This year’s national Superbike championship was a white-knuckle ride with the top two – Shaun Whyte and Sheridan Morias – going into the race with only four points separating them! A few class winners had to be determined in the production car championship, where some contests were shrouded in controversy.
This year’s national Superbike championship was a white-knuckle ride with the top two – Shaun Whyte and Sheridan Morias – going into the race with only four points separating them! A few class winners had to be determined in the production car championship, where some contests were shrouded in controversy.
Going into the final event, Whyte led his First Technology Yamaha team-mate Morias by just four points, and an out-and-out battle for the championship was on the cards. However, Whyte got off to an unimpressive start by crashing in qualifying, though he still managed to start the race from third from the grid.
In the first of the two heats, Trevor Crookes took an early lead, allowing Whyte and Morias to battle for second and third place. But disaster struck for Whyte on lap nine where he high-sided his R1 at Nashua Corner, leaving Morias went on to take a comfortable second place.
Kennaugh and Crookes (who retires at the end of this season) took off into the lead in the day’s second race. Whyte followed close behind the leaders, but this was not enough for Whyte as the 20-year-old Morias comfortably took the title when he finished seventh in the race.
The production car championship had already been decided in September, where Anthony Taylor bagged the overall title and the Class A title, while Dave Compton was victorious in Class B.
Privateer Melvill Priest took his first race win in his Audi A4, while champion Anthony Taylor won the second race from Priest and Etienne van der Linde in a second BMW 330i. The race was not without incident though and Taylor was responsible for a collision between works Nissan drivers Gary Formato and Duncan Vos on lap two. Taylor rejoined the race in front of a hard-charging Formato who spun to avoid the BMW when he was rammed by his team-mate, Vos. Both 350Zs were badly damaged and finished well down the order.
Compton (Toyota RunX RSi) and Marco dos Santos (Fiat Stilo Abarth) shared the wins in Class B. Compton, who had already clinched the title at Kyalami in September, elected to sit out of the second race so that team-mate, Philip Kekana could compete after damaging his RunX’s gearbox in the first race. Kekana finished the race in fourth, behind dos Santos, Angus Thompson (Fiat Stilo Abarth) and Brian Martin(Toyota RunX RSi).
The overall Class T winner was decided in a cloud of controversy. The first heat’s results had not been confirmed by the start of the second race since class leader Martin Steyn appealed a decision to penalise him for cutting corners. The penalty dropped him to the back of the class contested by the four supercharged Mini Cooper runners.
The drama continued in the second heat when race leader van der Linde slowed with mechanical problems and only finished fourth, with Steyn picking up a controversial win and title.
Two other championship titles were decided in the production car series where Eckhard Schoenknecht made history by taking the SA Junior Production Drivers’ title and the honours in Class C with a diesel-powered car. He clinched the titles with two hard-fought races in his Delo VW Polo TDI, while Carlos Nobre (VW Citi Golf) and Shane Williams (Ford Ikon) shared the day’s wins.