Cape Town - Round eight of the Mike Hopkins Regional motorcycle series at Killarney on Saturday produced a hatful of surprises, not least because it was run anticlockwise, i.e. the ‘wrong way round’.
That meant all the competitors had to learn what was effectively a new circuit - which some found unexpectedly to their liking - but other discovered could bite, notably defending champion Ronald ‘the Red Baron’ Slamet, who took a spectacular tumble in practice on Friday that practically destroyed the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R.
Master tuner Francois Breedt of Race Base rebuilt the bike overnight with scrounged and borrowed components but it meant that its painstakingly collated suspension settings were useless; the bike would have to be set up using what Slamet could learn during qualifying.
And then it rained before qualifying, leaving a treacherous wet-and-dry circuit from which nobody learned anything. Slamet put the ZX-10R on pole but complained he could not drive hard out of corners, completely negating its power advantage over the brand-new Suzuki South GSX-R1000 L5 of arch-rival David ‘McFlash’ McFadden.
RED FLAG
By the time lights went out for Race 1, however, the track was bone dry. Slamet immediately grabbed the lead from a slightly more conservative McFadden, with Aran van Niekerk on the Vanbros S1000 RR and Brandon Haupt’s MX-Clean ZX-10R in hot pursuit. McFadden moved into the lead on lap three but all eyes were on Haupt, who was riding the race of his career.
Usually a second-tier runner, he passed Van Niekerk at the start of lap four and was challenging Slamet for second when newly crowned 600 Challenge champion Hayden Jonas on the ASAP World ZX-6R hit a false neutral going into Turn 3 and crashed heavily, injuring an ankle and bringing out the red flags.
McFadden now had the measure of Slamet’s unruly ZX-10R and went into the lead at the restart, but was unable to get away from the determined Slamet. Their five-lap sprint to the line was a thriller, with the two never more than a bike-length apart, but Slamet was unable to mount a challenge, coming home just half a second adrift after a very hard ride.
Third was a delighted Haupt, less than two seconds adrift and well ahead of Van Niekerk and pole-sitter Trevor Westman (Mad Mac’s ZX-10R), while Slovakian Sandra Stammova got the better of a race-long dice with former champion Malcolm Rapson (Kawasaki ZX-10R) to come home a well-earned sixth, her best showing yet at Killarney.
David Enticott on the Motorwise Daytona 675 took Class B line hours by an emphatic eight seconds from Jacques Ackerman on the Jotim R1 and newly un-retired Mike du Toit on another Triumph Daytona 675, while Wayne Arendse (Honda CBR600RR) led home Class C.
RACE 2
McFadden powered past Slamet and Westman coming out of the first corner and held the advantage throughout a thrilling race. Evil handling notwithstanding, Slamet held on until mid-race before McFlash was able to break way, and was still only 3.5s adrift at the end.
Haupt and Van Niekerk went at it as in Race 1, reeling in Westman and delivering the dice of the race for third, until Haupt took command in the closing stages and moved away to take the place by three seconds. Behind them, Rapson got his revenge on Stammova with a heard-earned sixth, while Enticott had to work much harder to take Class B from Karl Schultz’ ASAP World ZX-6R and the ZX-10R of Emile van der Merwe.
POWERSPORT / CLASSICS
Running the wrong way round made no difference to the rivalry between Calberg team-mates Warren ‘Starfish’ Guantario and JP Friederich, who were never more than a bike-length apart throughout a thriller of a race. Guantario took line honours by 0.112s, only to be penalised 10 seconds for overtaking into the chicane on lap one, handing the win to his rival.
Mike van Rensburg on the Pragma ER650 was a distance third, ahead of a three-way battle for fourth between Abdul-Kader Dalwai (Suzuki GSX-R600), Chris Williams (DEA ER650) and John Kosterman (Suzuki GSX-R750 Pre-sling) that saw all three finish inside three seconds, with Dalwai in front when it counted.
Friederich held the advantage for the first few laps of Race 2 but once Guantario was able to get by, he moved steadily away to win by almost four seconds.
Van Rensburg came home to another lonely third, 15 seconds ahead of an almighty dust-up for fourth between Williams, Jayson Bulterman and Dalwai, who finished in that order within three tenths of a second, with Kosterman only three seconds further adrift in seventh.
IOL