EmTek Racing News - 2005

23/04/2005 - Race report from Regional Race 3 - Phakisa

Regional Racing 23rd April 2005

Phakisa once again hosted the third round of the Northern Regions Regional Championship in what could best be described as inclement weather. Friday practise saw all the classes having a good day and setting up bikes for dry weather conditions. This was fine for some of the classes but there were one or two surprises for two classes in particular - 50cc High School and BOTTS.

For the first time since EmTek Racing can remember the Superbike class attracted the most entries ever for a class - a total of 58 original entries were received. Our little "white book" says that the grid is only allowed to accommodate 38 riders and that entries received after the original 38 are declined an entry.

Well our enlightened Clerk of the Course felt that in order to be fair and accommodate the huge number of National Riders that had entered into what is essentially a Regional race certain concessions were made - a big Thanks to George Portman for his fair handling of the debacle. The Superbike class was split into two classes - all those that qualified within the 107% of pole were entered into the main class and those that did not achieve this were entered into the BOTTS class - albeit with no points but great trophies - go figure.

As it was there was also a large field for BOTTS which made for a great spectacle of racing of the large capacity machines.

BOTTS

This class again proved to provide a must for entertainment. The first heat was held in appalling conditions and was declared a "wet race" - meaning that wet tyres were the order of the day and that the racing will not be stopped due to rain. To make matters worse Gilbert did not even qualify as he had a fuel pipe come off halfway through the first corner - meaning that he had to start at the very back of the grid - in wets - with absolutely no track time for setup over the last two days. Boy, talk about stacking the options against a person.

Heat 1 saw Julian and the usual suspects flying off the line with Otto Graven taking the unusual step of riding with full slicks on a very wet track. It was quite entertaining to watch his 180bhp Ducati bucking and barking through the first couple of turns. Otto did settle down and managed a credable third in heat 1. A person on a charge was the Namibian contingent with "oom Andries" flying through the field like a hot knife in soft butter. Andries finished in second place and was well deserved. Gilbert got his usual blinding start from the back and managed to creep up to 9th when the wet tyres started playing up in the dry race line. Still Gilbert pushed on and finished in a hard earned 6th place. Visibility was a major problem with visors misting up and road muck spat up onto the outside of the visor - very difficult.

Andy started well down the order on his Aprilia which sported a new EmTek Racing GP pipe. The objective was to scare the competition into taking refuge when this "noise" came from behind. The sound of the Aprilia in full flight with that pipe is just too awesome. There was a down side to this in that the bike was not correctly remapped for the pipe and there was a huge "hole" at the 6-8k rev range which just happens to be the optimum cornering revs - so Andy was at a bit of a disadvantage here. Still he finished in the top 10 with a 9th.

Heat 2 was a totally different story. The track had completely dried out and all riders reverted back to plan A - that is dry tyres they are consistant with. Julian flew off the start as well as Otto but there was one rider who had a particularly blinding start and that was Gilbert. From 6th on the grid he was second by the first corner and continued to hound Julian all the way to lap 4 when a false neutral was encountered going into turn turn 5. Seven riders got past Gilbert and he was 9th by lap 6. Again he crawled his way back into contention and finished 6th again. The race however was thoroughly enjoyed by all and at one point there were five riders all contesting corner one. There were many mini-battles throughout the race and Andy again proved that he only starts to really race after 75% of the race has gone. His fastest lap of the day was on lap 10 of the second heat.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the track and the weather the lap records did not tumble as has become custommary for Regional racing.

Superbikes

This was a fantastic race to watch as a spectator. There were 40 bikes allocated to every slot on the grid - can you imagine a National with 58 entries and every slot taken. Clinton Sellar, Sheridan Morais, Graeme Van Bredaar and Trevor Crookes as well as a number of other National riders were all in attendance at this race. The race to the first corner was won by Shez but Mike Dickenson had a fantastic start to be right on the back wheel of Shez. This is how the race progressed with Mike putting in a good showing as well as Clinton Sellar. Shez as is usual was pulling bike lengths after each lap and "retired" after lap 9. Clint went on to win Heat 1.

Heat 2 saw Shez starting down in 30th position and was already in 5th by the first corner - to this day I still do not know how he did that!

Again Mike, Clint, Shez and Graeme fought all the way through to the end when again Shez pulled in on lap 9 with Clint going on to win the double for the day.

Well done Clint - we are sure that this days racing will stand you in good stead for the upcoming National event.

A shout out must go to Arushan Moodley who braved the atrocious weather conditions to get some saddle time with his injury still fresh in his mind. Arushan shattered his leg in a Supermotard race and is still recovering. The leg was broken in three places including the Tibia and Fibia (not sure of correct spelling mind you).

As mentioned before the lap times were not where they usually are due to the strange track conditions but we are sure that the National event will see times tumble again.

Other Classes

For all the other classes there was great racing as well except that the Classics and 50cc classes did not have transponders so EmTek Racing is unable to update their times and positions until we receive official results from MSA. This means that there will a break in the "lap timing" for individuals wanting to track their best lap times for Phakisa. The 600cc Supersport class seems to be getting more and more competitive as well there being more underhanded shenanigans going on. Guys and Gals - this is the start of some careers and as such the approach taken by your mechanics, managers and parents reflects directly on your code of ethics - so please stick to the rules.

Once again thanks to Terry Moss Timing for the timing of the event.

Gilbert Parsons

 

 

This page was last updated on 06-06-2008.