By Dave Abrahams
Cape Town - The star of the 2015 All Bike Race Day at Killarney on Saturday was undoubtedly local celebrity and international SuperStock 1000 rider David 'McFlash' McFadden, who won both Unlimited Superbike races and the 1 Hour headline event on the Suzuki South GSX-R1000 L5.
But the real winners were the spectators, who were treated to intense racing from world-class riders in every class - and had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the riders between races, something rarely possible in sanitised and glamorised television presentations.
McFlash certainly didn't have it all his own way, with intense competition all the way from local hotshot Trevor Westman (who only decided to enter on the morning of race day and ran the Mad Mac's ZX-10R exactly as he parked it after the last Regional meeting of the season) and multiple SA Superbike champion Greg Gildenhuys, who shared the Mad Mac's machine with Westman for the 1 Hour and rode his own Autohaus Towing S1000RR in the Superbike races.
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1 HOUR
McFadden and Westman were first away at the Le Mans start, hotly pursued by Mark Van den Berg on the Wicked Tuning ZX-10R he was sharing with son Alex, Peter Haupt on his brand new Yamaha R1-M and Jacques Ackermann's older R1.
But by lap 11 600 Challenge champion Hayden Jonas had made up for a poor start on the ASAP World 675 Daytona and moved up to third - a position it was to hold until it went out after 38 laps with an engine problem..
McFadden had built up a 45 second lead by the time he came in for his mandatory two-minute pit stop, just on the half-hour, rejoining the race in third behind Westman and Van den Berg.
Westman kept going for another three laps, however, cutting it very close to the 35-minute limit before bringing the Kawasaki in and handing it over to Gildenhuys - who was back out before Jared Schultz on the ASAP World 675 Daytona could make up the deficit and so rejoined in second.
After that it was a straight run to the flag, with Gildenhuys throwing everything he had at the Suzuki rider, but to no avail as MacFadden slowly stretched his lead, lap by lap, to finish 54 seconds clear of the Kawasaki after 47 laps of intense racing.
The sudden demise of the ASAP World 675 promoted the Wicked Tuning ZX-10R into third, as Alex van den Berg put in a superb second stint to bring his father's bike home only two laps down on the leaders. Next home on 45 laps was the Haupt R1-M - only to be penalised two laps for spilled fuel at the stop, which knocked them down to eighth overall.
Also on 45 laps were the Jaylan GSX-R600 of Shawn Payne and Wesley Lewin (the first 600 home), with 63-year-old Roland Wingeier just nine seconds behind them after a solo ride on his home-built Kawasaki ZX-10R.
Jacques Ackermann and Jacques Geldenhuys were the first Sport duo home in seventh overall, with Franco Santoro and E Phillipson the first all-amateur Street crew, classified 11th overall after completing 41 laps - and then losing two of them to a no-stopping penalty.
UNLIMITED SUPERBIKES
McFadden, forced to start from pit lane by a loose helmet strap, found himself in the unusual position of being stone last into Turn 1 while Westman and Gildenhuys banged elbows at the front with veterans Malcolm Rapson and Jan-Lucas de Vos, each on a privately-entered Kawasaki ZX-10R, in close attendance.
The Suzuki star promptly pulled the pin, scything through the field to eighth by the end of the first lap and fourth by the start of lap three, when he put in the fastest lap of the day - an electrifying 1m10.835 - to jump the gap to the leaders.
He took both Rapson and Westman on lap five, and passed Gildenhuys for the lead on lap six. Even though he eased off the pace slightly in the closing stages he was still more than five seconds clear at the line, while Gildenhuys, unhappy with the set-up of his BMW, just held off a late charge from Westman to take second, with Rapson a distant fourth after De Vos dropped off the pace in the second half of the race.
Westman and Gildenhuys tried again in the second outing, leading for two laps until McFlash again put in a corker (1:11.039) on lap three and checked out, to win unchallenged by nearly six seconds from Westman. Gildenhuys, still battling the unruly BMW, was a distant third ahead of Rapson, Ackermann and Aran van Niekerk, riding Mike du Toit Sr's Triumph Daytona 675 in preparation for the 1 Hour, who was the first 600 Class rider in sixth overall.
600 CHALLENGE
ASAP World riders dominated the 600cc races - 600 Challenge champion Hayden Jonas won both legs unchallenged on his now very battered ZX-6R, while team-mates, father and son Karl and Jared Schultz fought it out for second and third.
Karl showed his son the way home in Race 1 by less than half a second, only to be trounced by Jared in Race 2, coming in more than five seconds adrift after a very hard ride.
POWERSPORTS
So intense was the battle for both races between Jonny Towers, owner of RST bikewear, and local teenager Kewyn Snyman, each on a Kawasaki ER-6, that few people noticed 15-year-old short-circuit graduate Brandon Staffen, making his Regional debut on a borrowed Suzuki SV650.
The Suzuki refused to start for the warm-up laps and Staffen was forced to start Race 1 from pit lane. He then sliced through the 19 strong field to pass Michael du Toit's Yamaha R6 for third after five laps
By then, however, Towers and Snyman were 30 seconds clear of the field in a race of their own, which Towers won by five seconds thanks to a late breakaway after seven laps of elbow-bashing.
The vastly experienced Towers had to work even harder in Race 2. He led every lap but was less than two seconds ahead of Snyman at the flag after the two swopped places no less than four times on one lap in the closing stages.
Staffen cemented his status as a rider to watch, slotting into third off the start and riding a well-judged if lonely race to finish 25 seconds behind Towers and the same distance ahead of Du Toit.
BREAKFAST RUN GRAND PRIX
Race 1 was interrupted after three laps when Sebastian Solomons (Suzuki GSX-R1000 took a monumental tumble in Turn 4. After the restart the race became an elbow-to-elbow duel all the way between track-day specialist Romano di Leva (BMW S1000 RR) and Dominique Arlove on a Suzuki GSX-R1000, resulting in the closest finish of the day as Di Leva crossed the line just 0.108sec ahead.
Fourteen seconds later Jacques Smith (Yamaha R1), Harry Clifton (Kawasaki ZX-10R), Shamier Alexander (Yamaha R6) crossed the line within a second, with Donald Romer's Honda CBR1000 RR less than two seconds further down after the dice of the day.
However, the stewards imposed a 30 second penalty on Di Leva for jumping the start, knocking him down to sixth and handing the race to Arlove.
The BMW rider made no mistakes in Race 2, taking the lead from his rival on lap three and holding it to the flag, putting in the fastest lap of the race on lap six to come home 1.198sec ahead, with Romer coming out ahead of an epic five-way battle for third with Clifton, Alexander, Jean-Baptiste Racoupeau (Yamaha R6) and Smith.
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