EmTek Racing News - 2005

25/09/2005 - Cole - Race report from Queensland - OZ

Round 9 Northern Regions - Phakisa Freeway - 01st October 2005

Phakisa Freeway in Welkom hosted the 9th round of the Northern Regions Regional Racing which was held on a blustery but hot 1st October. As you may have noticed there was no race report from myself for the Midvaal round on 17th September as a result of a family tragedy in New Zealand.

I do however believe that there were numerous crashes on the day as well as soem very good racing but unfortunately I will never know - we definately need to get more TV coverage of this form of racing. Other news from Midvaal was that there is a new PA system in operation and the pit allocation worked to expectation. In the Botts Otto Graven has taken delivery of his new 999R which had its debut crash in its first race - dont worry Otto it only gets better from here as the 999 needs much setup for the front end. Ask Julian and myself - I crashed mine on the first lap of the first time out on the bike.

Well onto Round 9

Firstly Phakisa is to me and many other competitors out there one of the most fantastic racing circuits (and only true 4,2km circuit for us Regional riders) we have in South Africa and the more we can support it the better, as we would not want this great facility to go to ruin - like some of the other tracks. The reason I mention this is because I have only one small gripe  - the ablutions. Originally this venue had THE best toilet and shower facilities I can think of and Phakisa makes Kyalami and Lichtenburg look like shit boxes - but for some unknown reason they have been vandalised and toilet seats taken home as momentos. I am sure that it is not the riders or their families as we generally appreciate these types of facilities (my suspicions are the vagrants that drift through), but I must still say it is sad that there are people out there that still think that ripping toilet seats off and damaging the showers is good fun - well it aint. We need to appreciate and preserve what we have.

On a more lighter note I would like to continue with the voice of our esteemed CoC, Mr Portman. We must really thank the Marshalls and the MSA stewards and officials that allow our racing to take place at all and in safe environment (and they also do warn you of impending doom as I and many other competitors found out to our detriment - more about that later). Without these people our day at Phakisa would have been merely a track school for which there would be no points awarded, trophy's presented and championships to be won.

Well done guys and Thanks for undertaking this often lonely job for little or no reward.

What was a little unexpected for Phakisa was the low number of entries at this event. I think that with September holding two rounds within two weeks of each other and then Phakisa again two weeks later, the cost of competing has reared its ugly head. Some competitors also compete at National elvel which makes the budget even more tighter and difficult to fund.

It is such a pity that none of the large multi-nationals lend a helping hand by, say, assisting with entries or fuel etc, which I don't think would amount to more than R100k (ie the tea and coffee budget for a month for some companies). SA needs these companies to help nurture our foundation for racing so that sponsors are found for individuals and teams for the future.

50cc Highschool

There were a few surprises in the 50cc class as some of the usual suspects normally at the front were not there. Brent Harran made a clean sweep of the day by bagging the double with Liam Forbes in second and Loodre in third. However most of the riders did achieve better personal lap times and these are available on the riders pages for review.

Heat 2 saw Stephen Odendaal come in second with Jordan Weaving coming in a distant third. For some reason Liam came in 8th which means that he only achieved an eighth overall. Jordan Weaving got second overall and Anthony Shelly a well earned third for the day.

No lap records were broken in this class.

600cc Silvercup

The 600cc class was a bit of a disappointment in terms of entrants but this is to be expected due to the very close dates set on the calender. Many of the riders who crashed at Midvaal two weeks ago were either still injured or had no funds for repairs, tyres and transport etc. So there were a total of only 11 entrants and 10 finishers in both heats. Heat 1 saw Greg, Cheyne and Allan-Jon take the top steps respectively and Heat 2 saw Cheyene, Greg and Allan-Jon complete the podium - again. These three riders have simply stormed away from the rest of the pack for this year so there will be a lot of head scratching going on for next year. There were no lap records broken but the second heat saw the top three come across the line within 400th of a second between them - really close racing.

As mentioned in the opening paragraph Donovan Taylor fell victim to the roving camera ie JUMP START.

Cheyne therefore picks up the win for the day. Allan-Jon still leads the pack with one round left (which has three heats), so the championship is still up for grabs.

Classics

The Classics had an even worse number of entrants being a total of seven. Heat 2 only had six finishers which means that this may not be declared a result as there has to be a minimum of eight entrants for a result to be called. For the record Robin Da Silva won both heats.

Derbi's

Here big brother was watching big time. Practically the entire front row finishers were penalised for jump starts. Janine and Steven were docked 10 points each in Heat 1. According to the records Janine had secured her very first win overall in Derbi's at Midvaal and then the heat 1 win evapourated to 6th in a split second. Maybe the pressure was on. The second heat saw the lap record tumble by a 1 second margin and Charl van Niekerk now holds the record at 2:33:950 in lap 4.

Steven made up for his jump start by finishing second again. Janine managed a 7th leaving her with a 7th overall for the day. Well done to Charl, Nicholas and Kent for their efforts.

Powersports

Again the poor turn out meant that there were only 10 entrants on the grid for this class. It still however produced some classic racing with Michael Short taking the win in heat 1 and Christo and Gerhardus in close attendance. Heat 2 however saw Christo Briel break the lap record for Powerpsorts with a very good time of 1:48:227 achieved in lap 8 - not too shabby me thinks.

Christo therefore took overall honours for the day followed by Michael and Gerhardus. Micheal therefore leads the champioship by some margin.

Superbikes

At least this is one class that never lets the organisers down. This was by far the largest class of the day with 20 entrants and a hot pace to boot - albeit slightly off lap record pace. This meeting also had some National riders in attendance (actually there was a notable absence of a certain young Sheridan Morais - more on that later) with Arushen Moodley entered for the race. These guys always add some spice to the mix and Regional guys can learn a lot from them in terms of setup and lines etc.

Heat 1 saw Arushen win a hard fought battle with Mike Dickenson and a surprise podium came from Peter Swanepoel. Peter has been struggling a bit with setup on the Kawasaki after having spent a couple of years on the Ducati. Gavin Lightfoot also broke the unofficial lap record for the Vets class which is run within the current classes for us old timers. That means that the lap record for Phakisa for Vets is now 1:41:729.

Mike Dickenson took the chequered flag in Heat 2 followed very closely by Arushen and the Ryan Ottens. Peter came in third.

Again there were two competitors that jump started being Joe Shearer and Ryan Ottens - sorry guys I know how you feel. Gutted.

This gives the overall win for the day to Mike, followed by Arushen and Peter. Well done to all these riders especially Peter Swanepoel who has persevered with his Kawasaki.

BOTTS

The battle of the toppies was won by the ever youthful Julian Odendaal who is currently riding with a Biposta motor in a 999R frame - me thinks he should keep the bike the way it is in any case. Otto is slowly coming to grips with his 999 and more time will allow him to get used to the front end of this bike. This is a fundamental shift in riding style and setup between the old 998 and 999 bikes.

Heat 1 saw the usual suspects at the front with Julian, Otto and Benji taking the first three positions. Wayne Shelley pushed his Honda very hard (so hard that he managed to go off the track, go farming, check out the oval walls and still come back on in 4th). Christo Rheerders had a hard fought battle with Gilbert for 5th and 6th with Gilbert still peddling his trusty old 996s (as all his other tubs are broked). Gilbet was more than 3 seconds off his lap times from the 999 due to the uderpowered motor in the 996 - read reliable. Andy pushed hard to finish 10th but also way off his normal pace - he can also be forgiven as he had driven through the night from Durban to JHB and then left JHB for Phakisa at 5 in the morning.

To put things into perspective neither Andy nor myself had any intentions of riding at Phakisa but a phone call from a certain Mr Morais at 16:00 on a Friday afternoon giving us carrots and giving us no option but to ride meant that for the first time we went to a race meeting totally unprepapred. That means no tyres, no practise, no compressor and very tatty and dirty bikes (Gil's bike was put together with duct tape as a result of the crash at Midvaal a month earlier).

Just for the record my Heat 1 was all for nothing - I was also given a jump start penalty. Ten points is very ouch as you dont make up any positions in a jump start - I would have rather seen a ten second penalty. Heat 1 ZERO points for me and even worse for Mike Griffith a MINUS 2 points - that must be so disheartening.

Heat 2was a replica of heat 1 so the front three guys could just as well have stayed in the pits and had a braai. In fact the order for the top 6 riders was exactly the same. Andy slipped one back to 11th though but his time was better - go figure.

Other

On a more serious note the reason Shez could not participate was because of the non-scensical notion in Welkom that BOUNCERS own the streets, night clubs, car parks, restuarants etc and they have the RIGHT to assault and attack who they like when the like and how they like.

Well guys there is a surprise for you all - you guys are marked.

The Sportsman Bar in Welkom is a place that either needs to address its bouncing policy or it will be boycotted (or trashed or both) by all the racing fraternity for all the races for all time - as far was we can push this.

We do wish Shez a speedy recovery and hope that the stitches do not make the friendly face turn into a porcupine.

Gilbert Parsons

 

 

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