Round 4 of the Power Series at Killarney International Raceway on Saturday September 26 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 Clinic Sweep in 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.
Marco Busi dominated the Cheaper Cars GTi Challenge, qualifying on pole and leading both races from lights to flag, despite the best efforts of Colin Meder and Charl Visser 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, until Joubert dropped out in lap seven.
Only two RST Suzuki South Superbike riders went out for qualifying on a streaming circuit, with the result that 60-year-old Peter Haupt 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 and Kewyn Snyman dived into Kfm Corner at the head of the field, swopping places at least once in each of the first three laps.
Snyman posted the fastest time of the day, a superb 1min12.545sec effort in 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 in 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.
Willem Binedell won both RST Trac Mac Clubmans races on the but was made to work very hard for them, particularly in race 1, where he was chased all the way by Michael Hunter, Michael du Toit’s Kawasaki and class stalwart Wayne Arendse, who finished in that order within little more than four seconds.
Zobair Adams led Hunter, Arendse and Binedell at the start of race 2, but was soon demoted to third by Arendse and Binedell. Binedell went through to the lead in 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 made the early running in the first RST Trac Mac Powersport race, with Powersport 300 class rider Slade van Niekerk running in second.
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 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 in the penultimate tour, leaving Booysen’s Reynard as the only car in the lead lap.
Second was Hadyn Ellwood
and third going to Zane Amundsen.
