Cape Town
– Round two of the National Extreme Festival at Killarney on 21 April will include
two races in the Suzuki South RST Superbike series.
However, a couple of top contenders have failed to enter, so
unless they put in late entries - which is not unusual - look out for some new
names near the top of the timesheets.
Defending regional champion David McFadden will, however, be
taking his place as the man to beat on his RPM Centre/Stunt SA ZX-10R, with
Trevor Westman (Madmacs ZX-10R) as his major challenger, in the absence of
Brandon Haupt’s Fuelled Racing R1, Gerrit Visser on the Samurai R1 and Andre
Calvert’s KC Transport/Leslie’s Gifts 1299 Panigale.
Needle match
There are likely to be fireworks in the Supermasters class
for riders of 35 years and older, however, with the rivalry between Quintin
Ebden on the Milu R1 and born-again racer Rob Cragg’s Madmacs ZX-10R rapidly
developing into a needle match.
Ebden was a rookie when Cragg retired more than a decade ago
with a couple of regional titles to his credit, and would dearly love to show the
quietly-spoken former champion that he can’t just waltz back in and take over
again.
These two put up a superb fight for Class honours last time
out, taking a win apiece, with the winning margin less than a quarter of a
second in each race. And the fact that they are likely to be competing for
third overall will put even more spice in the dice.
Three way battle
There’s no entry (yet) from Super600 star Hayden Jonas and
the Samurai R6, which will probably bring this class down to a three-way battle
between father and son Karl (ASAP World ZX-6R) and Jared (Uncle Andy GSX-R600) Sxchultz, and
Brandon Staffen on the AJH Cooling/RPM Centre ZX-6R.
Staffen has had considerable success at national level in
lightweight RC390 races but is finding the transition to the heavier, more
powerful 600cc four more difficult than he was ready for. But as his fitness
improves, so will his lap times. This a man to watch.
If Jonas puts in a late entry, however, he’s more likely to
be arguing with Ebden and Cragg over third overall than exchanging insults with
the rest of the Super600 field – all of which makes predicting the outcome
impossible; you’ll just have to be there to see for yourself.