The eighth round of the Mike Hopkins Regional Motorcycle series at Killarney on Saturday delivered more drama than the most outrageous soapie, as well as some of the season's closest racing.
The drama started on the third lap of qualifying when the gearbox of Shakir 'Shrek' Smith's Entity CBR1000RR let go with a crack loud enough to be heard by the marshals at the side of the circuit. Smith limped back to the pits, figuring his race day was over - or was it?
Meanwhile Ronald Slamet put the I-S Freight S1000RR on pole with a sparkling 1min13.154, nearly a second quicker than defending champion Malcolm Rapson on the Donford S1000RR and Trevor Westman's Walker Brothers S1000RR.
But the next two qualifiers, immediately behind the three 150kW BMW superbikes, were the Supersports machines of Gerrit Visser (Competition Bikes CBR600RR) and Brandon Haupt (MX Clean GSX-R600) who qualified within 42 thousandths of a second of each other to set up would turn out to be a superb duel for 600 Challenge honours.
Meanwhile, in the Entity pit...
A Honda CBR1000RR has what is called a cassette gearbox, which means the contents can be removed through the clutch cover without disturbing the engine. This soon revealed that fourth gear had dropped a tooth, leaving the rest of the ratios in less than ideal condition.
A phone call quickly located a spare cogset, and friends and fellow competitors sprang into action. Race 1 might be a leap too far, but they reckoned the bike could be ready for Race 2.
RACE 1
Scarcely had the lights changed for Race 1, however, than there was more drama. Slamet pulled a beautiful start off pole to lead Westman, Rapson and the hotshot 600 Challenge bikers into the first corner but, seconds later, Marco Smith (Tiffandale CBR1000RR) had a huge crash coming out of Turn 1 and Chris Williams (DEA ZX-10R) an even bigger one into Turn 3.
With broken bikes and dented riders all over the circuit, the red flags came out and the riders re-formed on the grid while the marshals cleaned up the mess - except for four (no names, no pack drill!) who ducked into the pits for a quick splash-and-dash of extra fuel, which is not allowed while under starter's orders.
They got their ears bent by the clerk of the course, and would have to start from pit lane - after the rest of the field had gone by.
But that made no difference to the front runners as Slamet and Westman screamed into the lead, followed by the 600's of Visser and Haupt, and a slow-starting Rapson.
By lap two, however, he was back up into third, but his crew had gone the wrong way with their suspension tweaks after qualifying and he was unable to stay with the leaders as Slamet and Westman exchanged blows.
The battle for fourth was just as close, as Visser and Haupt swopped places on almost every lap, circulating in the very low 1min14's, never more than two bike lengths apart, with Nicholas van der Walt keeping them honest, riding a bike which was, to all intents and purposes, an unknown quantity.
Van der Walt had crashed his Race Prep CBR600 heavily in practice for the recent WesBank Super Series meeting at Killarney and, while the bike was back in one piece for the races, it could not be made to run properly and the crew admitted it was beyond repair.
There was no money for a new bike, so they stripped and rebuilt one workable machine out of this bike and his previous machine, which had also been crashed into oblivion. While it was not yet running at full power and its suspension settings were at best an approximation, its frame and suspension were at least straight.
Van der Walt made the best of it to stay with Visser and Haupt for the first half of the race, only losing touch when they turned up the heat in the closing stages to set up a thrilling final lap.
Westman outfoxed Slamet to lead at the end of lap four but Slamet struck back on lap five as they ducked and dived and carved each other up on every corner. The lead changed twice in less than two seconds in Turn 5 on the second last lap (see the sequence of photos above!) but Slamet always seemed to have the better drive in the sprint to the flag and he outdragged Westman when it mattered to win by 1.228 seconds, with Rapson 9.5 seconds further back.
But even then the drama wasn't over; Haupt had pulled a small but crucial lead in the closing stages and looked to have the 600 Challenge honours in the bag, until he slowed slightly to look over his shoulder coming out of Turn 4 on the last lap, and Visser screamed past down the back straight.
Haupt gave it everything he and the Suzuki had to get back on terms, desperately trying to slingshot the Honda out of the kink towards the finish line, but failed by just 0.121 of a second.
Mike Wilhelmi on the Fast Fence ZX-10R put in a superb ride to take Class B from Mark van der Berg (Honda CBR1000RR) by a nail-biting 0.228sec, while Kurt Fortune (Blaze ZX-6R) was the top Class C finisher.
RACE 2
Many hands had indeed switched the Entity Honda's lights on; it was ready to go for race two but, sadly, its clutch was slipping and Smith was forced to retire after only three laps.
Up at the front, however, Slamet made all the running, trying to break away from Westman and Rapson, whose bike was back in qualifying trim and running nearly a second a lap quicker than in Race 1.
The I-S Freight rider posted the fastest lap of the day - a superb 1min12.790 - on lap six as Westman matched him corner for corner, never more than a couple of bike lengths adrift, until the penultimate lap, when he once again outbraked Slamet into Turn 5.
Seconds later Slamet struck back, slingshotting past Westman at the end of the main straight and outbraking him into Turn 1 - but he went in way too hot and had to run very wide as Westman grabbed an unassailable lead.
Rapson also nipped through as Slamet accelerated back up to race pace to grab a free-gift second place, and it was (almost) all over bar the shouting.
Haupt had slotted in behind Visser from the start, matching his every move and waiting for his moment; he neatly passed the Honda on lap seven and pulled away to finish 1.021 seconds clear, with Van der Walt holding on to a hard-earned sixth, 10 seconds further back.
Wilhelmi outbraked Van den Berg into Turn 1 at the start of lap three and held the Class B advantage (just) to lead the Honda across the line by less than a second for the first double win of his career, while Wayne Arendse (Honda CBR600RR) beat Robyn de Goede's similar bike by an even smaller margin to win Class C.
CLASSICS/POWERSPORT
Carl Liebenberg put the Calberg Hydraulics F800 on pole as expected with a 1min20.826, but a surprise second qualifier was Warren “Starfish” Guantario on the fast but usually temperamental Fibreprod SV650, now running like a V-twin train.
“We just gave it a proper service,” explained Guantario, “oil, filters, spark plugs, all that stuff.”
And he was cable to take the fight to Liebenberg, chasing him all the way, passing him in Turn 5 twice and losing out at the end only to the BMW's superior acceleration out of corners. The two finished less than a second apart, nearly 10 seconds ahead of Leroy Malan in third on another BMW F800.
Frans Maritz brought his brother Danie's 1985 Suzuki GSX-R750 home fourth overall to take the New Era honours, well ahead of top Class D finisher Andries Coetzee (Yamaha R6) while Hilton Redelinghuys, JP Friedrich and Liebenberg's son Andrew put up a superb scrap for eighth place on evenly-matched Honda VFR400's, finishing in that order in less than 1.4 seconds.
RACE 2
The second outing was a real cliff-hanger as Liebenberg and Guantario carved each other up on every corner, swopping places on almost every lap.
Liebenberg's plan to drop the hammer on the last lap almost backfired when they came up behind some back markers.
One of them had a real Fresh Underwear Moment when the leaders blitzed past him - one on either side! - going into Turn 5 and Liebenberg needed every bit of the F800's power advantage to get the best of the sprint to the flag by just 0.162sec.
Leroy Malan was a lonely third, well ahead of Maritz' old Gixer, and Redelinghuys once again got the best of the three-VFR400 scrap, although Liebenberg Jr was well pleased to get the better of arch-rival Friedrich by a close-run 0.16 seconds.
Coetzee was leading Class D again until he got it very wrong on lap five and dropped from fifth overall to 15th, gifting the class win to rookie Mandy Peake and her Honda VTR1000 - the first win of her career.