
Cape Town – In the absence of defending champion David McFadden, who will be at Motorland Aragon competing in the Spanish national Superbike series, Round 6 of the RST Suzuki South Regional series at Killarney on Saturday 14 July will be fought out between two brothers, Brandon and Bernard Haupt, on near-identical Fueled Racing R1s.
Younger brother Brandon was the 2016 Regional champion and leads this year’s points standings by a scant five points (111 to 106) from veteran and multiple former champion Rob Cragg (Mad Macs ZX-10R) with McFadden third on 100 points. But that situation is likely to change this weekend.
Older brother Bernard Haupt isn’t a regular main-circuit competitor, but he is a multiple off-road champion and brings a wealth of racecraft to his rare appearances at Killarney, especially on loose surfaces, which makes him an even bigger threat if it rains.
To put that in perspective, Bernard Haupt has entered just two Regional Superbike races this year – and won both of them. Add to that a deep-seated and long-standing sibling rivalry between two intensely competitive young men, and you have the makings of an epic contest.

Waiting to pounce
But in the event that the Haupts are too busy racing each other to keep an eye on the prize (or in this case the chequered flag!) there will be at least three contenders waiting to pounce, not least Andre Calvert, back on the Omega Property 1299S after a long layoff due to a big crash earlier this year and a subsequent engine blow-up.
If Calvert is back to anything like his pre-crash pace he will bear watching, as will Trevor Westman on a Mad Macs ZX-10R and Gerrit Visser on the Samurai R1, each of whom has already proved that on his day he can win.