Saturday’s second leg of the Mike Hopkins regional motorcycle series at Killarney provided all the drama motorsport fans could have wished for - but from totally unexpected circumstances.
As expected, Powersport rivals Warren ‘Starfish’ Guantario and Hayden Jonas qualified their Suzuki SV650s on the front row of the grid, with arch-rival Carl Liebenberg (Calberg ER-6) only 1.448sec off the pace - but they were split by talented rookie Andre Calvert, who missed putting his Kawasaki ZX-6R on pole in his maiden regional appearance by just 0.311sec.
As the red lights went out to start Race 1, however, a multi-bike collision on the fourth row saw four bikes down and Mandy Peake lying unconscious on the track. While the medics attended to Peake, Liebenberg was forced into the pits by a technical hiccup on the ER-6 - which meant he would have to join the race from pit lane after the restart.
When he got there, however, an experienced trainee marshal waved him out on to the circuit and he started the race from the front row of the grid - to which race direction promptly took exception.
SIX-WAY DICE
But Liebenberg didn’t know that - he was in the middle of a six-way dice, with Jonas and Guantario banging elbows and exchanging paint in their battle for the lead, followed by Liebenberg, Kurt Fortune (Kawasaki ZX-6R), Calvert and Vossie Vosloo (Yamaha R1).
On lap four Calvert moved up to third, ahead of Liebenberg, while Vosloo demoted Fortune to sixth and race direction hung out the black flag with Liebenberg’s number. The Calberg veteran said later he never saw it, and the six-way dice continued.
Calvert moved up into second behind Jonas on lap five, but a lap later Guantario’s Suzuki began making some very nasty noises and he retired with what later turned out to be a broken piston skirt. On the same lap Calvert powered past Jonas’ twin and into the lead while Vosloo pushed Liebenberg down into fourth.
Jonas rode the wheels off the SV650RR, recording his fastest lap of 1min20.866 on lap seven, but there was no holding Calvert, who pulled out a three-second lead to win his maiden regional race going away, from Jonas, Liebenberg (after a kamikaze last lap!), Vosloo and Fortune, all of whom finished within less than five seconds.
EPIC BATTLE
John Kosterman was the first Vintage Superbike rider home, after an epic battle with Liebenberg’s son Andrew on the second Calberg ER-6 and veteran ‘Danie van Killarney’ Maritz, out for a swan-song outing on the six-cylinder Honda CBX1000.
Liebenberg was then disqualified for ignoring the black flag, and banned for seven races - later reduced to three on appeal - so he sportingly lent the Calberg ER-6 to Guantario for Race 2.
He would have to start from the back of the grid, however, as would Peake, who’d been declared fit to race and whose Fast by Fran crew had worked like demons to get the big Honda twin ready in time.
RACE 2
While Calvert, Jonas, Vosloo and Fortune dived into Turn 1 at the start of the second race, Peake and Guantario (who had never before even sat on an ER-6, let alone ridden one) set about making up time.
In two laps Gauntario was up to midfield and reeling in the leading group but Peake, comprehensively outbraking Tony Jones’ Ducati Paul Smart Replica and Kevin Spratley’s Yamaha RZ350R into Turn 5, found herself with nowhere to go, bumped into the rear wheel of Spratley’s Yamaha and went down in a cloud of dust.
The red flags came out again and Peake, having been knocked unconscious twice in one day, was taken to hospital for observation.
Calvert grabbed the hole shot at the restart and was never headed, gradually pulling out a five-second lead to take the double first time out. It would also be his last outing in the Clubman Class, having promoted himself directly into Class B of the Regional Superbike series for the next meeting.
RIDE OF THE DAY
Behind him Fortune, Vosloo and Jonas disputed second, while Guantario put in the ride of the day, passing 17 riders on lap one, and moving up to ninth, seventh, fifth and third on consecutive laps.
He got within two seconds of Fortune with a magnificent 1min19.887 on the final lap (more than second quicker than its owner had gone in Race 1!) but it was just too much to ask and he came home a hard-fought third, ahead of Vosloo, Jonas, Wayne Arendse (Honda CBR600RR), Leroy Malan (BMW F800) and Andries Coetzee’s Yamaha R6, all off whom finished within four seconds.
Kosterman was once again the first Vintage Superbike rider home, but couldn’t maintain his earlier pace, coming home 13 seconds behind Andrew Liebenberg, who actually knocked just more than a second off his earlier time.