In the end, the 2013 Mike Hopkins Motorcycles regional superbike series came down to just two seconds, going into Killarney’s Rose Foundation corner on lap three of the second-last race of the season. A combination of too-high entry speed and a gusting south-easter caused the front wheel of one of the contenders to wash out, handing his rival an almost conclusive advantage.
We did say almost.
Right from the start the Cape’s premier motorcycle championship had been a two-horse race. Going into the final round at the weekend, Ronald Slamet on the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R and Aran van Niekerk (DMR ZX-10R) had, between them, won all but one of the season’s 15 races and were separated by just four points with 18 on offer for the day’s two races.
The Class C riders had been asked to run with the Powersports and Classic motorcycles so nobody would get lapped and back-markers would not be a factor.
The title would be a cut and dried, winner takes all showdown.
That was until 2012 champion David ‘McFlash’ McFadden, fresh from a very difficult rookie year in World Superstock racing, entered on an identical ZX-10R, borrowed for the occasion from veteran racer Jan-Lucas de Vos.
McFadden qualified on pole, just 0.085sec ahead of Slamet, in very blustery conditions on Friday afternoon, with 2011 champion Malcolm Rapson on another ZX-10R and Van Niekerk making up the rest of the front row. The gung-ho Van Niekerk, always at his most aggressive when at a disadvantage, pulled a perfect start to slot into second behind McFadden - but what he wanted was to put the reigning titleholder between himself and his rival.
For two laps he was all over McFadden like a rash, showing McFlash a wheel on more than one occasion before making his move on lap three - and sliding off into molehill country.
The red flags came out.
Van Niekerk was stretchered off to the medical centre and the rest reformed on the grid for a six-lap sprint to the flag.
McFadden took control from the start, delivering a master-class in smooth riding and moving away to win by nearly three seconds, while Rapson posted a superb 1min12.617 on lap three, emphatically outbraking Slamet into Turn 5 to take second.
Seven seconds later, Sharl Wasserfall (Berlux ZX-6R) came home a lonely fourth, taking advantage of a race-long six-way battle between David Bolding’s PJ One ZX-10R and the 600cc ‘Brat Pack’ of Nicholas van der Walt (DMR CBR600RR), Brandon Haupt (MX Clean GSX-R600), the ZX-10R’s of Chris Williams and Zane Simon and Hayden Jonas (Suzuki GSX-R600), all of whom finished within seven seconds.
RACE 2
Tuner Danie Maritz put Van Niekerk’s bike back on track for the second leg, but his only hope for the title was for Slamet not to finish. McFadden and Rapson got the best of it at the start, with Slamet slotting into a conservative third and Van Niekerk fourth, but on lap three the red flags came out again as Kurt Fortune and his Honda CBR1000RR took an almighty tumble in the double-apex Malmesbury Sweep.
The day’s second re-start came down to a three-way express train as Slamet and Rapson followed McFadden home, all three crossing the line within 0.75sec, while a bitterly disappointed Van Niekerk trailed home 14 seconds in arrears.
BLACK-FLAGGED
Behind him, his younger brother Nicholas van der Walt got into an all-out battle with Wasserfall for the 2013 600 Challenge honours. Van der Walt held off the Kawasaki until his Honda began smoking heavily on lap four. It got so bad that he was black-flagged at the beginning of the last lap; he tried desperately to nurse the bike home but had to give up when it spilled oil on its rear tyre in Turn 2 and nearly unseated him.
Even then Van der Walt’s problems weren’t over, as the Berlux team protested him for ignoring the black flag, leaving the 600 Challenge up in the air.
POWERSPORTS / CLASSIC MOTORCYCLES
In the absence of Powersport rival Graeme Green, Warren Guantario on the Calberg Hydraulics ER6 was expected to dominate proceedings; he qualified on pole, but was completely upstaged on race day by Alex van den Berg on the Loud & Clear CBR600.
He and Guantario battled all the way in Race 1, swopping the lead on almost every lap, but Van den Berg was ahead - by 1.8 seconds - when it mattered, with Norman McFadden (McFlash Senior) third, on the Kawasaki ZX-6R that his son took to the 2011 SA Supersport championship.
The three Class C riders - Vossie Vosloo on the Competition Bikes R1, Wayne Arendse (Honda CBR600RR) and Bronte Heinrich (Ducati 996 SPS) - finished in that order in less than two seconds after an outstanding dice.
RACE 2
Guantario had no answer for the straight-line advantage of the four-cylinder Honda in the second leg. Van den Bergh blasted past down the back straight on lap five and pulled away to win by six seconds, while McFadden got the best of a race-long dice for third with Lee Erasmus (Tracking Hardware GSX-R750) and Jannie Stander on the Galvatech ZX-10R.
Heinrich, Arendse and Vosloo put up another superb dice for Class C honours, finishing in exactly the reverse order from the earlier outing, while John Kosterman (Suzuki GSX-R750) was the only Classic Motorcycle rider who didn’t get lapped in either race.