11 May RACE REVIEW – SHORT CIRCUIT #3.1 – 6 May 2023
ACTION ALL THE WAY IN SHORT CIRCUIT SPRINTS
Project Sixty SA’s Tristin Pienaar put in three superb rides to take a clean sweep of the Clubsport Races at Round 3 of Killarney’s Short Circuit series on Saturday 6 May – but the real fight in each case was for second, where defending champion Stavro Michel battled it out with on-form Abigail Bosson, who was riding her Ateka R3 on the Half Main for the first time.
It took her until the last lap of Race 1 to get on terms with Michel and demote him to third – but she was able to pass the champion in mid-race in Heats 2 and 3 to secure a solid second for the day in her first outing in this class of racing .
Another member of the Project Sixty SA crew, Slade van Niekerk, then did the same in the CBR150 Juniors and Seniors races winning all three heats in fine style. He was followed home in Race 1 by early leader Nicholas Hutchings of HSC Racing and Jason Linaker, while Justin Priday got the best of an intense four-way battle for second in Race 2 with Hutchings, Zante Otto and Linaker in Race 2, as they finished in that order, covered by less than three seconds at the flag.
Race 3 became a straight chase for Van Niekerk, Hutchings and Linaker after Ms Otto lost the front of her Missile Motorcycles CBR150 at the chicane and crashed out – fortunately without serious injury.
Project Sixty SA team leader Trevor Westman, who has very little experience of racing Motards, nonetheless took the fight to the established stars in this class, running a very close second to Jurgen van Onselen in Race 1, with Louis Joubert a distant third, and winning the second and third heats outright from Van Onselen and Joubert.
The up-and-coming stars of the Mini-Moto brigade provided some of the closest racing of the day (and the most exciting, to judge by the body language of their dads!) as Bertus Taljaard took two wins and Caleb Boniface one. Taljaard flowed Boniface home in Race 1 with Hudson Friederich a close third, then won Race 2 from Boniface and Max Schwerin, and Race 3 from Boniface and Friederich.