By: Dave Abrahams
Cape Town – The 32nd running of the annual RST 8 Hour international endurance race for lightweight motorcycles at Killarney’s one-kilometre ‘K’ circuit was characterised by hot weather, hotter racing, the biggest multiple crash in the history of the event, a fighting comeback and a surprise result.
There were, however, no surprises in qualifying as World Superstock rider David ‘McFlash’ McFadden put the No.17 Honda CBR150 of three-times winners RST (Trevor Westman, McFadden, event sponsor Jonny Towers of RST Bikewear and Warren Guantario, all racing this year under the Trik Moto banner) on pole, ahead of the No.7 CBR150 of local hotshots Gerrit Visser Jr, Andrew Liebenberg and Hayden Jonas, and the Samra CBR150 of international riders (and South African Motorcycle Racing Academy instructors) Brent Harran, Bjorn Estment, Malcolm Rudman and Wayne Tessels.
It was Jonas, however, who was first away in the traditional Le Mans start and led the first lap, until McFadden passed him on lap two to put the Trik Moto machine firmly in the lead. Nevertheless, when chief timekeeper Jannie Olivier took a snapshot after the first 60 minutes, the Samra machine was 12.579 seconds ahead of the Trik Moto bike after 71 laps of furiously close racing.
There were a number of crashes and breakdowns during the frenetic first hour, notably that of the all-girl Dare team of Martie Bosson, Carmen Agnew, Jeanette Kok-Kritzinger and Joani-Lee Kotze, whose Honda CBR150 ran its big end bearing after 40 minutes.
CHIVALROUS GESTURE
In an admirably chivalrous gesture, however, the Hillbilly Racing team of Mark Roos, Peter Hill, Stavro Michel and Kevin Cassie, who’d entered a second bike as a source of spares, offered it to the ladies and soon they were circulating again.
Just before the end of the second hour, Trik Moto’s Westman and Liebenberg on the No.7 bike collided in the Golf Club. Westman went down, injuring his knee, and the bike spent nearly 10 minutes in the pits, losing 11 laps - and 11 places - in the process.
All hopes of race strategy were abandoned and Guantario went out like a man on a mission, making up two places in the first few minutes, but a snapshot result nine minutes into the third hour showed him nine places down, nine laps behind the Samra machine.
Forty minutes later Trik Moto were up to sixth, seven laps down on the leaders, when one of the midfield riders went farming in the Big Esses; he survived the excursion but threw a lot of fine sand right on to the racing line.
Moments later veteran Roland Wingeier, on the No.117 CBR150, lost the front end on the sand and slid off the circuit. Within seconds another eight bikes had gone down in the same place, one of which hit Wingeier and knocked him down again, breaking his left collarbone.
That brought out the safety bike, while the marshals frantically swept the tarmac clean and checked for oil spillage after the momentous pile-up, it is to their credit that racing was able to resume after less than 15 minutes.
Trik Moto made up another lap by the halfway mark, moving up to fourth; the Samra riders had completed 264 laps, four more than the No.7 bike of Visser, Liebenberg and Jonas, and the Off the Wall team of Aran van Niekerk, Nicholas van der Walt, their father Mark van der Walt and James Egan.
THREE-LAP PENALTY
The Cape’s notorious south-easter picked up during the second half of the 8 Hour, making life easier for the machines but harder for the riders. The Samra squad continued to circulate in the low fifty-second bracket, as Trik Moto battled to reel them in, making up another lap in the fifth hour to put them on the same lap as No.7 and Off the Wall.
A hectic sixth hour saw them up to second, four laps off the leaders, two laps ahead of Off the Wall and seven clear of the No.7 bike. Trik Moto made up another lap in the seventh hour; it began to look as if a fourth consecutive win was just possible. They posted the fastest lap of the race, a superb 49.776sec effort, early in the final hour, and had made up another lap when they were hit with a three-lap penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag.
Five laps in 45 minutes was simply too big an ask; it says much that Trik Moto made up two of them to finish second - but the big silverware went to the Samra squad, who completed a near-record 527 laps under difficult conditions.
Off the Wall was third with 522 laps completed, followed by No.7 on 520 and Craig’s (Donald Craig, Wesley Jones and Grant Raeside), with 513.
UNDAUNTED
Forty CBR150s and three 80cc Yamaha two-strokes started; all of them were still running at the finish, although the No.36 Yamaha of Kevin Spratley and Tiaan Terblanche spent more time in the pits than on the circuit and completed only 31 laps.
Mention must be made of pre-teen Brandon Staffen, who won the NSF100 two-hour on Friday afternoon and finished seventh in the 8 Hour on Saturday with team-mates Aidan Liebenberg and Luka Gaspar, and John Craig, who had raced in every 8 Hour since its inception as a two-hour end-of-season fun event in 1983, and finished ninth this year aboard the No.5 CBR150 he shared with Jimmy Pantony, Gerrit Visser Sr and Paul Medell.
And the ladies? Despite the time lost due to the demise of their bike, and a huge crash in the Pits Esses for Kotze on the Hillbilly machine, they came home undaunted in 36th place with 334 laps to their credit.
Also noteworthy was the return of 1981 SA champion John Clark, who shared the No.117 CBR150 with John Kosterman, Wingeier and Shakir ‘Shrek’ Smith in his first outing at Killarney in 21 years. Despite the time lost due to Wingeier’s crash, they circulated steadily in midfield and completed 293 laps to finish 38th.