Seller races to double victory
WINNER SHATTERS OVERALL KYALAMI LAP RECORD IN SECOND RACE ON HIS YAMAHA R1 Heinrich Rheeder, who has raced at every incarnation of Kyalami, also claimed a weekend double.
Two DEOD SuperGP races provided the highlights of the weekend’s Bike Festival at Kyalami, with a large crowd treated to brilliant racing and a new circuit motorcycle lap record.
Friday afternoon’s official qualifying session provided a surprise when veteran Lance Isaacs put his SupaBets BMW S1000RR on pole position, sharing the front row of the grid with championship leader Clint Seller (MiWay Yamaha R1) and Greg Gildenhuys (Autohaus Kawasaki ZX10R).
Saturday’s opening race saw Isaacs and Seller pull away from the rest of the field, while indulging in a ferocious battle for the lead.
They swapped the front place three times during the first 12 laps, before Isaacs lost the front end of his BMW going into Clubhouse Corner and fell at some 150 km/h.
That left Seller to take an easy victory.
Gildenhuys took second place ahead of a hard-charging Michael White (Consortium Shipping Yamaha R1), who blasted through the field from ninth place to fill the final podium place.
Behind the leading trio, Brandon Goode (Linex Yamaha R1) led the rest of the pack home, followed over the line by AJ Venter (Hygenica Yamaha R1) and David McFadden (RPM Centre BMW S1000RR).
Dylan Barnard (Consortium Shipping Yamaha R1), Garrick Vlok (Diamond Core Drilling Yamaha R1), Nicolas Kershaw (Tsunami Beach Bar Yamaha R1) and Morne Geldenhuis (Hi-Tech Yamaha R1) rounded out the top 10.
SuperMasters championship leader Hendrik de Bruin (Yamaha R1) was eliminated when his bike had a rear tyre problem. This left 010-492-5281
Edited by André de Kock andrédk@citizen.co.za
Heinrich Rheeder (Rheeder BMW S1000RR) to claim the win from Justin Gillesen (Sandton BMW S1000RR) and Johnny Krieger (Hygenica Yamaha R1).
Seller was unstoppable on Sunday, leading the weekend’s second race from start to finish.
In the process he made history by setting the new Kyalami circuit’s quickest ever lap, with a time of 1 minute, 4.268 seconds.
A recovered Isaacs just managed to keep Gildenhuys behind him to take second place.
The battle for fourth went the way of Goode who managed to keep White and Venter behind him when it mattered.
David McFadden had a lonely ride to seventh ahead of Garrick Vlok, Daryn Upton and Nicolas Kershaw.
SuperMasters championship leader Hendrik de Bruin was back in action after his tyre troubles of Saturday.
However, he could not stop Heinrich Rheeder – the only rider to have raced at every incarnation of Kyalami – from claiming the weekend double.
The 1 000cc class riders will have a two-week break before they rejoin the other classes that make up the 2017 DEOD SuperGP Championship at the Red Star Raceway near Delmas on June 10.