Cape Town – Some days are diamonds, says the old song, and the ninth round of the Mike Hopkins Regional Motorcycle series at Killarney on Saturday will certainly count as one of those for Hayden Jonas.
That was when Jonas, who turned 16 in September, became the youngest winner of a main-circuit motorcycle championship in the history of the Western Province Motorcycle Club, by clinching the 600 Challenge aboard his family-sponsored Kawasaki ZX-6R with two races remaining.
But that was only one highlight in a day of entertaining racing that emphasised the depth of talent in the regional motorcycle series. Ronald Slamet, riding the series sponsor’s Kawasaki ZX-10R, took two steps closer to his second consecutive regional championship, while Warren ‘Starfish’ Guantario continued his march towards the Powersport title.
Slamet threw down the gauntlet with the only lap under 1m12s in qualifying, but it was Trevor Westman on the seven-year-old Ocean Sizzler R1 who took the fight to the defending champion in Race 1, diving round the outside into Turn 1 and riding the wheels off the old Yamaha to stay with the leading bunch, each on Kawasaki ZX-10R with a power advantage of at least 20kW on Westman.
Slamet soon took over the lead and pulled away to win by a little more than three seconds, and former regional champion Malcolm Rapson powered past on lap two, but Westman hung in with the leading group, battling wheel to wheel with Gerrit Visser for the final three laps and eventually conceding third by just two tenths of a second at the line.
Less than 10 seconds later, Quintin Ebden (Print It S1000RR), Jonas, David Bolding (PJ One ZX-10R) and Brandon Haupt (MX Clean ZX-10R) finished within 1.3 seconds of each other after a race-long four-way battle.
Even tighter was the fight at the top of Class B, where Jacques Brits (Lize Signs S1000RR), Alex van den Berg (Wicked Tuning CBR600) and Andre Calvert (KC Transport ZX-6R) came home covered by less than half a second.
Calvert had started from the back of the grid after problems in qualifying and did very well to make up 12 places in eight laps, but it almost cost him the 600 Challenge - all Jonas had to do was finish Race 2 to clinch the class title.
RACE 2
Westman got another cracking start to fling his Yamaha across the noises of the opposition into Turn 1, and surprised everybody by holding on to second, despite the best efforts of Rapson and Visser, all the way to the flag.
Slamet put in a deceptively smooth ride to win by more than five seconds, but it looked like a photo-finish for second until Rapson’s Kawasaki suddenly lost power on lap five – and even then Westman had to hold off a late charge from Visser to take second by just 0.054sec.
Haupt was a lonely fourth, six seconds ahead of Jonas, who’d shaken off Ebden, Rapson and Bolding in the closing stages to clinch the 600 Challenge in superb style.
Brits, born-again racer John Oliver (aboard the Glass It R6 in his first competitive outing in five years) and Van den Berg headed Class B, while Jacques Ackermann (Yamaha R1), Bronte Heinrich (Ducati 996 SPS) and Keagan Smith (Kawasaki ZX-6R) led Class C.
POWERSPORT/CLUBMANS/CLASSICS
Graeme Green’s Thruxton ER6F was still giving fuelling problems during qualifying; he was unable to complete a timed lap and had to start both races from the back of the grid. That gave arch-rival Warren Guantario on the Calberg ER6 an unassailable advantage and he romped away to win both races with ease.
Greene, however, put in two superb rides, slicing through the field to finish a distant second in Race1, after a brilliant dice with JP Friedrich’s Calberg SV650 and Brandon Storey, out on the ex-Hayden Jonas Suzuki SV650, and sixth in Race 2 after putting in the fastest lap of the race.
The surprise of the day, however, was Tim Clark, who was suffering so badly from a chest infection that he could only manage four laps in practice on Friday. He qualified seventh on the 1986 Suzuki GSX-R750 and finished sixth in Race 1, behind Paul Medell (Cape Bike Travel SV650) – and then caught fire for the second race.
He came off the line like a man on a mission, dived into Turn 1 alongside Gauntario, and held off everything that the modern Powersports bikes could throw at the Gixer (which is two years older than its rider!) to take second, ahead of Storey, Chris Williams (DEA ER650), Mike van Rensburg (Pragma ER650) and Green.