Cape Town – Round four of the Mike Hopkins Regional motorcycle series at Killarney on Saturday delivered sparkling racing throughout both fields, including a number of surprises.
These were mostly due to the meeting being run anticlockwise - the opposite direction to the usual layout, with a tight little chicane added to deflect the riders away from the wall of the drag-strip.
Championship leader Brandon Haupt won both Superbike races going away on the MX Clean ZX-10R but, after a disastrous qualifying, he had to work hard for each. He got a clean start off the second row of the grid in Race 1 and took advantage of the long run to the chicane to slot in behind pole-sitter Trevor Westman on the Mad Mac’s ZX-10R, with top 600 Challenge contenders Hayden Jonas (Fifty8 Racing ZX-6R) and Warren Guantario (Mad Mac’s ZX-6R) right behind them.
Haupt’s younger brother Bernard, riding his father’s Yamaha R1M in his first main circuit outing for several years, showed an unexpected aptitude for the reversed circuit, running a close fifth, and several times showing Guantario a wheel.
Brandon Haupt got by Westman on lap four, setting up what promised to be an epic confrontation, only for Westman to get it all wrong in Turn 2 a lap later and lose several seconds, taking him out of contention and leaving Haupt to romp home nearly seven seconds clear, with Jonas third, three second further adrift.
But all eyes were on the battle for fourth; Bernard Haupt got ahead of Guantario on lap five, but the 600 Challenger refused to give up, chasing Haupt all the way and coming home on 1.265s behind.
Mark van den Berg (Honda CBR1000RR) was the first Class B rider home, with Jacques Ackerman (Mad Mac’s ZX-10R) a distant second.
Race 2
Bernard Haupt came off the second row of the grid to lead the field down to the chicane, but when the leaders came out on to the back straight for the first time it was the Fifty8 ZX-6R of Hayden Jonas that led Westman and Bernard Haupt, with Guantario fourth and Brandon Haupt fighting his way through the field from eighth on the grid.
On lap two Bernard Haupt went off the outside of the high-speed Turn 4, kept it upright over the grass, bounced it off the tyre wall so gently there wasn’t a mark on his father’s new Yamaha - and toured round to the pits to retire.
Giant-killer Jonas kept the litre-class machines at bay for three and a half thrilling laps, before Westman outpowered him up the back straight - and Brandon Haupt blitzed them both into Turn 4!
After that there was no holding Haupt, who went away at nearly two seconds a lap to win by seven seconds, while Westman and Jonas swopped places at least twice a lap in the dice of the day, never more than a length or two apart between them, to finish just 0.216s apart – with Jonas in front when it counted!
Guantario came home fourth, ahead of Van den Berg and Arrie Swanepoel (BMW S1000 RR), the top two Class B finishers.
Powersports
Veteran ‘Danie van Killarney’ Maritz put his 1985 Suzuki, now re-engined with a period GSDX-R1100 motor, on pole and romped away to win the first Powersport/Clubmans race by 2.19s from fifteen-year-old Brandon Staffen, who rode the wheels off his Anthony Lane-tuned Suzuki SV650 to stay in touch with the bigger machine - noting afterwards that he was close enough to see Maritz battling to get the old musclebike to turn in!
Bronte Heinrich (Ducati 996 SPS) was third, passing Paul Medell’s Kawasaki ER650 on the last lap after a race-long five bike dice, with ‘Big Harry’ Clifton (MSD Auto Services ZX-10R), Joske Kotze (Kawasaki ZX-6R) and JP Friederich (Calberg SV650) in close formation behind them, as all three finished within a second.
Race 2
Powersport star Friederich upped the ante for the second race, staying with Maritz and Staffen as they set the early pace; he looked set for a solid third when Maritz’ Gixer blew a fuse on the penultimate lap and coasted to a stop in parc ferme.
At that point Friederich pulled the pin, blitzing Staffen and opening a small but crucial gap to win by 1.176s, with Kotze a distant third, just ahead of Dylan Wright (Itcan CBR600 F4) and Clifton, after another spectacular dice.