Cape Town – Despite disruptions, interruptions and distractions, none of them caused by the two-wheeled competitors, that caused round three of the Power Series at Killarney on Saturday 9 May to run about 40 minutes late and forced the organisers to shorten the second race in each class, the Mike Hopkins Regional Motorcycle series delivered the usual mix of tight racing and human drama from no less than 56 competitors.
Before the tintops began lubricating the track surface, defending champion Ronald Slamet put the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R on pole with an electrifying 1m11.189s qualifying lap, half a second ahead of Malcom Rapson (Kawasaki ZX-10R) and Trevor Westman (Mad Mac’s ZX-10R)
Race 1, however, was delayed until mid-afternoon by a series of accidents and oil-spills, by which time the track surface was treacherous, to put it charitably, and nobody got under 1m12s in either of the Superbike races.
Slamet moved into an immediate lead from Visser - the only one of the leading four to better his qualifying time in the race - Rapson and Westman, who passed Rapson on lap four and began set about reeling in Visser, setting up a superb battle for second over the final three laps that saw Westman get the nod by just 0.051sec.
Rapson was fourth, less than two seconds further adrift, with Hayden Jonas on the ASAP World ZX-6R a lonely fifth, well clear of Brandon Haupt (MX Clean ZX-10R), to cement his position at the top of the 600 Challenge standings.
Seven seconds later Aran van Niekerk - out for the first time in a year on a bog-stock BMW S1000RR - got the best of a three-way battle with David Bolding’s PJ One ZX-10R, Andre Calvert (KC Transport ZX-6R) and Michael White (Kawasaki ZX-6R) that saw all four finish within 1.3 seconds.
John Oliver blitzed Class B on the Glass It R6, well ahead of Alex van den Berg (Wicked Tuning ZX-6R) and Karl Schultz on the second ASAP World ZX-6R, while Wesley Lewin (Yamaha R1) did the same to Eric Everson and Wayne Arendse (each Honda CBR600-mounted) at the top of Class C.
RACE 2
With the sun already low on the horizon, the second outing was cut to a six-lap sprint and Slamet, hoping to reduce the glare, opted for a tinted visor. The only result, however, was to camouflage the oil spills so the champion was forced (quite literally!) to feel his way round the circuit.
Visser, however, pulled a superb start to take the lead off the line, which he held until Turn 2, when Slamet went up the inside under braking to take a lead that remained under threat until two laps from the end, with Westman, Visser and Rapson all over him like a rash.
At that point he threw caution to the winds and put in two laps at full race pace, increasing his lead to 1.3 seconds, while Visser took Westman on the last lap to finish second - to the delight of tuner Danie Maritz - with Westman and Rapson within 0.358sec of him.
Ten seconds down, Jonas and Haupt got into it in a big way, with Jonas chasing the bigger bike until the final lap and beating him on the final tour by 0.184sec.
Van den Berg was even closer to Oliver at the top of Class B but couldn’t make a pass stick, while Lewin came home five seconds ahead of Everson and seven clear of Arendse to nail Class C for the day.
POWERSPORT/CLASSICS
Modern fuel-injected motorcycles are beginning to throw up some problems old-school mechanics would never have dreamt of looking for.
During the course of an extensive rebuild the Calberg Hydraulics crew cured a persistent misfire on Warren Guantario’s Kawasaki ER6 by simply fitting the more powerful fuel-pump from a ZX-10R – and suddenly the Starfish was back to his old form after three months of lack-lustre performance, romping away to win both Powersports races by more than six seconds.
In each case team-mate JP Friederich (Calberg SV650) was second and Mike van Rensburg (MVR ER6) third, with new kid on the block Greg Warner (Honda CBR600) serving notice that he is gone to be worth watching. He qualified second and was running third in Race 1 when he go it all wrong on lap three and had to work his way back up from 18th to finish ninth.
Andrew Liebenberg lowsided his Calberg ER6 in qualifying, fortunately without hurting himself; he cobbled the bike back together for the race and finished a creditable fourth in Race 1, ahead of Kewyn Snyman, who was riding the wheels off the Monster Plumbing VFR400, and John Kosterman, whose Suzuki GSX-R750 Pre-Sling was the first Classic home.
Warner made no mistake this time out, holding fourth from lights to flag and coming home (just) ahead of Kosterman, Snyman and Liebenberg after an entertaining four-way dice.