Feature: Killarney 8 Hour
Every year, motorcycle riders descend on the most unlikely of circuits, Killarney Raceway’s tight and twisty go-kart track, for a manic 8 Hour endurance race. We tag along for the ride ...
An endurance race is the truest test of man and machine, be it the Dakar Rally, 24 Hours of Le Mans or any of the classic cross-continental races like the Carrera Panamericana, Mille Miglia and Targa Florio. With the return of the Kyalami 9 Hour, South Africa has once again been put on the map of top-level international endurance racing. However, back in Cape Town, another type of endurance race has been running for more than two decades.
What originally started as the Killarney 2 Hour for motorcycles has grown into a much longer and tougher eight-hour race held every year during the second week of December. The motorcycles used for the event are Honda CBR150RS and we joined Trevor Westman from Project Sixty60 and his team-mates, Michael White and Slade van Niekerk, as one of the favourites to win the event outright.
SMALL BIKES, BIG RACING
To the untrained eye, these small bikes might look inferior to full-blown large-capacity ra‐ cing motorcycles. However, once you see how these guys ride them, you soon realise they are as capable as the big bikes in terms of handling. Trevor, Michael and Slade all have successful superbike racing careers behind them but I could sense they plan, execute and race this event with the same level of professionalism as they do any event.
Before the race, there was a qualifying session and Michael put the team in a respectable third place on the grid. In proper endurance-racing fashion, it is a Le Mansstyle start, which means all the bikes are held in place by a team member on the one side of the track, while the riders stand on the opposite side ready to run across the track, jump on and go when the flag drops. Michael took the tricky first stint for the Sixty60 team.
It was a busy, mad dash into the first corner as the front runners tried to grab the initiative early in the race. While the riders quickly settled into a rhythm, overtaking continued at almost every corner of every lap in the early running. Not long into the race, just in front of the pit exit, Michael went off and hit the low tyre barrier. Thankfully, he was uninjured – it’s impressive how these experienced riders often walk away unscathed – but the frustration of the crash was immediately visible. The team’s support crew quickly swung into action and the bike was brought back to the pits and stripped down. There was some minor cosmetic damage but, more importantly, the front forks were bent which meant a potentially race-ending scenario.
After a few panicked phone calls by Trevor’s father and brother-in-law, the team tracked down new front forks and just like that, the bike was reassembled. It is clear they have done this before! Trevor has been racing this event for 20 consecutive years and was part of the winning team 12 times and on the podium a few more. I asked him why a race like this excites him: “For me, it starts by building a good foundation as a team and then working together. It might be more work with these small bikes on this short track but on the whole the larger superbikes definitely take more out of you. A big bike will destroy you if you had to race it for eight hours.”
After little more than an hour of repair time, the team headed out again and immedi‐ ately were back on the pace, overtaking the other riders. Up in the stands, you can’t help but look at the top riders and marvel at how they let the bike flow from apex to apex. It’s
not unlike watching a sort of man-machine ballet as they moved from side to side on the motorcycle, scraping their knees and some‐ times elbows on the asphalt.
Apart from lapping as quickly and consist‐ ently as possible, there is a lot of behind-thescenes work going into the planning of when exactly to refuel. These 150 cc motorcycles are light on fuel, requiring only a few fill-ups throughout the race, but every one counts. Although, the race is not without its excite‐ ment. A few riders have minor incidents and the safety bike heads out regularly but there are seldom any major injuries. It also seems COVID-19 has played its part as fewer teams entered in 2020 than previously. The result is that, with fewer bikes on the track, the racers have marginally more breathing space, limiting the possibility of accidents.
Realistically, in any endurance race, you are not going to claw back a full hour but, in the coming laps until the chequered flag fell at 18:00 that evening, the team clawed back dozens of laps. They might have been 93 laps behind when they rejoined the race but they were flat out and set a lap record of 48,023 seconds in the sixth hour. This was improved upon later when Slade van Niekerk went even quicker with a blistering lap time of 47,863 seconds.
The winning team was Jonny Towers’ RST Team. Being one of the favourites, they completed 551 laps. I must admit to feeling just a little jealous of these guys. They are by no means professional Motogp racers but the level of talent, enthusiasm, ingenuity and ca‐ maraderie in the face of adversity makes you want to be part of it … to be able to ride as they do. When the next Killarney 8 Hour race takes place, do yourself a favour and go see how these riders pilot their machines with precision and vigour around a track.
You won’t be disappointed.