Red Star Raceway, Delmas - Kawasaki rivals Clint Seller and Brent Harran shared the honours in round two of the SuperGP Champions Trophy at the Mpumalanga circuit on Sunday afternoon.
Seller, winner of both races in the opening round at Phakisa Freeway in the Free State in March, looked set to repeat the performance after qualifying first and also winning the Top 15 Superpole on Saturday.
He followed this up with a close 0.09 sec win over Harran in the first 15-lapper despite riding with a painful shoulder injury he'd suffered in a motocross accident two weeks before.
Third in Race 1 was Lance Isaacs (BMW S1000RR), who led briefly after a great start from the outside of the front row and again at about half distance. Dylan White (Kawasaki ZX10) was a distant fourth, 8.47 seconds behind the winner.
RACE 2
On a mostly sunny day that saw the weather deteriorate in the afternoon, with gusting wind making life difficult for the riders, Seller led race two into the first corner, followed closely by Harran and Isaacs.
He ran wide on to the grass at the top end of the circuit, caught out by tyres that hadn't warmed up sufficiently, and dropped the Kawasaki as he tried to regain the circuit. He wasn't able to pick the bike up due to his injured shoulder and was forced to retire.
Harran went on to take the victory - his first in the SuperGP category after just four races - by 2.87 seconds from Isaacs. Ronald Slamet (Kawasaki ZX10) recorded his best result of the year with third, a further 25 seconds back and just three tenths of a second ahead of Ivan van Niekerk (Kawasaki ZX10).
After the first two rounds, Seller, the reigning SA Supersport champion, leads the new SuperGP title chase with 75 points from Harran (71) and Isaacs (60).
SUPER600
There were also two different winners in the 600cc category with Cameron Petersen (Yamaha R6) winning Race 1 after dominating qualifying and Anthony Shelly (Kawasaki ZX6) taking the honours in the second of the two 12-lap races.
Petersen was followed home in Race 1 by team-mate Dean Vos, who was a little more than three seconds behind at the chequered flag. Stephen Odendaal (Kawasaki ZX6), back-to-back race winner in the opening round at Phakisa, was third. Shelly and Matthew Scholtz (Kawasaki ZX6) both went down after colliding, with Shelly managing to get going again to finish 16th, a lap down.
Petersen, the reigning SA Supersport champion, looked set to make it a clean sweep for the day only to be knocked out of contention in Race 2 when he was caught off-balance by a strong gust of wind on lap five while enjoying a comfortable four-second lead. His Yamaha sustained a broken gear shift.
Shelly inherited a lead he was not to lose and crossed the finish line less than two tenths of a second ahead of Dean Vos (Yamaha R6) and 3.67 seconds in front of Odendaal.
Odendaal leads the championship after two rounds with 79 points, followed by Scholtz (60) and Vos (57).
SUPERM
Kyle Robinson (Kawasaki ZX10) took two comfortable victories in the national challenge category, finishing more than seven seconds ahead of Teddy Brooke (Kawasaki ZX10) and 7.7 seconds in front of Justin Gillensen (Kawasaki ZX10) in the first 10-lapper - although he had to fight his way back from a poor start that saw him drop from pole to seventh.
He was again the class of the field in Race 2, with Gillensen taking the runner-up spot this time, nearly nine seconds in arrears and 15 seconds ahead of Brooke, who held off a late challenge from Colin Lehmann (Kawasaki ZX10), that saw him close to within four tenths of a second at the chequered flag.
Janine Davies, who made history by becoming the first lady to finish on the podium in a 1000cc race with her back-to-back third places in Round 1, dropped her BMW S1000RR early in the first race while chasing Robinson for third.
She recovered well to finish fifth in Race 2 after catching Beau Levy (KTM RC8) on the penultimate lap.
Robinson heads the standings in the Super M National Challenge with 90 points, followed by Brooke (60) and Ryan Ottens (50).
The next round of the series will be run at Cape Town's Killarney circuit on 18 May.