EmTek Racing News - 2005

03/09/2005 - Race Report from Regional Race 7 - Midvaal

Round 7 Northern Regions - Midvaal International Raceway - 03rd September 2005

The race usually set for Lichentenburg was again moved to an alternate venue and surprise surprise it was allocated to Midvaal. There really needs to be a bit more thought put into the calender as myself and many other riders doubt that Lichtenburg will ever come back onto the calender. The track is clearly a mess and there really need to be some serious money put into it or the track will die.

Now to Midvaal. The track has had an extreme makeover and all we can say is WOW! The guys at Midvaal are really going all out to make the facilities great with the clubhouse looking quite superb inside. Midvaal has even had a makeover on the track. Most of the corners have had new tar layed and there are plans to extend and tar the rest of the track completely. This would make Midvaal one of the most accessable and rider friendly tracks in Gauteng.

Obviously with the new tar there was very little traction and the first sessions saw riders up to 5 seconds off their best times. But as the weekend carried on the rubber started to get layed and there was more traction. I for one had a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new tar but that was me being a prat (more about that later in Botts).

A big shout must go out to the Free State Marshals who religiously trek from Welkom and surrounds to come and marshal for us - guys remember that without the marshals there is no racing, so we need to appreciate thier presence even if sometimes there is a slight hiccup. The stewards and CoC ensured a safe and flowing day.

50cc Highschool

Actually this is a bit of misnomer as some of these little tykes are not even in highschool (in fact I dont think that some of them are able to spell highschool). A new winner crossed the line Heat 1 with Brent Harran finishing in a total time of 8:53 seconds. This was only 3/100th of a second ahead of Laim Forbes and Royce Odendaal. Heat 1 also saw Laim continue his march for fastest laps and he broke the lap record for 50cc at Midvaal by a full 1.1 seconds. The lap record now stands at 1:27:462.

Heat 2 saw Laim back in front with Brent right behind him. Royce somehow disappeared off the radar screens in lap 3. Loodre came in third. Young Devon did very well to come in 5th (he had a 7th in heat 1) which means that he BEAT his brother again.

600cc Silvercup

Luckily our headbangers did not disappoint us as usual. The competition in this class is always tight and yet there are three usual suspects that always land up front. Allan-Jon Venter, Cheyne Herschel and Greg Gildenhuys. And guess what - this is exactly the order they finished in Heat 1. Dane Hellyer unfortunately had a bit of a nasty tumble in the very tricky turn 7 (this claimed about 4 riders for the day where the new divot has been strategically place across the whole the track). Young Shawn Portman (he who is allegedly related to Mr George Portman) is starting to come to terms with his R6 and crossed the line in 6th place. This is his best place so far.

Heat 2 saw a repeat of the front runners with the exception of Greg who finished 4th for some reason. Christopher Leeson came in on the last podium place. Heat 2 saw Shawn drop down to 8th. It seems as if either these youngsters are unfit or as the race was run at 15:30 the track had cooled because the times were off the first heat.

Classics

I usually do not write about the Classics as I normally only contribute towards the classes that I ride and the classes that I have family and friends in. So for once I would like to contribute towards the Classics. Most of these riders are only just getting into their prime age and you would think that they would "take it easy" around the track. No way - ho zay. I like to call this the midlife crisis brigade. The reason being that 18 monster bikes charging for turn 1 with each one trying to outbreak the next guy whose brakes have already faded on the warm up lap means chaos. And so our prediction came true. On lap 6 it seems as if 7 out of 18 riders decided to take an early dump - in other words toss their bikes away. This included an illustrious rider currently campaigning in the National series on a Teazers sponsored Kawasaki - Noel Haarhof. I guess there is a huge difference between a classic and tar burner. Suffice to say Robin Da Silva broke the lap record for Midvaal by going around the track in a scorching 1:15:999 - how close is that from a 1:16. Needless to say Robin won Heat 1 by the preverbial country mile.

Heat 2 say literally only half the field start and this was again won by Robin and Alan Hickey had a great double third place.

Well done guys for providing us with much entertainment.

Superbikes

A field of 21 riders means only one thing - entertainment WSBK style. This is now the biggest class by far and is one hell of a competitive class. When you have strong riders like Clinton Sellar, Gavin Lightfoot and Ryan Ottens in the field it makes for entertainment deluxe.

Heat 1 did not see any records broken as I am sure that most of the field at this level were still coming to terms with some of the new parts of the track. But as is usual Clinton Sellar stormed off the line to take a good win but Gavin was in close attendance in second. The gap was only 1,5 seconds and Master Ottens was 200th behind Gavin. Henk Potgieter had a bit of a hard day at this office as he is usually in around the top 6 places and yet he came in 10th. Peter Swanepoel had a very good ride and came in a respectable 6th in Heat 1 and trailed the leader by a mere 18s.

Heat 2 saw a reversal of the roles. Gavin came in ahead of Clinton by 1,4 seconds with Master Ottens in thrid place. Me thinks Ryan had tyre problems as he was a little off the pace of the front runners by 3,7 seconds. Heat 2 saw the return of Mike Dickenson who started from last place (and I saw him behind Clive de Vos and he did not even creep as most riders do at the back). Mike also managed to post the second quickest time in Heat 2 and who knows what would have happened if he had been able to start from his qualifying position. Peter Swanepoel also managed to get even better and came home in 5th place.

Another mention must be made about Clive de Vos who in only his second race in this class managed to get his best time ever on his Honda CBR1000RR and cracked into the 1:13:217 and he did not finish last. Between heats he either went to the bathroom (and meditated) or he had the proverbial carrot stuck where it usually hurts most men and he found TWO seconds. go figure - two seconds between heats - if only.

BOTTS

What a rotten meeting I had. What a great meeting Andy had.

What a rotten meeting newcomer Justin had. What a great meeting everyone else had.

The Friday practise started off fantastic by unpacking our transporter (which took us an hour to get into position). Once unloaded the fun began. Gilbert took his 999 out for the first session (by now it was already 11am) only to have the fuel pipes come loose again - a la Phakisa. Managed a whole 2 laps. Came in and tried to repair the bike - this is usually a sight to behold. An Accountant trying to work with tools does not make a pretty sight. Anycase Wayne Barrington-Smith kindly assisted me in putting the pipes back on.

Session two went out (by now it is 13:30) and the pipes came off again - after two laps. Whoopy.

Came back in and by this stage Ricky had arrived. Made some minor modifications to the fuel system and went out to try and practice again - by now it was 16:00 and I had decided to put new tyres on to scrub. Managed only two laps and felt a serious vibration coming through the handle bars and seat. Came in and asked Ricky to check for me. He rode it out and came back not looking at all happy - diagnosis. Possibly run the big end bearings or the crankshaft - AGAIN. Tyres came off and were literally plonked straight onto the sparebike being a 996s. Setup time - zero. To make the day seem even more sad Brian Moldenhauer (who was catching me hand over fist) had a similar experience with his bike also having its bearigs seize. This is most unusual as the Aprilia is a very reliable bike.

Andy was also not getting much practise as all the major classes were lumped to gether with the exception of the 50cc and Derbi's in a separate class.

I am sure that it was Friday the 13th

Heat 1 Saturday morning

After a crap qualifying (11th) and Andy in 9th I had my usual good pull off. Managed to get up to at least 7th by the first corner. But this is where the rider pretty much stayed. Then one after another the riders would pass down the back straight and then it happened - Andy passed me on the brakes on lap 6. That Aprilia is going to be protested against for the turbo charger.

So after zero practice on Friday, zero setup on spare bike and over riding the poor thing the inevitable happened. I was lapped by Julian on lap 9 on the main straight and usually Otto is in close attendance so I moved over off the racing line to give space and touched the "dirty part" of the track and whoops - DOWN I WENT.

Unlucky for me though I managed to bang my knee hard enough to keep me off the bike for Heat 2.

Julian went on to score another well earned victory albeit beating his own best times - new lap record 1:07:407. Otto came in 2nd and a newcomer to the front was Wayne Prince - he must really be enjoying the Carbon Rims I sold him because now he has moved right up the ladder since then.

Wayne shelley again put in a good performance with his tub and came in 4th for Heat 1. Andy was 8th.

Heat 2

Julian again did his double by romping home by a huge margin - 20 seconds. Otto came in second and Benji back to form in Third. Wayne came in 4th. All the times were somewhat off the first heat though. Andy came in 9th.

Newcomer Justin Joubert had a torrid weekend. After crashing Andy's pride and joy Honda SP1 he battled consistently throughout the weekend. The crash surely did affect his riding. After 2 laps he pulled in.

What a crap weekend and one I hope does not happen again in the future. I will be missing the next round at Midvaal (17th November) but hopefully will be fully fit for Phakisa on the 1st October.

Se ya all.

Gilbert Parsons

 

 

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