09 Oct SHORT CIRCUIT RACING SATURDAY 5 OCTOBER 2019 – REVIEW
BIG DOGS COME OUT TO PLAY AT KILLARNEY SHORT CIRCUIT RACING
If ever you had the perception that Short Circuit Racing is for teens on tiddlers, Round 8 of the series at Killarney International Raceway on Saturday 5 October put that illusion to rest as the gentlemen of the E36 Cup joined in the fun for the first time.
Better known for their rallycross antics, they delivered three robust, hard-fought races, throwing the big Beemers sideways through every corner, and using the brakes only to correct the attitude of their cars.
Race 1 went to Ryan Kat by less than a second from Zack Groenewald after a huge dice with Robby Ferroli, while Jason Kriel inherited third after Ferroli dropped out of contention on the final lap.
Ferroli bounced back in Race 2, however, to win by three seconds from Kat and Groenewald after a race-long three-way battle. Sadly, Groenewald didn’t come out for Race 3; he missed a real thriller as Marco Busi went from first to last to third, Kat went from last to first to second and Ferroli went from third to first to second to first, to take the overall honours for the day.
The adult entertainment continued in the SuperMotard races as newly crowned regional Superbike champion Hayden Jonas opted for a change of pace and entered this hotly-contested class for the first time, riding a Kawasaki 450. Talent is talent, however, and Jonas enjoyed three superb battles with Gareth Gehlig’s Honda, beating him by a narrow margin in each outing. Neither rider, however, had an answer for series leader Jurgen van Onselen (Yamaha), who won all three races in fine style.
Slade van Niekerk continued his domination of the CBR150 Junior one-make series for riders under 18 years old with three convincing wins, chased all the way in each race by David Lindemann and Abigail Bosson.
These two nearly caused an upset in Race 2 when they closed in to within 1.4 seconds of Van Niekerk, all the while battling it out for second, passing and re-passing each other – but Lindemann was ahead when it counted as all three finished within 2.6 seconds.
Reigning SA Super300 champion and main circuit star Kewyn Snyman delivered a master class in Short Circuit racing as he romped away to win all three CBR150 Seniors races by huge margins – but behind him there was spectacular dicing as Raymond Alexander and Gareth Dawson fought it out for second.
Dawson fought his way up from fourth behind Snyman, David Vismer and Alexander at the start of Race 1 to claim second from Alexander by just 0.069sec. The two then swapped places throughout Race 2, to finish 0.308sec apart with Dawson again in front when it counted.
Race 3 was a thriller as Dawson, Alexander and Vismer mixed it up from the start, until Vismer dropped back on lap five, leaving Alexander and Dawson to come home less than a second apart in a cliff-hanger finish.
Then it was Van Niekerk’s turn again , as he rode to three unchallenged wins in the Super Single races. He took race one by seven seconds from Jason Linaker, with Lindemann third. Lindemann then passed Linaker on lap four of the second race to reverse the order on the podium, and repeated the dose three laps from the end of Race 3 to take second overall for the day.
Brothers Taahir and Ebrahim Salie continued their long-standing SuperKart rivalry, with Taahir winning Race 1 by an unchallenged eight seconds after Ebrahim got it all wrong on lap three and had to fight his way back from stone last to a hard-earned second, with Piet Fourie a distant third.
He made no mistakes in Race 2, passing Taahir on lap seven end to win by 0.400 seconds, while Moos passed Fourie two laps from the end to take a third by just 0.257sec. Taahir got his revenge in Race 3, passing his brother on the second lap and moving away to win by three seconds, while Moos cemented his third place for the day, beating Fourie by a similar margin.
The Formula M races for motorcycle-engined open wheelers were a bit of a disappointment, as Bertus Engelbrecht walked away to win Race 1 by almost 11 seconds from Craig Hume, while Shaakir Holliday’s fast but fiendishly temperamental Yamaha R6-engined car didn’t even make lap one. Race 2 was even worse as both Hume and Holliday went out on lap five, leaving Engelbrecht to take an empty win as the only finisher – and the only starter for Race 3, at which point they called it a day.