RACE REVIEW – SHORT CIRCUIT RACING 25 JUNE 2022

RACE REVIEW – SHORT CIRCUIT RACING 25 JUNE 2022

TOP THREE BATTLE ALL THE WAY IN 4 HOUR SHORT CIRCUIT ENDURO

Within the first half-hour of the 4 Hour Short Circuit Endurance race for lightweight motorcycles on the Killarney Karting circuit on Saturday 25 June the battle lines had been drawn. It was always going to be about three teams: the Project Sixty60 duo of Slade van Niekerk and Trevor Westman, the Powerflow CBR150 of Nian du Toit, Richard Bate and Paul Medell, and the HSC machine of Nicholas Hutchings, Raymond Alexander and Jason Linaker.

The HSC Honda took the early lead until the first rider change, at which point Project Sixty60 moved into the lead, and at the one-hour mark they were a lap ahead, having completed 71 laps to Powerflow’s 70, with HSC a close third on 69.

Midway through the second hour HSC moved back up into second, but the Powerflow guys weren’t having it and stayed on the same lap as HSC right up to the halfway mark, just 21 seconds adrift after two hours and 136 laps of hard racing. Project Sixty60, however, had enjoyed a faultless second hour and very little trouble cutting through slower traffic, and were four laps clear on 140.

Eleven laps later, however, the chain came off the Project Sixty60 CBR150; the team pushed the bike to the pits, re-tensioned the chain and had it running within minutes – but they were now third, two laps down, behind HSC and Powerflow. In the words of team leader Trevor Westman, both riders then ‘got a bit aggressive’; Westman recalls lapping the leaders twice within half an hour and Van Niekerk laid down the fastest lap of the race, a 48.790 second flyer, on lap 164, to put them on the same lap as the leaders.

Incredibly, after three hours and 204 laps, HSC led by less than five seconds from Powerflow, with Project Sixty60 just 15 seconds further adrift!

Six laps into the final hour, Project Sixty60 moved back into the lead; ten minutes later HSC relegated Powerflow to third and the stage was set for a flat-out finale. With half an hour to go, Project Sixty60, still in full-tilt boogie mode, had lapped the entire field again to move into a one-lap lead, HSC had put a lap on Powerflow and nobody was slowing down. When the chequered flag came out, Project Sixty60 had completed 275 laps to HSC’s 274 and Powerflow’s 273. Fourth, 17 laps down, was the all-rookie team of Raymond Bezuidenhout, Sugurt Filip and Clinton Bush. Mention should also be made of the Red Beard Racing duo of Billy de Beer and Jurg Steyn, who were lapping at the same pace as the leaders throughout but were delayed by a crash and two pitstops to put the chain back on its sprockets, and eventually finished seventh.

CLOSE RACING AS ‘BUZZIES’ RETURN TO THEIR HOME CIRCUIT

Kewyn Snyman comfortably won all three combined Junior and Senior CBR150 races at the Killarney Karting circuit on Saturday 25 June, despite the best efforts of reigning champion Slade van Niekerk, who was battling with an uncooperative Project Sixty60 CBR150.

This was the first time in many years that the lightweight motorcycles had returned to their home circuit for sprint races and the pace was fast and furious, including the fastest lap of the day, a blistering 48.021sec flyer from Snyman in Race 3.

Van Niekerk followed the on-form Missile Motorcycles rider home in all three races, although he had to stave off determined challenges from HSC hotshot Nicholas Hutchings and Red Beard Racings’ Billy de Beer, particularly in Race 2, to do it.

Hutchings held an early second in Race 2 but had to give way to Van Niekerk on lap eight and De Beer on the 12th and final tour, finishing fourth after a hard ride.

De Beer fought back in Race 3 from an early fifth behind Jason Linaker on the RST CBR150 to take fourth on lap two and third on lap eight, but there was no catching the two top guns, who finished 20 seconds clear of the field.

Matthew Vismer (Husqvarna) pulled off a similar clean sweep in the Supermotard races, followed home in each case by  Malcolm Cochrane’s Kawasaki. Yamaha rider Kyle Hallick held an early third in Race 1 but had to give way in mid-race to Rohan Swanepoel’s Husqvarna; Hallick then held off an even more determined challenge in Race 2 to hang on to third by just 0.173sec. Swanepoel then clapped back in Race 3, to lead Hallick home after the dice of the race by 0.370sec. Hudson Friederich, looking more like a chip off the old block (his father is multiple Powersport champion JP Friederich) with every outing, aced the Minimoto races, comfortably leading home Max Schwerin and Mateja de Oliviera in each leg.