29 Apr RACE REVIEW – KILLARNEY SPEED FESTIVAL RACE REPORT 23&24 aPRIL 2022
EVEN RAIN COULDN’T DAMPEN THE FUN AT KILLARNEY SPEED FESTIVAL

EVEN RAIN COULDN’T DAMPEN THE FUN AT KILLARNEY SPEED FESTIVAL
The Killarney Speed Festival powered by the City of Cape Town and Masterdrive on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 April, the first ever ‘time attack’ event held at the home of motorsport in the Western Cape, was not only a huge success, but was also hugely popular with the contestants, paving the way for more events in this exciting format in the future.
Competitors ran one at a time over a 1.9 kilometre course, starting about 150 metres before Malmesbury Sweep, proceeding up the Tygerberg Straight through Interceptor Corner, followed by Quarry Corner, the Joubert Straight and Hoal’s Hook to finish on the Porsche Straight at the current finish line.
Time attack racing is best compared to the one lap qualifying sprints in Formula One where everything depends on getting your run just right – and this event was open to almost any two or four-wheeled vehicle, with 10 classes embracing road going cars, racing cars and motorcycles.
Surprisingly, the biggest entry came not from the racing fraternity but from performance street car enthusiasts, who embraced wholeheartedly the concept of intense competition without the risk of colliding with another contestant.
But the star of the show was undoubtedly Dawie Joubert’s brand new Wild Rose Lotari, a Lotus Exige with a Ferrari 488 GTB V8 engine, which set the pace from the very first green light on Saturday morning. Joubert was the first contestant to run the course in less than a minute and posted the ultimate course record time of 50.917 seconds in the third Qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. Sadly, on his final qualifying run the Lotari sheared a turbo shaft and was unable to take part in the Finals or the Fastest Time of the Day Shootout.
Consistently quick throughout the weekend was another GT Class contestant, Steve Humble in the Harp Motorsport/Ravenol Opel Mallock Mk14B, who set his best time of 52.464 seconds in the sixth Qualifying Session. He was challenged only by Byron Mitchell’s Formula VW – until the Dolphin Engineering single-seater picked up a mechanical gremlin and couldn’t take part in the Shootouts.
Rain at lunchtime on Sunday cut short some of the Category Shootouts and produced some hair-raising runs on the wet course, notably that of Tousseef Haroun in his BMW M4, who spun three times in one run and still somehow managed to keep it on the track!
Then, when the course had dried, it was time for the climax of the weekend: the Fastest Time of the Day Shootout, where the 10 fastest contestants, irrespective of category, lined up to decide the King of Killarney title. No surprises there: Humble took the honours with a conservative 54.348, followed by Superbike hotshot Michael Hunter on the LLG Properties/Microil ZX-6R, and Shane du Toit in his super-quick Volkswagen Golf Mk1.
A surprise fourth was the leader of the SSP 300 motorcycle class, Slade van Niekerk, embarrassing a number of race and road cars with a best time of 57.955 seconds on a little 321cc Yamaha R3! Right behind him was the top road car contestant, Billy Brink, in a turbocharged Toyota 86.
Here are the individual winners of the Category Shootouts:
Sports Cars:
1: Steve Humble – Mallock Mk14B
2: Hennie Bosman – Lotus 7
Modified Saloon Cars:
1: Shane du Toit – Volkswagen Golf Mk1
2: Paul Munnik – Volkswagen Golf GTi
3: Trevor Hutchings – Volkswagen Scirocco
Road Cars:
1: Billy Brink – Toyota 86 Turbo
2: Touseef Haroun – BMW M4
3: Daniel Blaser – Nissan 350Z
Motorcycles:
1: Michael Hunter – Kawasaki ZX-6R
2: Slade van Niekerk – Yamaha R3 3: Nicholas Hutchings – KTM RC390
