When the SA Superbike circus comes to Killarney for the first time in 2006 on Saturday, November 4, some of the visitors may be in for a rude awakening.
The majority of National Superbike fixtures are allocated to the northern regions and only one a year to Cape Town; some of the younger riders will never have ridden a litre-class superbike at Killarney before.
The Gauteng teams will know how to take advantage of the extra power afforded by running at sea level; they'll all have baseline settings for the Grand Prix circuit in East London and Port Elizabeth's Aldo Scribante that will work in the Cape - but they won't have suspension settings for the bumpy Killarney surface with its sudden changes of camber.
More experienced riders such as championship leader Shaun Whyte on the works Yamaha R1 know all about Killarney; expect him to be on the pace immediately. Whyte just missed out on the SA Superbike title in 2005 and he'll be out to make sure of it this time around.
He will come to Killarney with 39-point lead in the championship but hasn't shone in the last two outings at Aldo Scribante in Port Elizabeth and at Welkom's Phakisa Raceway.
Whyte has been overshadowed recently by team mate Clinton Sellar, but the latter has raced only once at Killarney on a 1000cc machine - and that was a Suzuki. He will have a lot of work to do in practice.
More than ever, experience will tell at Killarney, especially that of Port Elizabeth rider Arushen Moodley (a favourite of Cape fans) and veteran Trevor Crookes, each on a Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Crookes hasn't hit top form since being involved in the Kyalami accident that put another former SA champion, Stewart Macloed, out for the rest of the season, but he always goes well at Killarney - as does the underrated Robert Portman (Honda CBR1000RR) who's due for a win and could just pull it off at Killarney.
Capetonian Lance Isaacs recently surprised a lot of people who had begun to write him off with a double win in Port Elizabeth on a Honda CBR1000RR - only to fall heavily at Phakisa. He'll be keen to get back on terms and prove the Scribante performance was no fluke.
Lining up against them will against them will be group of local riders who have been disputing the WP Regional series all year and for whom this circuit is literally their own back yard. Lap times in Class A of the Regionals are competitive with those attained at the previous Killarney Regional at the end of 2005, at around 1min13.
Quietly-spoken Rob Cragg, who retired from National racing earlier this year out of loyalty to a sponsor who he thought wasn't getting his money's worth, will be out there on a Kawasaki ZX-10R with a point to prove, as will local heroes Hilton Redelinghuys and Marius Nel, each on a Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Supersport
In the 600cc class Greg Gildenhuys on a Yamaha R6 will be looking to clinch a second consecutive title. He leads Tertius de Lange (Yamaha R6) by 37 points; the latter had a rough ride at Phakisa while not fully recovered from injuries sustained in a road accident, but should be fit for Killarney.
Both he and Gildenhuys, however, will face an uphill battle against R6 riders Dane Hellyer and Chris Leeson; the latter did well in the recent Killarney Regionals and may already have what MotoGP riders refer to as a "solution" - a baseline suspension setting that works.
Leeson is only three points behind De Lange in the championship - expect fireworks.
18-year-old Aran van Niekerk from Table View has entered his sadly out-of-date Suzuki GSX-R600 in the Supersport class, more for the experience than in any hopes of finishing in the money - when is somebody going to put this extraordinarily talented teenager on a competitive bike?
But the dark horse in this class is Dino de Wet on a Yamaha R6, who blew hot and cold on works Yamaha machinery a couple of seasons ago but was always fast at home.
Don't forget, De Wet still holds the 600cc lap record for this circuit - and he was doing 1:15s at the last Regional meetings.
It's going to Home vs Visitors at Killarney on Saturday; the local riders will be bringing into play a lot of home circuit advantage to offset the "Big Bucks" teams and their superior infrastructure. Nobody will predict the outcome - but the racing will be memorable!