by an even closer margin from Alex van den Berg (Wicked Tuning ZX-6R), while hot rookie Karl Schultz (ASAP ZX-6R) was so far ahead of the Class C field he would have finished fourth in Class B!
MULTIPLE TUMBLE
Race 2 was red-flagged at the first corner as rookie Jan Nytomt (BMW S1000R) and Calberg ZX-10R hotshot Leroy Malan went down in a huge cloud of dust. Each was able to walk away after a heart-stopping pause while they got their breath back and the race was restarted without them.
Visser immediately served notice that he is a man to watch with another superb start, blitzing Rapson and Westman to grab second in Turn 1 and hold it for more than half the race. Even when Westman got by on lap five the battle was far from over, and the two eventually finished just 0.639sec apart.
Jonas’ Kawasaki was back on four cylinders but still down on power. Calvert, lapping seven-tenths of a second faster than his rival, hunted the reigning 600 Challenge champion down and blitzed him on lap seven to take class honours by 1.381sec.
Behind them, De Vos got the better of Bolding by 0.050 sec after a memorable three-way battle with Mark van den Berg (Wicked Tuning CBR1000RR), who finished less than a second further back.
Alex van den Berg was next, four seconds clear of Oliver and topping Class B, while Schultz’s 12th overall would have placed him third in Class B.
POWERSPORTS/CLASSICS
Warren ‘Starfish’ Guantario (Calberg ER650) endured a very frustrating day at the office, plagued by mechanical gremlins that dropped him out of the leading group in both Powersport/Classics races while Danie Maritz (Suzuki GSX-R750 Pre-Sling) took advantage to pull away at more than a second a lap in Race 1 and JP Friederich (Calberg SV650), Chris Williams (DEA ER650) and Guantario fought it out for second, finishing in that order within five seconds.
Not even the master tuner himself was immune from mechanical gremlins, however. He suffered gearbox selection problems in Race 2 that saw him ride the last four laps in fifth gear, dropping him down to third behind Friedrich and Williams, just ahead of Mike van Rensburg (Pragma ER650).
They were followed 11 seconds later by a monumental five-way battle between Jonathan Hope (Yamaha R6), Greg Warner (Honda CBR600RR), Andrew Liebenberg (Calberg ER650), Wesley Jones (Suzuki GSX-R750 Pre-Sling) and Kewyn Snyman (Monster Plumbing RVF400), who finished in that order within three seconds.