As expected, Hudson Kennaugh dominated proceedings at the Aldo Scribante circuit on Saturday. It was those who finished behind him, though, who provided the day’s entertainment.
As expected, Hudson Kennaugh dominated proceedings at the Aldo Scribante circuit on Saturday. It was those who finished behind him, though, who provided the day’s entertainment.
Leading up to the race Hudson Kennaugh was expected to walk away with the honours on Saturday’s seventh and eighth rounds of the SA Superbike Championship. And though Kennaugh was a formidable competitor as he secured the top spots on both outings, he was not allowed an easy stroll across the finish line.
Saturday’s qualifying session left Noel Haarhoff at the front of the starting grid with Russell Wood, Robert Cragg and Kennaugh behind him. Ducati rider Lance Isaacs lost his 999S in a hairpin, breaking his shoulder blade and collarbone in the process.
Wood snatched the lead on the first lap of the first race, though it only took Kennaugh one lap to rectify the situation. Noel Haarhof, who had started from pole, slid off the circuit on his Suzuki.
Kennaugh’s team mate, Trevor Crookes, moved up to second place three laps later and the pairing went on to take the first two places at the finish. Behind them, Wood Dreyer and Cragg became ensconced in mighty duel which eventually saw them end the race in that order, covered by two-tenths of a second.
The Hondas of Arushen Moodley, Sheridan Morias and Shaun Whyte finished in sixth, seventh and eighth places. Stewart MacLeod and Robert Portman clinched the remaining spots in the top ten.
Race two got off to a shaky start as oil resulting from an earlier production car blow-up sent a number of riders careening off the course during the warm-up lap. MacLeod, Cragg and Kennaugh dropped their machines and Darryn Upton crashed his Yamaha R6 while avoiding the fallen machines.
When the race was eventually run, Kennaugh led right from the start straight to the finish. He was chased all the way to the finish by the Yamaha of Greg Dreyer and finished just four tenths of a second behind the finish. Sheridan Morias covered lots of ground in the dying stages of the race and finished an impressive three tenths of a second behind the second placed Dreyer.
After another race-long scrap, Wood, Whyte and Cragg, finished in fourth, fifth and sixth places. Crookes slid his Suzuki off the circuit at the end of the pit straight while doing battle with the three, dropping him to an eventual 13th place.
Haarhof finished seventh, Moodley eighth and Greame van Breda and Robert Portman finished in ninth and tenth places.