06 May RACE REPORT – BIKES 1 May 2021 Power Series #3
OLD RIVALRY LIGHTS UP KILLARNEY SUPERBIKES

Neither name was in the programme because both were late entries, but long-standing rivals Brandon Haupt, on the Fueled Racing R1, and David ‘McFlash’ McFadden, using his father’s Yamaha as a test mule for future suspension upgrades on his own StuntSA/RPM Center R1, set the South Motorcycles Superbike series alight at the May Day Power Series races presented by Wingfield Motors and Kfm 94.5 on Saturday 1 May at Killarney with some of the best racing so far this season.
Haupt won both races, but was made to work very hard for it by McFadden and on-form SuperMasters rider Malcolm Rapson (Racebase GSX-R1000), who pulled a demon start in Race 1 to lead the first lap, while McFadden’s borrowed Yamaha very nearly stalled, leaving him down in fifth at the end of the first lap with a lot of work to do.
Haupt neatly passed Rapson on lap two and and laid down a couple of fast laps to build a cushion while McFadden sliced through the field to pass Rapson on lap three. By this time, however, the gap to the leader was nearly two seconds – a big ask for McFadden, who posted his fastest lap of the race (1min11.663sec) on the final tour to finish just 0.633sec adrift of Haupt, who had in fact eased off in the final four laps after posting a best time of 1min11.633sec on lap six.
Behind them the fight for third was even closer as Rapson held off a late charge from top Super600 rider Brett Roberts on the Linea Lighting R6, closely followed by SuperMasters Rob Cragg (Mad Macs ZX-10R) and Jacques Ackermann (South/Barker/Stepp Durbanville ZX-10R), to take the final podium spot and first in the SuperMasters Class, all four finishing within 2.2 seconds.
McFadden got a much better start in Race 2 – but not as good as Rapson, who was first into Kfm Corner again and held the lead until McFlash outbraked him into Turn 2, with Haupt hot on his heels.
The two then treated live-streaming fans to a master class in close racing, never more than a bike length apart until McFadden suddenly slowed on lap nine and pulled into the pits, his ‘test session’ successfully completed.
That gave Haupt a lonely win, almost 18 seconds ahead of another three-way battle between Supermasters Rapson, Cragg and Ackermann, who finished in that order covered by 2.6 seconds.
Roberts did not come out for Race 2, so Super600 honours went to the only 600cc finisher, Connor Hagan on the NPH Electrical GSX-R600.
The first Powersport race provided the biggest shake-up of the season so far – and some of the closest racing – as Slade van Niekerk, who has been dominating his rookie season in the Powersport 650cc class aboard the Project Sixty60 ER650, faced off against Kewyn Snyman.
The former SA Super300 champion had decided less than a week earlier to move up to the bigger class, built a Kawasaki ER650 race bike from scratch, rode it for the first time in practice on Friday and qualified it on pole on Saturday morning under the Missile Motorcycles banner.
The race was an absolute cracker, as they swopped the lead on almost every lap, never more than arm’s length apart. The two crossed the line side by side but the electronic transponders gave Van Niekerk the win by just 0.087sec, with Franco Flach (Kawasakki ER6N) little more than a second behind and Project Sixty60 team principal Trevor Westman a further three seconds adrift on a down-on-power Roxstar Ninja 650.
Tristin Pienaar, son of former SA Superbike star Clinton Pienaar, was the first 300cc Class rider home on a borrowed KTM RC390, followed by the similar KTM of Mag Workshop boss man Mitch Robinson, Braddon Hutchings (HSC RC 390) and Willy van Niekerk (Midlife Crisis R3), all four covered by less than 10 seconds after a superb midfield battle.
Race 2 looked set for more of the same but started without Westman after it was found that his Kawasaki had blown its head gasket in Race 1. It lasted less than a third of a lap, however, before Jason Linaker’s RST Ninja 650 spat him off in a huge highside on the exit of Turn 2, forcing Flach to take evasive action – right into the path of David Lindemann’s GM Contractors/Fueled Racing SV650. With three riders down, the red flags came out and the medics scrambled to pick up the pieces.
Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt and the rest of the field lined up for the restart, over five fast and furious laps. And furious they were, as Van Niekerk and Snyman pulled away at more than a second a lap, fighting it out literally within touching distance until the Missile Motorcycles ER650 developed an intermittent fueling fault on the final lap and Snyman dropped back to finish 1.341 seconds adrift.
Superbike star Gerrit ‘Ginger Ninja’ Visser, also riding a Powersport 650 Class machine for the first time, was a lonely third, 10 seconds ahead of a race-long three way battle for fourth that saw Rob de Vos (MSA/Mag Workshop ER6), Lance Jonas (BMW Accident Repair Centre/Samurai SV650) and Andrew Liebenberg (Kawasaki ER6) cross the line in that order covered by less than three quarters of a second.
Pienaar beat Nicholas Hutchings (HSC RC390) to the line by just 0.111sec for a maiden 300 Class double win, well ahead of Willy van Niekerk and Braddon Hutchings on the second HSC RC390.