EmTek Racing News - 2005

09/07/2005 - Race Report from Regional Race 5 - Zwartkops

Round 5 Northern Regions Motorcycle Championship

It is hard to believe that we are already in July and we have only had 5 races so far. It actually feels more like a 20 so far. Actually it is not so bad it is just that this author is strictly a SWR (Summer Weather Rider) and I truly dislike Winter intensely. The thought of going out on a cold wintery morning to qualify in BOTTS turns me on like our Health Minister turns a baby outpatient into a dead patient.

So lets start

First of all we have to mention that Zwartkops attracted the usual 200 odd entries which included a number of the National fully paid for, kitted out, sponsored and pampered Factory riders (can I make it any more plainer than that). Now normally we look forward to having their presence as it truly lifts the game and the spirit of the days racing as we all get to learn from the maestros. That is until it all goes PEAR shaped at the chequered flag.

A number of the National riders traditionally either pull in on the last lap or generally withdraw their entries for the race after the Friday practice.

This was done by First Tech rider Sheridan Morais, Staman Automatic/M24 rider Bradley Stark and iMtech rider Noel Haarhoff. Unfortunately most of the other factory riders decided to take points away from the struggling Regional riders still trying to make a mark in the championship. Anyway that burning point is up for debate at a later stage and any feedback would be most welcome regarding this.

Friday Practice Day

Strange day this. For some unknown reason (whether it was the track, the tyres or inexperience of riders) there were a number of crashes that took place in the Superbike class and in fact only 10 laps were concluded by lunch time (happy prayer hour for some). I suppose this is bound to happen when you get 50 entries for Superbikes, 25 entries for BOTTS combine the two and then everyone wants to impress the next one and they forget that it is only a 2,5km track - in other words there is only an effective 33 metres of tarmac for each bike. This does not compute. I truly believe that the officials should consider running practice days according to the race schedule ie based on your class entry.

We must make mention of the plight of Mitch McAllister who has invested in one of the most beautiful machines on the market today. A new MV Augusta F4 1000cc which was nicely turned out. Unfortunately for Mitch his journey from Nelspruit to Pretoria was interrupted by a massive crash which saw the MV spitting its guts out and coming back to pits on a flatbed trailer. It was in a very sorry state and all this happened in the first session of the day in the second lap without even a wheel turned in anger for the race. Mitch did get hurt and we all wish him a speedy recovery and we hope to see him back on the bike soon.

It was not soon thereafter that the factory rider Darryn Upton highsided exiting the by now "infamous turn 7 first left hander cold tyre eater" and dumped his (scratch that Lance's bike) which in turn spilled all its oil out on the track. That pretty much concluded the morning session.

The afternoon saw the officials finally splitting the Superbike and Botts and we were actually able to now string together more than 3 laps (I actually think that these guys should come for lessons to the BOTTS for training in - How NOT to red flag a session 101).

Saturday Race Day - 9th July 2005

Considering the number of entries for the day the racing went unexpectedly well. The program ran slightly behind schedule but all racing was concluded on time and a big shout must go out to the Marshals and Timekeepers for keeping the day going smoothly (only exception was the second heat for BOTTS grid positions were messed up again).

50cc Highschool

Here are the kamikazi pilots in training. These guys (and gals) have absolutely no fear and words like braking, cornering - hell even the end of the race is not good enough and they just want to haul ass as fast as the little pistons can take them. Our young prodigy Camryn Saunders went out in warm up and tried desperately to find out which way the track went and where the brake markers were. This is the first time he has raced here. He started circulating in the 1m,58s region and managed to get into the low 1m,44s. Cameron had finally cracked it into the top 10 with a tenth overall for the day. Well done Camzy. He will definitely catch his older cousins in the next season. Another one to watch out for is Devon Odendaal. His lap times are getting very close to Royce (in fact Devon's times were quicker in heat 1), who has had three more years of racing and he needs to move up into the next class. Devon is going to give his big brother a wake up call very soon and he has a natural talent - and that is according to his Ganna. And if Ganna says so, it is so.

600cc Silvercup

These guys are actually the instructors for the 50cc kids on - How to become a fully trained Kamakazi pilot 101? They are truly nuts. There were 32 entries for this class and each rider has his/her own agenda as to how they are going bump/t-bone/grill/push/barge their way to the front - nothing like the gentleman's game of BOTTS.

Qualifying was lead by the usual suspects being Allan-Jon and Greg. The first two rows were separated by 4/100th of a second. Heat 1 saw Allan-Jon scrape home ahead of Greg Gildenhuys by two seconds, followed by young Cheyne Hershel - The race was unfortunately red flagged but got underway very quickly. Heat 2 was again won by Allan-Jon and Greg and in came Tertius in third.

Superbikes

What more can be said of this class. An enormous entry list of 52 official entries and there was no letting up of their capacity to crash and scrap bikes at an alarming rate. Qualifying was as expected with the Factory Suzuki team on the front row with Trevor Crookes and Hudson Kennaugh in the first two slots respectively. Mike Dickenson managed a third place on the grid. These qualifying times were a bit off the official lap record but that is for a later discussion. An interesting point to note is that from position 5 to 15 all competitors were within 1,5 seconds of each other. Extremely close qualifying all in the 1,06's.

The usual suspects in the Regional campaign did well to qualify near the front with Ryan Ottens qualifying in a respectable 4th. Unfortunately the current champion Gavin Lightfoot managed to qualify in 12th place and this is possibly as a result of his previous weeks major crash which nearly saw his bike being written off. There was extensive damage to the bike and we are sure that there was parts missing from the bike for the race.

Race 1 - Hudson lead from start to finish with no-one else in between. Oh and he smashed the lap record - whoopee. Seriously guys - do you need another Regional trophy. However we must say that Hudson rode like the devil was asking him to make another payment on his BMW Z4 as he managed to lap the circuit in a ball breaking, eye popping, dick wacking 1m 02,866s. That is awesome riding and it will take a brave soul to try and better that lap record. We will see what the Nationals will bring.    

Race 1 was red flagged for our most layed back and well liked rider Gary Brider who took his beautifully prepared Yamaha R1 and tried to turn it into a pumpkin. This does not work Gary but we do hope that you get well soon.

Race 2 - Not much to say really. Hudson won (again). He did however have some traction problem in the very fast turn 3 with the back poggoing like Pinocchio on steroids. This was evident in his times as they were back down in the 1,03's.

Congratulations to Clive De Vos (Rossi De Vossie) for successfully completing his first race.

BOTTS

This was a strange event. Qualifying saw our intrepid leaders Julian and Otto qualify on the front row with newcomer (to the front row that is) Antonio Pereira in 3rd. Another newcomer to the series on what can only be described as "an interesting design in fluid dynamics which makes the bike a brick" is Wayne Shelley on a Honda VTR Firestorm. This class is becoming so serious with itself that the competitors have the enviable position to slog it out with cheque books rather than race. We all love capitalism in this country - as this pays for our so called racing. Well Wayne really showed what a determine rider can do with a bucket of bolts like the Firestorm. This class also plays host to one of the most fascinating personalities that is riding at the moment and that is Wayne Prince. We must take out hats off to Wayne who perseveres on the track handicapped by riding with one hand at his disposal. All controls are managed from the left handle bar and the enormous amount of concentration and talent required to ride one handed (and left handed at that) is absolutely amazing. Crickey half the field can't even ride with both hands steering them in the right direction - can you imagine.

Well done Wayne.

Race 1 - All got off to a clean start with Gilbert flying from 8th on the grid to 3rd by turn one. This however was where the "clean start" ended. Otto went wide and tried to take a corner that was non-existent and basically rode over Julian to get into turn 2. As we all know 2 does not go into 1 just yet (maybe our government will insist on changing math's as well as history) and they collided with the usual results. Gilbert on #41 held back for the crash and then flew past to take the lead from there on. Unfortunately it does not end with the words ...he took the lead to the end. Unfortunately he was overtaken by Antonio and then by Benji and thought no way hozay am I going to give up this lead. By out breaking himself he hit a false neutral and locked up the back wheel thereby pushing the bike into the gravel trap in turn 5 (only three corners from the end) and this effectively screwed up his chance of a maiden win/podium. Gilbert ended up 8th. Andy had a much better start than his usual "wait for breakfast" start and managed to claw his way up the ladder from 15th on the grid to finish in 10th. Andy also managed his best lap times by getting into the 1m,09,0s and oh so nearly got into the 8's. At least the race was won by another virgin - Antonio Pereira. Ever since he invested in a proper racing bike his lap times have improved dramatically.

Well done Antonio.

Race 2 - The usual shenanigans on the grid prevailed as the "incorrectly corrected signed off grid sheets" were used. Eventually the officials listened to our plea and requested the correct grid sheet.

Unfortunately the warm up lap produced what must be the most spectacular and most/second most expensive crash of the whole weekend. Young Benjamin Du Plessis riding a Ducati 998RS (that is customer factory bike from Italy to you and me) either had brain fade (unlikely) or as we believe had a caliper work itself loose and jam in the front wheels (and this writer has had the pleasure of that exact type of crash at the exact same track). The bike over-ended bringing Benji down hard but the bike cartwheeled over itself. Upon impact the bike burst into flames and now there is one very sorry looking Ducati Corsa sitting in Edenvale. The race was delayed as the track had to be cleaned from the chemicals used to dowse the flames.

We finally got off and Gilbert again got a blinding start by getting into 3rd from 6th on the grid. This time however his bike was not handling as well as the first heat and gradually fell back until the lap 3. Then a full dive into the final turn by Danie Doubel on an Aprilia saw him take a dive into the gravel trap but unfortunately he crashed right on the front wheel of Gilbert who had to take evasive action -again going wide to let 5 odd bikes through. Andy also progressed through the field and at one point managed to take two riders into turn 5 and himself moving up the ladder to finish in 8th position - well done Andy. Unfortunately the race was marred by another incident involving Otto Graven who this time came together with Piet Potgieter on the last lap on the third last corner. So neither was able to score points and Piet sustained multiple fractures to the leg.

Gilbert finished 6th overall for the day and Andy 9th.

On a more serious note, most of the BOTTS riders are of the opinion that certain riders are becoming a danger to themself and other riders and may need some form of censuring. After riding under CoC observation for t-boning Brian Taylor and then hitting into the back of Gilbert Parsons at Pietersburg. He was deemed to be dangerous and reckless. The very next race the same rider was involved in two further incidents, with Julian in Race 1 and Piet in Race 2. It is in the opinion of this observer that this is definitely not in the spirit of the racing and especially BOTTS which is ridden mainly by businessmen with their own business's/children/nagging wives etc and they all have responsibilities. If head banging and barging is what a person thrives on then that is exactly what Superbikes and Nationals are there for. BOTTS is a more gentlemen's class and as such we generally try not to hospitalize our opposition. Do not get us wrong in that we will defend our positions vigorously but not the point of endangerment. Please guys let us have clean, fun racing for the future.

I would like to hear all sides of the story and any input from any other riders in order to determine if this is just a case of back luck or bad riding - please mal your comments to: info@emtekracing.co.za - I will get all the mail.

See you all at Phakisa 6th August and let us hope for warmer climes.

Guest Writer / Team Supporter

 

 

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