Cape Town - As the competitors in the SuperGP national motorcycle series pack up their kit to move to Killarney for round four, they’ll be pondering a range of X factors.
The first is the bikes themselves: motorcycles run differently at sea level thanks to the denser air, and will have to be retuned accordingly. Riders with new, 2016-model bikes who have not ridden at Killarney this season may have to set them up from scratch.
The circuit is also a factor. Killarney is an older circuit with a relatively simple layout, but it’s bumpier than it looks and presents challenges in terms of chassis set-up; once again, the newer machines will actually be at a disadvantage.
But the biggest unknown for the top riders (all but one of whom are based in the Northern regions) are the local riders. Not only will they have home track advantage, but lap times in the Mike Hopkins Regional series have tumbled over the past year as a group of world-class riders, led by David ‘McFlash’ McFadden, have raised the bar in local racing.
McFadden will not be riding at Killarney this weekend; he’ll be racing in the Superstock 1000 class in the World Superbike meeting at Donington Park in England. Neverthless, SuperGP championship leaders Mathew Scholtz, Michael White and Clinton Seller, each on a Yamaha R1, will face off against local heroes Ronald Slamet on the BMW Motorrad S1000RR, Brandon Haupt (MX Clean ZX-10R) and Trevor Westman, in only his second outing on the 2016 Mad Macs ZX-10R.
Any one of these young guns is capable of giving the visitors a run for the silverware, particularly Slamet and on-form Haupt.
600 Challenge
The outlook is even more difficult for Super600 class leaders Steven Odendaal and Adolf Boshoff, each on a Yamaha R6. This class in analogous to the incredibly closely fought Western Cape 600 Challenge, and the visitors will have to deal with the likes of Hayden Jonas, on a very competitive R6, Kawasaki ZX-6R riders Alex van den Berg, Warren Guantario and Karl Schultz, and John Oliver on the Glass It R6.
Jonas in particular posted a win and a third – and set a lap record for the class – the last time SuperGP came to Killarney. Odendaal and company have learned to treat this seventeen-year-old with respect.
But wait, as they say, there’s more; national one-make 390cc SuperJunior racing has been dominated this year by Cape Town’s Brandon Staffen, who has won four of the six races run so far. The visitors will really have to pull something out of the bag to challenge Staffen on home turf – but it will be fun to see them try.
Practice and qualifying will be on Friday; the North/South wars will break out from 9.30 on Saturday.