Record crowds at Cape Regionals
THE all-time record (regional) crowd that attended the Wingfield Motors sponsored (Flower) Power Series meeting at Killarney on Saturday, was treated to a day of exciting racing, flavoured by more than the usual number of upsets.
Highlights included Dawie Joubert’s unexpected victory in the first Crossley and Webb Sports and GT event, with this coming shortly after his Lotus Exige had appeared to have been terminally trashed in a horror accident during the most recent round of the Series.
Another was veteran Jesse Huggett’s overall victory in the Midas Clubman events when yet another display of consistent error free driving in his VW Jetta, netted him two hard-fought second places.
But while the young Marco Busi also did well to snatch the Bold Marine GTi Challenge prime award, Gareth Easom, who had earlier claimed pole position on the Makita Formula Supercar grid, had any chance of a possible victory denied by a rev robbing misfire that manifested itself on the penultimate lap and slowed him dramatically. Overall Results (in classes): Crossley and Webb Sports & GT: Class A: Francis Carruthers. B) Nicky Dicks. C) Clinton Thorne. D) Sean McCarthy. E) Steve Humble.
Midas Clubman: Class A) Jesse Huggett. B) Mike Veniet. C) Philip Booysen. D) Eugene van Zyl. E) Francois van Tonder. F) George Neethling.
V8 Masters: Gold class: Richard Schreuder. Silver class) Brian Evans.
Makita Formula Supercars: Gold class: Dayne Angel. Silver class) Rico Barlow. Bronze class) Melchior Huskisson.
Mutlu Batteries Classic Cars: Class S: Trevor Momberg. A) Sandro Biccari. B) Jared Thomson. C) Herman de Kock. D) Jaco de Kock. E) Francois Groenewald.
Cars Unlimited Fine Cars: Overall: Eric van der Merwe. Index of Performance) Jaco Lambert.
Bold Marine GTi Challenge: Class A: Marco Busi. B) Zaki Hendricks. C) Paul Simon.
The eighth round of the Wing- field Motors Power Series will be held at Killarney on September 26.
In two-wheeled racing at Killarney on Saturday, David McFadden gave the Suzuki South GSX-R1000 L5 a dream debut at round seven of the Mike Hopkins Regional motorcycle series, winning overall for the day after two incredibly closefought battles with defending champion Ronald Slamet on the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R.
McFadden, visibly down on top end, was losing ground on the straights but making it up under braking and in the tight sections of the circuit, as the two swopped places at least once on every lap of race one, screaming out of Turn 5 practically side by side on the last time round – but it was Slamet who was ahead by just 0.05sec at the line.
Race two was, if anything, even more intense as McFadden and Slamet carved each other up at the end of every straight.
In mid-race Slamet lost about five bike-lengths to the Suzuki, but was able to reel him in with two laps to go.
He made the decisive move going down into turn five, only to have the door slammed smartly in his face as McFadden dived round the outside. Slamet never got another chance and came home about a second adrift after one of the best - and hardest - rides of his career.
Calberg team-mates JP Friederich and Warren Guantario again dominated Powersport proceedings, banging elbows and fairings for eight laps and finishing with Friederich just 0.04sec ahead, 14 seconds clear of third-placed Mike van Rensburg on the MVR ER6. The first half of race two was even tighter, but Guantario’s ER6 seemed to lose pace in the closing stages and Friederich was able to open a gap of 0.7 secs at the line.