Cape Town – With the hype of the annual international Passion for Speed Historic races behind us, it’s time to get down to some serious motorcycle racing as the 2015 Mike Hopkins Regional series blasts off at Killarney on Saturday.
Coming off back-to-back titles, Namibian Ronald ‘the Red Baron’ Slamet on the Mike Hopkins ZX-10R must start as favourite, but he’ll face even more determined opposition than previously, from similarly-mounted former champion Malcolm ‘the Accountant’ Rapson, and Trevor Westman, who did marvellous things in 2014 aboard the seven-year-old Ocean Sizzler R1 and was rewarded with a ZX-10R supported by Mad Mac’s Kawasaki.
Short-circuit graduate Westman has been the underdog on the main circuit for so long that he appears to enjoy it; whether he has the ‘match temperament’ to start on a level footing with the big names and deliver the consistent results that win championships rather than the occasional spectacular against-the-odds crowd-pleaser, will be answered by the end of this season.
600 CHALLENGE
The two riders who took the 600 Challenge down to the wire in 2014 - Hayden Jonas and Andre Calvert – will be at it again on identical Kawasaki ZX-6R machines, Calvert with backing from KC Transport and Jonas’ bike now resplendent in the blue of his new sponsor ASAP World. Here it could be argued that of the two it is Jonas who displays the big match temperament - for all that he’s only 16 - but Calvert’s consistency improved with almost every outing in 2014 and he will pose a credible challenge to the reigning champion this year.
In the absence of some of Class B pace-setters from 2014, expect big things from Alex van den Berg (Wicked Tuning ZX-6R) and David Enticott – arguably the most improved rider of 2014 - on the Motorwise Daytona 675.
The only official entry in Class C for Round 1 is series stalwart Wayne Arendse (Honda CBR600RR) but he’ll soon have his hands full fending off the efforts of rookies Jan Nytomt (BMW S1000RR ) and Jurgen van Onselen (Ducati 916.
POWERSPORT HERO
Powersport Class A hero Warren Guantario is likely to dominate the Mixed Classes races on the Calberg ER6 as he did in 2014, with his biggest challenge coming from team-mates JP Friedrich and Andrew Liebenberg. Don’t discount Class B riders Kurt Fortune (Kawasaki ER650), Chris Williams (DEA ER650) and Mike van Rensburg, (Pragma ER650), who are always ready to take advantage of any mistake by the front-runners.
Wesley Jones (Suzuki GSX-R750) is the man to watch in the Vintage Superbike class but, in the absence of any of 2014’s pace-setters, anything could happen in the Clubmans Class and probably will.