Clint Seller (NeoLife Africa Yamaha R1) made his intentions clear during SuperPole and went on to take two comfortable wins in the sixth round of the 2015 DEOD SuperGP Champions Trophy held at Red Star Raceway on Saturday, 22 August. The defending champion now has a 27 point lead at the top of the log with just one event left to run.
In the Super600 category Steven Odendaal (NeoLife Africa Yamaha R6) won the first race at a canter but was made to fight all the way for the second race win. This has left him needing just one point at the final round to retain his title. William Friend made sure of the inaugural SuperJunior title with a round to go when he took both race wins on the day.
Mathew Scholtz (EmTek Racing Nashua Yamaha R1) was expected to push Seller during SuperPole but when he fell on his hot lap Seller had an easy run to pole position. He qualified 1.578 seconds ahead of Brandon Goode (EmTek Racing Nashua Yamaha R1) with Brent Harran (Metals Centre / Odin Powersport Kawasaki ZX10R), who missed the last round after breaking his wrist in a snowboarding accident, a tenth of a second further back in third. Lance Isaacs (Black Swan Racing / BMW Motorrad S1000RR), Daryn Upton (Turn-Skill Engineering / RSA Racing Kawasaki ZX10R) and Nicholas Kershaw (Tsunami Beach Bar / BMW Motorrad S1000RR) made up the second row, They were followed by Johan van der Merwe Jnr (Ducati 1098) and Scholtz.
When the lights went out at the start of the first race it was Goode who reacted quickest, out dragging Seller in the charge to the first corner. It didn’t last though, Seller took the lead shortly before the end of the first lap and was never challenged on his way to a comfortable win. Scholtz slowly made his way through the field but, by the time he got up to second place, Seller was too far ahead for him to mount any serious challenge. Goode made sure he stayed ahead of veteran Isaacs to make it an all Yamaha podium. Isaacs was followed home by Harran and Kershaw.
A thunderstorm was threatening at the start of the second race but luckily it stayed away until Seller had taken his second win of the day. This time he got off the line cleanly and was never headed on his way to the flag. Isaacs ran second in the early stages before Scholtz got past. Again Scholtz could not close down the gap to Seller and had to settle for second. Isaacs slowly dropped back down the field as the handling on his bike deteriorated. He eventually finished in sixth. Goode’s third position made it another clean sweep of the podium for Yamaha with Kershaw and Harran in fourth and fifth respectively.
Super600
Qualifying for the Super600s gave an indication of what was to come – the top four were separated by just 0.164 seconds. Steven Odendaal (NeoLife Africa Yamaha R6) led the way from Adolf Boshoff (Indy Oil Toy Store Kawasaki ZX6), Blaze Baker (Russell Wood Kawasaki ZX6) and Anthony Shelley (EmTek Racing Nashua Yamaha R6). Michael White (Consortium Shipping Kawasaki ZX6) was not far behind. He had privateer Dylan Barnard (Kawasaki ZX6) alongside him.
The first race didn’t turn out as expected, Odendaal took the lead and steadily opened up a substantial gap over the rest of the field. Boshoff, Baker, Shelley and White were fighting for the runner’s up spot, a battle that eventually went the way of Shelley. Boshoff held off White to take third ahead of Barnard and Dorren Loureiro on the Family Fitness Centre Kawasaki ZX6.
Race 2 was a thriller. Shelley and Odendaal were never more than a couple of bike lengths apart for the entire 14 laps. Shelley was in front for most of the race but Odendaal managed to get past with just a couple of laps to go. Shelley didn’t give up though and the gap at the flag was just a tenth of a second. Boshoff crashed out around the half-way mark just after setting his fastest lap of the race leaving White to take the final podium position. Baker, Loureiro and Barnard rounded out the top six.
SuperJunior
William Friend came into the sixth round of the SuperJunior championship with a substantial 43 point lead at the top of the log. Brandon Staffen (Keating & Jansen Auditors) wasn’t going to make things easy for him though and qualified just 0.052 second behind the championship leader. CJ Hackart (Firequip) completed the front row of the grid. Dominic Doyle (Techron Systems), Tyreece Robert (Autostyling) and Lance Marais filled the second row.
In the opening race Staffen and Friend swapped places at the head of the field until Staffen crashed when he lost the front end of his bike. Although he was able to remount, he had to settle for sixth. Friend went on to win from Doyle and Marais. Luca Coccioni worked his way up from seventh on the grid to take fourth ahead of Robert.
Despite needing just a couple of points to secure the inaugural SuperJunior title, Friend did not take things easy in the second race, taking a lights-to-flag win. Doyle and Staffen were left to fight for the remaining podium positions – Doyle winning that battle by just over quarter of a second. Hackart led Marais and Robert home.
SuperM & BOTTS
The SuperM category was supplemented by a number of new riders. Gareth Laverick took both race wins while Johan van der Merwe Jnr and Shaun Jubber shared the BOTTS wins.
The final round of the 2015 DEOD SuperGP Champions Trophy takes place at Dezzi Raceway in KwaZulu-Natal on 19 September 2015.