Rounds six and seven of the year’s LeopardRock.com SA Superbike Championship offered scary spectacle, close competition and an extended title chase lead at AA Kyalami on Saturday, (May 1). –
– Durbanite youngster Hudson Kennaugh emerged as the biggest hero, winning both of the day’s races on his Cell C Suzuki GSX1000R.In the process Kennaugh consolidated his current overall 2004 Championship lead and set a new local Superbike lap record around Kyalami. –
– Saturday’s opening race saw a three-sided battle between Kennaugh, his Cell C Suzuki Team mate Trevor Crookes and privateer Noel Haarhoff (Imtech Suzuki GSX1000R). Each of the three riders took a turn at the front, but Kennaugh led when it mattered – crossing the finish line on the final tour.Behind him, Haarhoff beat Crookes for second place by one hundreth of a second. Fourth and fifth, following a race-long tussle, were Greg Dreyer (Autopage Cellular Yamaha R1) and Sheridan Morias (First Technology Honda CBR 1000RR Fireblade). –
– Current South African Champion Russell Wood rode his Autopage Cellular Yamaha R1 to a careful sixth place, narrowly ahead of Arushen Moodley (First Technology Honda Fireblade and Greame van Breda, on his Kreepy Krauly Yamaha R1. –
– Kennaugh led the second race from flag to flag on the Cell C Suzuki, followed by Trevor Crookes’s similar machine. This time, Greg Dreyer took his Yamaha to a third place, just beating Haarhoff’s Suzuki to the line. Fifth and sixth were First Technology Honda Fireblade racers Arushen Moodley and Sheridan Morias, followed by Van Breda on his Kreepy Krauly Yamaha. –
– Former Superbike Champion Stewart MacLeod rode the 2004 Kawasaki ZX10 Ninja in its local racing debut, scoring respective eighth and ninth places on the brand new, totally unsorted green machine. –
– “I am more than happy about winning, but this streak can not possibly last for ever. The rest of the people will catch up soon, and then these winning title points will become doubly prescious,” Hudson Kennaugh said after Saturday’s second race. –
– Darryn Upton (Kreepy Krauly Yamaha) won both of the day’s Supersport 600cc races, with Gareth Agnew (Honda) and Robbie Breakspear (Suzuki) taking turns in the second places. –
– The next round of the 2004 LeopardRock.com Superbike Championship will be held at the Port Elizabeth Aldo Scribante circuit on saturday, May 29.
