Cape Town - It's going to be a unique double-header; as the African Endurance 9-Hour for sports-cars unfolds at Killarney this Saturday, 12 December, the annual International 8 Hours for lightweight motorcycles will be run on the tight one-kilometre 'K' circuit nestled between Turns 1 and 2 of the main circuit.
But this year, there's a twist. When convenor Jimmy Pantony learned that the African Endurance headline event was coming to Killarney because the radical upgrade undertaken at Kyalami by new owner Toby Venter would not be completed in time, he decided to take advantage of it, rather than be upstaged.
So, for this year only, the International 8 Hours becomes the ASAP World 9 Hours - and it will run into the night under Renttech lighting, to finish at 9pm. That has meant one obvious rule change: the bikes will have to run head and tail-lights after dark, as do the superbikes at the iconic Bol d'Or endurance race inFrance.
The 8 Hours began in 1983 as a two-hour end-of-season experiment but rapidly evolved into a flat-out 100-lap sprint, so over the years it has been stretched to four, six and finally eight hours. Nevertheless the top contenders still run at sprint pace, averaging a little more than 50 seconds a lap and packing more than 500 laps into eight hours.
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The race is open to teams of two, three or four riders on standard four-stroke motorcycles of up to 150cc and modified two-strokes of up to 80cc. Entries are dominated by Honda CBR150 machines, simply because there are one-make series for them both here and in Gauteng, with a sprinkling of new Suzuki GSX-R150s.
A notable exception, however is the MPS80, a Grand Prix replica frame hand-built by suspension guru Martin Paetzold and powered by a KTM motocross engine. It has twice come close to winning this race and this year, with Paetzold, multiple SuperGP champion Clinton Seller, British Superbike star Hudson Kennaugh and Super600 hotshot Malcolm Rudman sharing the ride, it will be the bike to watch.
But the favourite has to be three-times winner Jonny Towers of RST bikewear on the Trik Moto CBR150 - even though he has yet to announce the rest of his team.
The rumour mill keeps turning up the names of international Superstock 1000 star David 'McFlash' McFadden and local teenage hotshot Kewyn Snyman, who gave Towers a torrid time at last Saturday's All Bike Race Day. If so, the Trik Moto bike will be hard to beat.
ALL-GIRL TEAM
Nevertheless, the team with the best chance of doing just that will be the Mad Mac's CBR150 of Trevor Westman, JP Friederich, Warren Guantario and Wesley Jones. All but Friederich are former short-track champions, and even he has won races on the 'K' circuit.
There are more national and international teams among the 28 confirmed entries, which are expected to increase to more than 40 by race day - including the all-girl Bosson Performance Exhausts CBR150 of Martie Bosson, Jeanette Kok-Kritzinger and Carmen Agnew, joined for the occasion by accomplished Suzuki Series endurance racer Daphne Lang from Gauteng.
With practice and qualifying - as well as a 30-minute enduro for the 8-13 year old NSF100 riders of the SA Motorcycle Racing Academy - before the start of the 9 Hours at noon, there will be intense, quickfire action all day and into the night on the 'K' circuit.
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