Huge Killarney spectacle
BLISTERING: SELLER SETS NEW MOTORCYCLE LAP RECORD ON HIS R1
Close racing for a large crowd marks Exteme Festival’s visit to Cape Town.
The 2017 Extreme Festival visited Cape Town on Saturday to entertain a large crowd at the Killarney circuit with close racing, huge spectacle and a touch of new history.
Officially, the day’s top billing belonged to the Sasol Global Touring Car brigade, where the Sasol BMW team’s Gennaro Bonafede reigned supreme.
Bonafede gave notice of his winning intentions on Friday afternoon, when he set the quickest lap times during the official qualifying session.
He went on to dominate both of Saturday’s races in the BMW, finishing ahead of Simon Moss (Engen Xtreme Audi) on both occasions.
The closest confrontations happened in the GTC2 class, where Keagan Masters (VW Motorsport Golf) took a narrow opening race victory over Trevor Bland (TB VW Golf) and Mandla Mdakane (VW Motorsport Golf).
Masters and Bland again took the two top places in race two, but Mdakane was disqualified for a technical infringement, leaving Charl Smalberger (Indy Oil VW Golf) on the final podium step.
Veteran racer Devin Robertson (Payen Polo) returned to the Engen Volkswagen Cup arena for a once-off drive, and he promptly won the day’s opening race.
He was chased to the flag by Shaun la Reservee (Alpine Motors Polo) and Juan Gerber (Glasfit Polo).
Roberton led the second race right up to the final corner, when his car and the Unniversal Health Polo of Jeffrey Kruger clashed, sending both cars spinning into the Western Cape flora.
La Reservee took the victory, followed by Clinton Bezuidenhout (Glyco Polo) and Tasmin Pepper (Campos Transport Polo).
Clinton Seller (Miway Yamaha R1) won both the SuperGP races, followed by David McFadden (RPM Centre BMW).
Lance Isaacs (SupaBets BMW) and Greg Gildenhuys (Autohaus Kawasaki) took turns in the third places, respectively.
Seller made history in the first race when he set the quickest motorcycle lap of Killarney’s history with a time of 1 minute 10.251 seconds, at an average speed of 168 km/h.
Local hero Hayden Jonas (Samurai Kawaski ZX6R) won the opening Super600 race from Steven Odendaal (Petra Yamaha R6) and Adolf Boshoff (Miway Yamaha R6).
Race two was an extremely close affair, with winner Odendaal, Jonas and Boshoff covered by less than a second over the finish line.
Sam Lochoff (KTM) took part in his first Super Junior race, and promptly won it, finishing ahead of Taric van der Merwe (KTM) and Tyreece Roberts (KTM).
Lochoff led race two until he outbraked himself at the end of the pit straight and fell.
That left Ricardo Otto (Inex KTM) to win from Roberts and Van der Merwe.
Julian van der Watt (Mygale) won both the Investchem F1600 races from Stuart White (Fan- tastic Mygale) and Alex Gillespie (ERP Trucking Mygale).
Local club member Johan Engelbrecht (JogaJoga Porsche GT2) won the first Crossley & Webb sports car race, followed by Peter van der Spuy (Juno Nissan) and Colin Pitt (Tricera Juno Honda).
In race two, Engelbrecht was chased to the flag by Craig Jarvis (Panacea Dodge Viper) and Van der Spuy.
The next round of the 2017 Extreme Festival series will be at Kyalami on Saturday, April 22.