This Saturday sees the first round of the 2012 Western Cape Regional Motorcycle series at Killarney, with new bikes, new riders, and a new series sponsor, so when we talk about the Mike Hopkins Motorcycles series, you'll know what we mean.
One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the ongoing rivalry at the sharp end between Malcolm Rapson (the Fast) who held on to his regional title in
2011 by a combination of strategy and consistent finishes, and Trevor Westman (the Furious) who dominated the latter part of the season on the Xylem S1000RR.
Rapson, however, has retired his long-serving Honda CBR1000RR in favour of a new BMW S1000RR with backing from Donford Motorrad so, with the two fastest riders in the Cape on identical machinery, Superbike fans are in for a treat at every meeting, starting this weekend.
ODDS-ON FAVOURITE
Waiting to pounce if either of the main manne should make a mistake will be Quintin Ebden, now fully recovered from his arm injury and his Honda CBR1000RR as fettled as it is going to get, and young gun Chris Williams on the quicker of the tow DEA R1's - but they'll have to deal with fired-up Sharl Wasserfall (the Frantic), back on the Starlight R6 after his umpteenth spectacular crash. Wasserfall is very quick indeed when he stays on the bike and could well give the two litre-class machines a big fight for third.
That, of course, also makes Wasserfall the odds-on favourite for 600 Challenge honours, but don't write off Ryan Snyman (Yamaha R6), who is very quick on his day, or the quiet man of Challenge racing, teenager Gerrit Visser on the Konica Minolta CBR600, who has been paying his dues under the mentorship of veteran Paul Medell and looks just about ready to start making some of his rivals pay theirs.
At the top of Class B will be 2011 class champion Shakir “Shrek” Smith, who reckons he can get one more season out of the seven-year-old Entity CBR1000RR, but that may not be an answer for the much younger Fireblade of Shane Nell.
Dark horses for the Superbike races will be David Bolding, pout for the first time on a Kawasaki ZX-10R with PJ One backing, and Dario de Wet, younger brother of the immensely talented Dino, who quit Superbike racing after he was involved in the huge crash that led to the building of the (now thankfully removed) chicane.
Dario will be riding a Yamaha R6 under the banner of father Leon's Monza Group.
“He has to learn to ride a four-stroke sometime.”
Powersport princeling Hayden (who beat adult riders to take the regional title at 13!) has been told by his father/manager Lance that he has to learn to ride a four-stroke sometime, so he'll be out on a Honda RVF400, instead of the familiar little Bizhub RS125 Grand Prix two-stroke.
Ironically, his main rival will be JP Roux, on a rare and very quick Suzuki RGV250 two-stroke!
Tony Sparg, on his beautifully prepared Suzuki GSX1100, and Buddy Ekron, whose Kawasaki Z1000 has been rebuilt to Eddie Lawson Replica specs, will be leading the charge of the Vintage Superbikes.
Racing starts at 10am and the bikes are on first, so be there early.