Cape Town - Most of the drama and some of the finest motorcycle racing in recent months was provided by the Powersport/Classic riders at Round 7 of the Mike Hopkins Regional series at Killarney on Saturday.
Moments before the start of Race 1 a fine drizzle became real rain, making a mockery of qualifying and turning the track surface into a skating rink. While arch-rivals Warren ‘Starfish’ Guantario (Calberg ER-6) and Graeme Greene (Thruxton ER-6) took the lead, mayhem ensued behind them.
Wesley Jones (Jack Hammer SV650), Sean Le Grange (RacePrep ER650) and David Carr (Pocket Bikes VFR400) slid off before the end of the first lap – but when Jamey Hendricks went down at Turn 5 on lap two, leaving the Bikers Delight CBR400 lying perilously close to the edge of the track, the red flags came out and it was all over.
So treacherous was the condition of the circuit that the first Superbike race was cancelled as well, but by mid-afternoon the sun was out and the circuit was bone dry, setting the stage for two superb 10-lap races.
ALMIGHTY DUST-UP
Guantario and Greene set a cracking pace, taking the lead from Paul Medell (Cape Bike Travel SV650), Mike van Rensburg (Pragma ER650) and veteran ‘Danie van Killarney’ Maritz, riding the same Suzuki GSX-R750 with which he won the 1986 Regional title.
By lap three Maritz was up to third – albeit a distant third – as Medell and Van Rensburg debated fourth, just ahead of an almighty dust-up between Tim Clark (on a Suzuki GSX-R750 four years older than himself!), JP Friederich (Calberg SV650), Andrew Liebenberg (Calberg ER6) and Chris Williams (DEA ER650).
For the next six laps Guantario and Greene put up the dice of the day, swopping places on almost every lap and keeping the crown on their feet as they banged elbows into every corner. Three laps from the end, however, Maritz suddenly pulled the pin and by the start of the final tour he was all over the two youngsters like a rash.
Then, on the final corner of the race, he blitzed both to grabbed the lead and win by just 0.309s from Guantario, with Greene 0.200s further in arrears.
Almost 40 seconds later Van Rensburg came home fourth, three seconds ahead of a four-way battle for fifth that saw Williams, Friederich, Liebenberg and Medell finish in that order within less than half a second, after Clark had retired the old warhorse on lap nine with a broken exhaust pipe.
SUPERBIKES
Despite an injury to his right forearm at the Durban round of SuperGP only two weeks before that required medical intervention, defending champion Ronald Slamet was back, determined that nobody was going to threaten his progress towards a second Regional title.
He put the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R on pole and started the race with a couple of flying laps - the best of which, on lap three, was a full second better than anybody else managed all day – and by half distance had built up an almost unassailable lead.
It was just as well because, by his own admission, for the final four laps he was just praying for the flag, although he still came in more than eight seconds ahead of a superb dice for second between former champion Malcolm Rapson (Kawasaki ZX-10R) and Trevor Westman on the seven-year-old Ocean Sizzler R1.
Rapson, largely recovered from a recent bout of illness, was back to his usual 1min 12sec form, while Westman, his confidence restored by a successful rebuild of the Yamaha’s brakes since the previous outing, was in ‘take no prisoners’ mode as he and Rapson swopped places on almost every lap.
In the end, however, it came down to who was later on the brakes going into Turn 5 – and that was Westman, as he held on to take a hard-earned second, just 0.197s ahead of Rapson.
Gerrit Visser (Kawasaki ZX-10R) put in a very smooth ride to fourth, ahead of Hilton Redlinghuys (Thruxton ZX-10R), SuperGP rider Nicholas van der Walt (working some of the kinks out of his Emtek R1 on home turf) and a blistering five-way dice for seventh that saw Jan Lucas de Vos (Kawasaki ZX-10R), David Bolding (PJ One ZX-10R), Mark van den Berg (Planet Electronics CB1000RR), Andre Calvert (KC Transport ZX-6R) and Quintin Ebden (BMW S1000 RR) that saw them finish in that order, all five crossing the line within two seconds.
That put Van den Berg at the top of Class B, ahead of hot rookie Jacques Brits (Lize Signs S1000 RR), with Van der Berg’s son Alex (Wicked Tuning CBR600) third in Class B and second in the 600 Challenge in the absence of hotshot Hayden Jonas, who was nursing a broken hand.
Xander du Plessis (Hypower ZX-6R) led home the Class C contingent, ahead of Brent Walters (Alu-Trellis R1) and Jacques Ackermann (Jotim R1).