SuperGP Champions Trophy
It’s not quite all over bar the shouting as the inaugural new-look South African circuit motorcycle championship, the Monster Energy Super GP Champions Trophy, reaches a climax with the eighth and final round at Red Star Raceway in Mpumalanga this weekend (November 30).
Paul Bedford
While two of the three racing category winners were decided at the penultimate round at Phakisa Freeway in the Free State Goldfields on October 19, the headline act, the Monster Energy SuperGP, a unique South African national championship category for 1 000 cc base-level evo rules machines with limited modifications, sees 2013 SA Superbike champion Clint Seller (Portable Shade Race! Kawasaki ZX10R), hold a distinct advantage after winning 10 of the 14 races run so far and accumulating 278 points.
His closest rivals are Lance Isaacs and Brent Harran on Black Swan Energy BMW S1000RR machines, who are second and third respectively with 254 and 214 points and a maximum available of 50 (25 for each of the day’s two races). Isaacs has two wins and Harran one to his credit to date.
Brandon Goode (CJ Auto/Network Blue Kawasaki ZX10R), Garrick Vlok (Pre-Empt Fire and Security Kawasaki ZX10R) and Ronald Slamet (Novel Ford/Mike Hopkins ZX10) are all podium contenders, as are Dylan White, already a winner on his Portable Shade Race! Kawasaki ZX10R, and 2013 WP Supersport champion Nicholas van der Walt (Brother/EmTek Yamaha R1).
The support categories include Super600, like SuperGP a national championship for base-level 600 cc evo rules bikes with less modifications than the previous Supersport category, and the new SuperM, which carries challenge status and covers entries from Super600M, which is equivalent to the Supersport category for modified machines; Superbikes, the existing category for modified 1 000 cc machines; SuperMasters, for SuperGP riders aged over 35 on 1 000 cc bikes complying with the Superbikes technical regulations.
Steven Odendaal (PS Race! Kawasaki ZX6R) wrapped up the Super600 championship at Phakisa Freeway after back-to-back victories took his total for the season to nine and his point score to an insurmountable 306, 77 ahead of nearest challenger Matthew Scholtz (Portable Shade Race! Kawasaki ZX6R). Currently third, 103 points in arrears, is Dean Vos (Brother/EmTek Yamaha R6).
Others to watch out for this weekend include Nicholas Kershaw (Tsunami Beach Bar Kawasaki ZX6R), Blaze Baker (Russell Wood/Muscle and Fitness Gym Kawasaki ZX6R) and Anthony Shelley (Fercor Construction Kawasaki ZX6). These three are fourth, fifth and sixth in the championship and separated by just 18 points with 50 remaining.
Cameron Petersen (EmTek/Brother Yamaha R6), currently seventh in the points, will be out of action this weekend as he is recovering from an operation. This has opened the way for Sheridan Morais, back in South Africa from a successful Superbike World Championship campaign, to make a surprise appearance in the national championship. He will ride Petersen’s EmTek/Brother Yamaha R6.
Kyle Robinson (Fantech Kawasaki ZX10) made sure of the SuperM Challenge in the Free State with a third and a win, his seventh of the season. But runner-up spot is still very much up for grabs with five riders still in the running and covered by 39 points.
Justin Gillesen (Portable Shade Kawasaki ZX10), Beau Levey (Motos KTM Klerksdorp KTM RC8) and lone female rider in this category, Janine Davies (More Money, Enbridge Torque-Sure BMW S1000RR), are second, third and fourth and covered by just 14 points.
Teddy Brooke (Brooke Refrigeration Kawasaki ZX10) is fifth, 10 points behind Davies, while sixth-placed Darien Kayser has impressed on the Uncle Andy Racing/DNA Motorcycles Kawasaki ZX600R. The highest-placed 600 cc rider in a category dominated by 1 000 cc machines, he is sixth overall, 39 points behind Gillesen and 15 behind Brooke.
Tickets for the final round of the Monster Energy SuperGP Champions Trophy can be obtained by visiting the website, www.supergp.co.za.
