POWER SERIES DELIVERS A THRILLER AT KILLARNEY

Cape Town – Round 4 of the Power Series presented by Wingfield Motors and Kfm 94.5 at Killarney International
Raceway on Saturday 26 September delivered superb racing in conditions that could most charitably be described as
unpredictable.
Heavy rain during qualifying persuaded a number of competitors to play it safe, resulting in confused grids and some
chaotic opening laps, followed by thriller charges as the top contenders fought their way through the pack to the
front.
Wingfield Motors' Danie van Niekerk, however, is one driver that doesn't know how to play it safe. He qualified his BMW E36 on pole for the Mikes Place Clubmans Saloons and led every lap of Race 1, followed at a respectful distance by Class B leader Wayne Wilson in the DTM Helderberg Maxima, Brennon Green's Weskaap Bakwerke Golf 5, Rafiek 'Fiekie' Pather in the LVTS BMW E46 and Ewald Weiland's classic Bejo Trustees Alfa GTV.
Nieyaaz Modack, who'd qualified fourth in the MIM Carriers/NS1 Motors M3 but didn't come out for Race 1, was all over Van Niekerk like a rash from the start of Race 2 – until Achmat Achmat crashed his Beta Machine and Tool 135 out of sixth place in Car Car Clinic Sweep on the first lap and brought out the red flags.
The restart was an epic dice; Modack blitzed Van Niekerk on lap three and held on for all he was worth as Van
Nierkerk chased him all the way, never more than a car length away and just 0.274sec in arrears at the flag. Green in
the white Golf finished a well-deserved third, just ahead of Wilson and Pather.
Modack was all set to challenge Van Niekerk again in the final outing of the day but slowed drastically at the end of
lap one and only completed six tours. Van Niekerk romped home unchallenged, finishing well clear of Green, Pather
and Mansoor Parker (Armien Levy Motorsport BMW E30) who made a brilliant comeback after two troubled earlier
outings.
Marco Busi (Automan Polo) dominated the Cheaper Cars GTi Challenge, qualifying on pole and leading both races
from lights to flag, despite the best efforts of Colin Meder (International Tube Technology Polo) and Charl Visser
(Charl Electrical Engineering Polo 6 2L), who finished second and third respectively in each outing.
Eden Thompson (VW Polo) finished a strong fourth (and leading class B) in Race 1 after an early dice with Visser and
Dillon Joubert (Powder Coating World/TAC Steel Polo 6), until Joubert dropped out on lap seven.
Joubert came back strongly in Race 2, however, running third ahead of Thompson and Visser until lap five, when he
was demoted to fourth by a charging Visser, who'd come up from sixth at the end of lap one. Thompson followed home in fifth overall and first in Class B, 4.6 seconds ahead of Chris Roberts (Roberts Racing Golf 2), sixth overall and second in Class B.
Only two RST Suzuki South Superbike riders went out for Qualifying on a streaming circuit, with the result that 60-
year-old Peter Haupt (Fueled Racing R1M) started Race 1 on pole with rookie Jonathan Schwerin alongside and the
fastest riders in the Western Cape behind him.
Not surprisingly, he got mugged at the start as Ronald Slamet (JP Marketing/Truevine ZX-10R) and Kewyn Snyman
(Missile Motorcycles) ZX-10R) dived into Kfm Corner at the head of the field, swopping places at least once on each
of the first three laps.
Snyman posted the fastest time of the day, a superb 1min12.545sec effort on lap six, to break the tow and build up a
lead of more than 10 seconds by the end. Malcom Rapson on his family-funded Suzuki GSX-R1000 chased Masters
Class rival Rob Cragg (Mad Macs ZX-10R) for nine laps, never more than a bike-length away, and blitzed him on the
final lap to take third overall by little more than a second.
Slamet's Kawasaki was two seconds off the pace in Race 2, however, and he was unable to stay with Snyman as the Missile rider romped home to win by more than 20 seconds. Slamet came under early pressure from Cragg, but the 2nd Mad Macs rider dropped back and became the victim of a late charge by Rapson, who made another last-lap move to take third overall and first in the Masters category.
Haupt and Schwerin, meanwhile, were cutting each other up on almost every corner in an epic dice for fifth, but it
was Haupt who was ahead by just 0.184sec when it counted.
Willem Binedell won both RST Trac Mac Clubmans races on the Chef@Home ZX-10R but was made to work very hard for them, particularly in Race 1, where he was chased all the way by Michael Hunter (LLG Properties ZX-6R), Michael du Toit's Kawasaki ZX-10R and class stalwart Wayne Arendse on the JJ Smith Trust ZX-10R, who finished in that order within little more than four seconds.
Robby Pedrica (Xstore Consulting R1) was fifth, with Breakfast Runner Donovan Stevens (Bennie Steenkamp GSX-
R1000) a surprise sixth after qualifying third in the rain and leading the opening lap before being mugged by the
Class A riders, while Zobair Adams led Class B in seventh overall on the Quickpos/Panvivo GSX-R750.
Adams led Hunter, Arendse and Binedell at the start of Race 2, but was soon demoted to third by Arendse and
Binedell. The Chef @ Home rider went through to the lead on lap three and never looked back, easing away to win
by 10 seconds from Arendse and Hunter, while Du Toit got the best of a race long three-way scrap for fourth with
Pedrica and Adams; they finished in that order within less than a second.
Trevor Westman on the Roxstar/AWR ER650 made the early running in the first RST Trac Mac Powersport race, with Powersport 300 class rider Slade van Niekerk punching well above his Prestige GT Graphics R3's weight in second. As the race went on, however, Van Niekerk was forced to give best to the much more powerful Kawasaki ER650s of Franco Flach and Edward Rolstone; Flach in particular put in a splendid charge to pass Westman on lap eight and take the win by just 0.193sec, with Rolstone third.
Van Niekerk finished fourth, less than two seconds behind Rolstone and leading the Powersport 300 class from Jason Linaker's Samurai/RST Ninja 300 and David Lindemann on the GM Contractors/Fueled Racing R3.
Thirty seconds later Lance Jonas (Samurai RC 390) came out on top of an epic three-way dice for seventh, just
0.17sec ahead of Nicholas Hutchings (HSC Ninja 300) and 0.733sec ahead of Mitch Robinson's Mag Workshop RC390.
Westman walked away to win Race 2 by 27 seconds from Flach while 'giant-killer' Van Niekerk held third almost all the way, only to be passed by Rolstone and Lindemann on a cliff-hanger final lap that saw Rolstone, Lindeman, Van Niekerk and Linaker finish in that order within less than three seconds. The fight for seventh, however, was even closer than before, as Robinson, Hutchings and Jonas crossed the line in that order within less than half a second.
The first Formula Libre race produced probably the most embarrassing result of the day, as Byron Mitchell in the
beautifully prepared Dolphin Engineering Formula VW and Dee-Jay Booysen (Dico/BidvestMcCarthy Reynard) lapped the entire field, only for Mitchell to drop out on the penultimate tour, leaving Booysen's Reynard as the only car on the lead lap.
Second was Hadyn Ellwood in a Formula Vee Stealth but the real racing was for third spot, where Zane Amundsen
(Formula Vee Lantis) just held off a late charge by veteran Cyril Somerville (Dolphin Engineering Sting) to cross the
line 0.324sec clear.
Mitchell came within 12 seconds of lapping second-placed Booysen in Race 2, with Richard Carr's Rhema another 30 seconds adrift in third. Once again the real racing was in midfield, with Graham Knight (Eloff Transformers/Photohire Ray 1.6L), Somerville and Amundsen finishing in that order, covered by less than two seconds after a race-long battle for fourth.
ENDS
Issued by Killarney International Raceway on behalf of the Western Province Motor Club.