The weekend’s rounds of the local Superbike championship played out at Port Elizabeth’s Aldo Scribante circuit and went Yamaha’s way as Sheridan Morias clinched both races for the First Technology team.
The weekend’s rounds of the local Superbike championship played out at Port Elizabeth’s Aldo Scribante circuit and went Yamaha’s way as Sheridan Morias clinched both races for the First Technology team.
In the absence of defending champion Hudson Kennaugh – who was at Silverstone participating in a round of the Suzuki GSZR World Cup series – the rest of the field battled for a share of the points.
Robert Cragg (Cedar Vadec Kawasaki) was on pole position, with Shaun Whyte (First Technology Yamaha), Clinton Seller (Sell-Mar Aluminium Suzuki) and Arushen Moodley (Dynamic Express Honda Fireblade) right behind him.
At the start, Whyte (who was seriously ill on Friday after contracting food poisoning) immediately blasted his R1 into the lead, while privateer Noel Haarhoff shot from the fourth row on the grid into second place by the start of the second lap.
Sadly, his efforts were in vain as by the eighth lap, the Imtech Kawasaki rider developed severe cramps in his forearms and was unable to match his earlier pace.
However, by this time Whyte’s team-mate Morias, was slicing through the field from 17th on the grid after getting his machine’s setup horribly wrong before qualifying.
He arrived at the front-pack by lap six, and two laps later had slotted into second place behind Whyte. After taking the lead on the final tour, Morias stole victory, just one tenth of a second ahead of Whyte while Stewart MacLeod (Flamingo
Lounge Kawasaki finished third.
After the race, a medical examination revealed that Haarhoff was suffering from torn arm ligaments and he was sidelined for the rest of the day’s action. Adding to the casualty list, Suzuki’s Trevor Crookes crashed his Dealer Team GSXR1000 during Friday afternoon’s practice session and broke an ankle.
Seller made up for his in failed clutch in race two and challenged both Whyte and Morias for the lead throughout the race.
Morias went on to win less than two seconds ahead of Seller, while Whyte finished third.
Stewart MacLeod finished fourth on his Kawasaki, ahead of Cragg, Robert Portman (Meler Honda Fireblade) and Lance Isaacs.
Arushen Moodley was somewhat unlucky this time round as he was relegated to eighth place after going off the track.
