The 2010 All Bike Race Day, run as always on the Day of Reconciliation at Cape Town's Killarney circuit, was overshadowed by the death of 11-year-old Riyaath Reynolds as a result of a crash at Turn 5 in the second CBR150 race, apparently caused by brake failure.
Our hearts go out to the Reynolds family at this very difficult time.
He'd finished a very creditable fifth in the first race, 11sec behind a group of very experienced riders in his first outing on the main circuit, and was apparently in the same position when he crashed on the third lap of Race 2.
Tony Sterianos, Liam McKenzie, Trevor Westman and Warren Guantario finished the first race in that order, with less than a second separating them. The same four dominated in the re-run of race two but all four finished within 0.389sec, with Westman passing Guantario and McKenzie on lap five to finish second, 0.055sec behind Sterianos.
As is traditional at this meeting, the main event was a two-hour endurance race, open to solo riders or teams of two, on any kind of motorcycle - and some people took that literally. Jacques Lerm's usual mount is a vintage Honda CBX1000 six so he and Paul Cooper entered his streetbike - a BMW R1200 GS beetle-crusher!
The rest of the 18-strong field comprised mostly 600, 750 and 1000cc fours with two BMW F800 twins and a Ducati 999 in the hands of owner John Quinn and Donovan le Cok.
Former WP champion Rapson put his Honda CBR1000RR on pole but it was Danie
Maritz Racing technician Jaque Geldenhuys, on the Zodiac GSX-R1000 he shared with Colin Teppler, who got away first from the frenzied Le Mans start, with Rapson's team mate David bolding and solo rider Jan Lucas de Vos (Suzuki GSX-R1000) in hot pursuit.
Within a lap, however, De Vos powered into a lead he was to hold until the first round of pit stops, while Geldenhuys and Bolding debated second.
At the half-hour Bolding handed the Honda over to its owner and within a few laps Rapson was leading from De Vos, while Teppler on the Zodiac machine battled to hold third against determined challenges from Chris van Vuuren and Andrew Liebenberg, riding Liebenberg's father Carl's Calberg ZX-10R, and the Biketique F800 for Ray Wilson and Tim Clark, the latter in particular putting in an epic ride on a machine with half the power of its rivals.
De Vos took over the lead again after the second round of pit stops, halfway through the race, but could hold it for only five laps as Bolding upped the pace. After an hour the leaders had completed 42 laps - the fastest a 1min17.031 from Rapson - with the Wilson/Clark F800 third, a lap down, followed by the Calberg ZX-10R.
The Danie Maritz Racing outfit then gambled on something that had never been tried before in a two-hour at Killarney: a rear tyre change. Despite their best efforts it cost them about three laps which they were unable to make up - even with the improved grip afforded by the fresh rubber - and took them out of contention.
Throughout the second hour the lead swayed between Rapson and De Vos: when Rapson was riding the Honda he led but Bolding, whose usual mount is a Suzuki GSX-R750, couldn't match their pace.
Which was why they made sure Rapson rode the last stint to bring the Honda home a lap ahead of De Vos, having completed 85 tours of Killarney in two hours. Third were Lee Erasmus and Terry Smith on a Suzuki GSX-R750, followed by Van Vuuren and Liebenberg with Michelle Marias and Nicole van Aswegen on Marais' Suzuki GSX-R600 fifth - all on the same lap, five laps behind Rapson.
Oh, and the towering GelandeScooter, scraping its footpegs on every corner, rumbled round without missing a beat at an average 1min29 a lap to bring Lerm and Cooper home a relaxed 13th with 72 laps to its credit.
Then Bolding was penalised two laps for pulling a stoppie in the pits, which would have reversed the two leaders' positions, but after tense discussions in the Clerk of the Course's office, Bolding's protest was upheld and the result stood.
Earlier in the day, supposedly retired “Danie van Killarney” Maritz, on a Yamaha R1, narrowly beat Rapson in the first Superbike race with Clark third on the Biketique S1000RR. Rapson was ready for the 46-year-old veteran in Race 2 and led until the last lap, only to be blitzed by Maritz in the last corner.
The winning margin was even slimmer - only 0.307sec - with Clark, De Vos and Bolding rounding out the top five.
The Battle of the Twins was a Ducati benefit, with Donovan Fourie on the Bike SA 1198S passing local rider Donovan le Cok (Ducati 996) to win Race 1 by 1.65sec with Peter Baker on the Viper Lounge Buell more than 30sec in arrears.
Fourie dominated Race 2, leading all the way to cross the line 10sec ahead of Le Cok with Wilson (Biketique F800), Ashley Aldridge (Ukasa F800) and Dr Chris Leatt, inventor of the life-saving Leatt Brace, completing the top five.
Nicole van Aswegen, riding a very sweet-sounding Triumph 675 Daytona, ran away with both the Ladies Races, leading every lap and coming home more than 20sec ahead of Speed Queen's Wilmarie Janse van Rensburg (Kawasaki ZX-6R) each time.
Jeanine du Rand and Loumari Grobler battled it out for third on evenly matched Suzuki GSX-R600's, finishing in that order with less than a second between them in each race.
Michelle Marais (Suzuki GSX-R600) and local rider Cindy Brown - out for the first time on a Honda RS250 Grand Prix bike - took a fifth and a sixth apiece.
The Classic/Powersport races were a real mixed bag as vintage bikes crossed swords with motards and 125cc GP machines. Teenager Jordan Weaving, in his last appearance before leaving to take up a 125cc GP ride in Britain, was in a class of his own, romping away to win each race by 37sec on the Yale RS125, with Sharief Reynolds (Reynolds VFR400) and John Kosterman (Honda CB1100RC) battling it out for second in Race 1.
But the surprise of the day was motard rookie Killian Henrick (Aprilia SXV450), in his first outing on the main circuit, who narrowly lost out to veteran Rob Gortmaker's KTM610 SMR for fourth in Race 1 and came home third in Race 2, less than 0.2sec behind Reynolds.
Mark van den Berg (Honda CBR1000RR) took an easy win in each Breakfast Run race, leading home Rudi Carstens (Suzuki GSX-R1000) and Shaun de Jager (Honda CBR1000RR) in Race 1.
Carstens took the early lead in Race 2 but Van den Berg powered past on lap three to win by 21sec, with Colin Teppler third on the Zodiac GSX-R1000.