Cape Town – Round 6 of the Mike Hopkins Regional motorcycle series at Killarney on Saturday delivered some of the closest racing of the season so far, a stunning new lap record and one of the biggest disappointments of the year for a top competitor.
The first surprise came in qualifying, when Regional champion Ronald “The Red Baron” Slamet (Mike Hopkins ZX-10R) outbid World Superstock star David “McFlash” McFadden (Stunt SA ZX-10R) for pole with a superb 1m11.8 sec qualifying lap.
When the lights turned for Race 1, however, McFadden grabbed the holeshot from Slamet, Brandon Haupt (MX Clean ZX-10R) and Trevor Westman (Mad Mac’s ZX-10R). Within a couple of laps McFadden and Slamet broke away from the pack at lap-record pace, while Westman, Haupt and Gerrit Visser (Kawasaki ZX-10R) battled it out for third, just out of reach of 600cc Challenge champion Hayden Jonas on the ASAP World ZX-6R.
On lap six McFadden broke his own lap record with a 1m10.878s, only for Slamet to go even quicker on the same lap with a 1:10.764 - the fastest lap yet of this circuit on any motorcycle. Slamet actually led for most of one lap and said afterwards that if he hadn’t been baulked by a back marker on the last lap he’d have been in with a shout at the end. As it was, McFadden took line honours by 0.602sec, with Westman a lonely third, 10 seconds adrift.
Five seconds later Haupt and Visser came home within arm’s length of each other, only for Visser to be penalised for a jump start, which promoted Jonas to fifth overall.
Karl Schultz (ASAP World ZX-6R) convincingly won Class B, 10 seconds clear of a battle royal between Jacques Ackerman’s Yamaha R1 and Arrie Swanepoel’s BMW S1000 RR which saw them finish within less than a second, while R1-mounted Wesley Lewin romped home to take Class C after Jacques Botha crashed his Suzuki GSX-R600 on lap two.
RACE 2
As Slamet began the second of two warm-up laps his foot slipped off the Kawasaki’s gear-lever; he looked down to see his left boot covered in oil and knew his race was run before it started.
That left McFlash to shrug off a determined early challenge from Westman and come home to a five-second win, averaging a full second a lap less than in the hectic earlier effort. Haupt and Visser made up for that however, with a see-saw duel for third that saw them trade places several times before Haupt got the nod by just 0.288sec at the line.
Jonas put in another disciplined ride to fifth overall, nearly 17 seconds ahead of the next 600 rider, Alex van den Berg on the Wicked Tuning ZX-6R, who was ninth behind a ding-dong three way battle between Aran van Niekerk (Vanbros ZX-10R), Quintin Ebden’s Print It R1 and the PJ One ZX-10R of veteran David Bolding, at 58 the oldest rider on the circuit.
Schultz lead Class B again, but only by three seconds from an epic battle between Ackerman, Swanepoel and Emile van der Merwe (Kawasaki ZX-10R) that saw all three finish within 0.331sec. Lewin won Class C from and a battered but unbowed Botha and Wayne Arendse (Honda CBR600RR).
CLASSICS/POWERSPORT
The racing was no less hectic in the junior classes, where JP Freiderich (Calberg SV650) chased his team-mate, class champion Warren “Starfish” Guantario (Calberg ER650) all the way in Race 1, actually leading one lap and finishing just 0.103sec adrift.
Mike van Rensburg (MVR ER650), Chris Williams on the DEA ER650 and Andrew Liebenberg on the second Calberg ER650 made up the minor placings while John Kosterman thundered home sixth overall on his Suzuki GSX-R650 Pre-Sling to take the Classic honours, ahead of Honda CBR750-mounted Calvin Thomas.
Willem Binedell’s Rapid PC VFR400 was the first 400 home, followed by rookie Jared Schultz on the TraceTrade VFR400.
The top five in Race 2 were a replay of the earlier outing, with Guantario gradually pulling away from Freiderich to win by 4.134seconds and Van Rensburg beating Williams into third by a scant 0.634sec, well ahead of Liebenberg.
The closest finish of the day, irrespective of class, however came when Jayson Bulterman on the Calberg F800 beat Kurt Fortune’s ELAL ER650 for eighth overall by just 0.037sec - less than half a wheel.