Yamaha rules at Red Star SuperGP

Published Aug 24, 2015

Share

Rustenburg - Clint Seller romped away to a clean sweep in Round 6 of the 2015 SuperGP series at Red Star Raceway on Saturday as he put his Yamaha R1 on pole and went on to take two comfortable race wins.

The defending champion now has a 27 point lead at the top of the log with just two races (at Dezzi Raceway in Port Shepstone on 19 September) left to run.

Yamaha R6 hotshot Steven Odendaal won the first Super600 race at a canter but was made to fight all the way for the second race win - which left him just one point shy of clinching back-to-back titles.

Everybody expected that Mathew Scholtz, also on a new R1, would push Seller during SuperPole but he slid off on his hot lap, giving Seller had an easy run to pole position, 1.578 seconds ahead of Scholtz's team-mate Brandon Goode, with Brent Harran (Kawasaki ZX-10R), who'd missed the previous round after breaking his wrist in a snowboarding accident, a tenth of a second further back in third.

Lance Isaacs (BMW S1000 RR), Daryn Upton (Kawasaki ZX-10R) and Nicholas Kershaw (BMW S1000 RR) made up the second row, followed by Johan van der Merwe Jnr (Ducati 1098) and Scholtz.

RACE 1

When the lights went out it was Goode who reacted quickest, out-dragging Seller in the charge to the first corner. By the end of lap one however, normal service had been resumed as Seller moved into a lead that was never to be challenged.

Scholtz slowly made his way through the field but, by the time he got up to second, Seller was too far ahead. Goode made sure he stayed ahead of veteran Isaacs to make it an all-Yamaha podium, while Isaacs was followed home by Harran and Kershaw.

RACE 2

A threatening thunderstorm just before the second race held off until Seller had taken his second win of the day. This time he got a clean start was never headed on his way to the flag. Isaacs ran second in the early stages before Scholtz got past, but once again Seller was out of reach and Scholtz had to settle for second.

Isaacs slowly dropped down the field as the handling of his BMW deteriorated, eventually finishing sixth behind Goode (giving Yamaha another podium whitewash) Kershaw and Harran.

SUPER600

Qualifying gave an indication of what was to come - the top four were separated by just 0.164sec, with Steven Odendaal (Yamaha R6) on pole ahead of Adolf Boshoff (Kawasaki ZX-6R), Blaze Baker (Kawasaki ZX-6R) and Anthony Shelley (Yamaha R6). Michael White (Kawasaki ZX-6R) and privateer Dylan Barnard (Kawasaki ZX-6R) were not far behind.

The first race didn't turn out as expected, however, as Odendaal took an early the lead and steadily opened up a substantial gap, while Boshoff, Baker, Shelley and White debated second - with Shelley in front when it counted. Boshoff held off White to take third ahead of Barnard and Dorren Loureiro's Kawasaki ZX-6R.

RACE 2

This was a thriller with Shelley and Odendaal never more than a couple of bike lengths apart for 14 laps. Shelley was in front for most of the race but Odendaal managed to get past with just a couple of laps to go. Shelley didn't give up though and the gap at the flag was just 0.1sec.

Boshoff crashed out of third at about half-distance, just after posting his fastest lap of the race leaving White to take the final podium position, with Baker, Loureiro and Barnard rounding out the top six.

Related Topics: