Cape Town - With 26 entries for the Superbike races and another 32 for the Powersport/Classics events, Round 7 of the Mike Hopkins Regional Motorcycle series, this Saturday at Killarney, is set to be a thriller.
World Superstock racer David ‘McFlash’ McFadden (Suzuki South GSX-R1000) and defending regional title-holder Ronald ‘The Red Baron’ Slamet (Mike Hopkins ZX-10R) will take up where they left off last time out. They finished 0.602sec apart in Race1 with McFadden in front when it counted, only for Slamet’s bike to deny him his revenge by developing a serious oil leak on the warm-up lap for Race 2.
Slamet, in particular, will be out there on Saturday with a point to prove.
Right behind them, ready to pounce if either of the hotshots makes a mistake, will be the Young Guns - Trevor Westman, Gerrit Visser and Brandon Haupt - each on a Kawasaki ZX-10R, each having the best season of his career so far. Expect fireworks.
KEEPING THEM HONEST
The Charge of the Light Brigade has been reduced to just one rider, but when you see the ASAP World ZX-6R of 16-year-old Hayden Jonas nipping at the heels of the leading group, remind yourself that he’s riding a 600cc Supersport machine with about 50kW less power than the Superbikes.
Keeping them honest will be Slovakian rider Sandra Stammova, making her second visit to the Cape on the Gauteng-based 511 Racing S1000 RR, which had gearbox issues last time out. With the BMW’s transmission sorted, Stammova is capable of challenging the Young Guns - if not the leaders – making her this week’s Dark Horse.
In the absence of an entry from Jonas’ sponsor, Karl Schultz, on the second ASAP world ZX-6R, who’s been dominating Class B of ate, (he’s pedalling a mountain bike from Port Elizabeth to Plettenberg Bay), look for an all-out track war between Jacques Ackermann (Jotim R1), Wessel Kruger (Yamaha R1) and David Enticott on the Motorwise 675 Daytona.
Class C is likely to be fought out as usual between Wesley Lewin (Motorlease R1) and Nick van Zyl (Kawasaki ZX-10R) but there are a number of new faces in the class, so anything could happen and probably will.
CLASSICS/POWERSPORT
Warren ‘The Starfish’ Gauntario, his Calberg ER6’s fuelling sorted and running like a train, faced an unexpected challenge last time out from team-mate JP Freiderich on the Calberg SV650. If Freiderich’s new-found form holds this could be the dice of the day.
Also rapidly finding form is rookie Abdul Kader Dalwai on the Field GSX-R600, who will take on Jayson Bulterman (Calberg F800) and David Carr’s Cane GSX-R600 for Clubman Class honours, while John Kosterman (Suzuki GSX-R750 Pre-Sling) will start as favourite in the Classics Class.