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Welcome to 2019, Zwartkops Round 1

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Red Square Kawasaki ZX10 Masters Cup – Race 1 Report (Pre-Zwartkops 03 Feb)

How nice was the holidays!! So bliss…. No waking up early to go to the track, no noise of revving engines, no excitement…just peace and quiet. But who wants to live like that? Not the ZX10 Masters Cup riders, I can assure you! They were wishing the bliss holiday away, because they want to try the new Bridgestone R11 tyres, which is the newest set of rubber in town!!  Those who have tried it are raving about them, there are a few setup changes and it is going to take some getting used to, but that is part of the challenge.

To kick-off the season, we are at the Day of the Champions on Sunday 3 February 2019, at Zwartkops Raceway. It is going to be an all bike day, how cool is that! With bikes on the main track and on the short circuit.

We have some new members, whom we are honored to have in our midst, most of them moving over from the Bridgestone categories. If you attended previous Extreme Festivals’ the names will be all too familiar to you, Gareth Jackson (#21), Morne Potgieter (#25), Lafras Fritz (#28) and Rob Morf (#55), moving over to ZX10. Then we also welcome to our ZX10 family Colin Preller (#79), so nice to meet new people. And a big welcome back to all the members from last year! Graeme van Breda (#41) is back with his eyes set on the title of overall Champion of the ZX10 Masters Cup, Jaco Gous is also back to defend his 2018 title of the Master’s class. And who will be the rider of this year, Jonty Collard took that honors in 2018. And will Andre van Vollenstee defend his title of 2018 as Jump Starter of the year, which was epic! I can still see it in my mind, Andre leading the pack of Kawasaki’s to turn 1 of Kyalami!! With some of the riders taking a breather this year, or exploring other avenues, the championships are up for grabs and we can’t wait for the rims to start rolling.

Make a note in your diaries of our race dates, as you do not want to miss any of the action this year!

2019 Event dates:

03 Feb – Zwartkops         09 March – Zwartkops     27 April – East London

08 June – Phakisa           20 July – Red Star           17 Aug – Midvaal

28 Sept – Cape Town       19 Oct – Zwartkops         16 Nov – Port Elizabeth

 

We will be where you see the Red Square and Bridgestone flags!

 

Lynette & Sifiso (#63)

Pre Race 9 – Zwartkops

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And so another great, majestic and thrilling season comes to an end for the Red Square Kawasaki ZX10 Masters Cup riders. The final round for 2018 will be at our home track, the Big Z (Zwartkops) on 20 October and what a great way to end the year! Sven Grüne (#66) looks set to be the overall champion for the year, it will be his second overall win, as he wore this crown in 2016 as well. But anything can happen in racing, as we all know and be rest assured Graeme (#1) will fight up until the checkered flag as he still has a chance on retaining his title. Sven has been consistent throughout the year, and had no reliability issues with his bike at all while Graeme’s season was full of ups and down as you all saw at Cape Town with that massive save when his damper broke during heat 1. Good luck for the race Sven & Graeme, and so to all the other riders! We can expect some action for the fight over the 7th and 8th overall places as Johan le Roux (#44) is only 10 points behind Teddy Brooke (#93) and Michael Smit (#49) is 2 points behind Johan.

In the masters category Pelo Seate (#80) stands a change to snatch the 10th spot, since Rob Craig (#78) will be sitting this event out, Rob and Jacques Ackermann (#70) will be racing in their regional championships in Cape Town on the same day. Ruan Oberholster (#34) is leading Sifiso Themba (#63) with only 4 points in the 8th place and we could expect some fireworks from them as well. In the masters category Jaco Gous (#43) is the leader with Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) in second place.

Pieter de Vos (#17) has already secured the win for the year in the extreme veterans class, a big congratulations to him! Pieter will be sitting this event out, but his 54 point lead has secured him that win already. Could we see Guy Didcott (#88) taking the 5th place of the veterans championship away from Wayne Spicer (#90)? Wayne has been super strong this year, but an unfortunate incident in Port Elizabeth has cost him dearly.

  The point standings before Zwartkops look like this:

  1st Points 2nd Points 3rd Points
Overall Sven Grüne (#66) 362 Graeme van Breda (#1) 337 Jaco Gous (#43) 187
Masters Jaco Gous (#43) 326 Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) 282 Jonty Collard (#11) 223
Veterans Sven Grüne (#66) 366 Graeme van Breda (#1) 345 Ian Harwood (#90) 169
Extreme Veterans Pieter de Vos (#17) 317 Johan le Roux (#44) 263 Teddy Brooke (#93) 245

 

We will see you at Zwartkops on 20 October for a fun filled day and the end of an amazing season!

Lynette and Sifiso (#63)

 

Post Race 8 Report – Killarney

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Cape Town was welcoming as always. And the two Capetonian members truly showed how to go around the Killarney track ….Jacques (#70) and Rob (#78) made it look so easy! Rob took the third overall position and winning class A for the day, and Jacques took the fourth overall position for the day and was second in class A. So far, that is the best overall positions for both of them, since they became members of the Club. Well done!! The 3rd spot in class A was taken by Jaco Gous (#43), the current leader of this class.

Graeme van Breda (#1) and Sven Grune (#66) showed why they have been crowned champions in previous years, by each winning a race. Sven took the overall for the day, and also the Class B win, Graeme was second, with Ian Harwood (#24) taking his second, third place in class B for the year. It was a good day for Guy Didcott (#88)  at the track taking the 4th overall place.

Pieter de Vos (#17) had an unfortunate incident in heat 1, and the overall win for the day in class C was grabbed up by Johan le Roux (#44) which now has moved him up in this class’s championship to second to date. This is going to make the upcoming Zwartkops event very interesting, since Teddy Brooke (#93) had to sit out for the Killarney event, but he will surely fight to get his second place back in the championship of class C. JB Schoeman (#23) (Toppie) took the second place in class C, wow man this made him smile from ear to ear, and well deserved as well. Some good news for the de Vos brothers, Hannes (#15) took the third place on the podium.

Sifiso Themba (#63) got rider of the day, and that’s not all!!! On behalf of all the members of the ZX10 Masters Cup Club, we would like to congratulate Sifiso on his appointment on the Board of Directors of MSA (Motorsport South Africa). We are proud to have you in our midst and wish you the best of luck with this endeavor, we thank you for your willingness to serve and give a voice to all in the motorcycle racing fraternity.

 The results at Killarney looked like this:

  1st 2nd 3rd
Overall Sven Grüne (#66) Graeme van Breda (#1) Rob Cragg (#78)
Masters Rob Cragg (#78) Jacques Ackerman (#70) Jaco Gous (#43)
Veterans Sven Grüne (#66) Graeme van Breda (#1) Ian Harwood (#24)
Extreme Veterans Johan le Roux (#44) JB Schoeman (#23) Hannes de Vos (#15)

Our next and final event ҉ for this year is on 20 October at the Big Z (Zwartkops).

See you there!

Lynette and Sifiso (#63)

 

Post Race 7 Report – Zwartkops

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 Mother Nature can be very harsh and it feels as if she likes to hit us with the worst on race days! The wind not only blew us around, it was also savagely cold, not a pleasant day at all. No matter the conditions, it is the same for all the riders and the racing was great. With Sven Grüne (#66) once again taking the double win for the day!! Brian Bontekoning (#16) had a dismal start in race 1, that resulted in some very abrasive racing tactics from his side to make up for lost track and very spectacular viewing from the side. Earning him the trophy for rider of the day, congratulation Brian! He also managed to win his class in both races. An unfortunate clutch problem for Sifiso Themba (#63) resulted in a DNF for him in race one, but he was back in race 2 to finish the day on a high note. With the track being so cold there was no hope of any lap records being broken, and the lap times were in the low 1.04’s for the front runners. Maybe we are going to see the lap record broken at our next event at Zwartkops, one never know what can happen on a race day.

This exciting event will be broadcast on Ignition TV shortly. Catch all our previous events on YouTube by searching for Red Square ZX10 Masters Cup.

Our penultimate event of the year is on 22 September at Killarney raceway in Cape Town. Start planning as it is a long weekend and one can easily make a short holiday of it.

The results for the Zwartkops event were as follow:

  1st 2nd 3rd
Overall Sven Grüne (#66) Graeme van Breda (#1) Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22)
Masters Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) Jaco Gous (#43) Jonty Collard (#11)
Veterans Sven Grüne (#66) Graeme van Breda (#1) Sanjiv Singh (#12)
Extreme Veterans Brian Bontekoning (#16) Pieter de Vos (#17) Teddy Brooke (#93)

And a big thank to our sponsors: Bridgestone, Kawasaki, and Red Square.

Lynette and Sifiso (#63)

East London Race Schedule – 16 June 2018

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Friday 15th June 2018 – Official Practice

 

Practice 1 Fri 9:35am
Practice 2 Fri 11:15am
Practice 3 Fri 15:05

Saturday 16th June 2018 – Race Day

Qualifying Sat 8:25am
Race 1 Sat 11:40am
Race 2 Sat 14:55pm

 

Competing Riders:

Surname Name Race # Class
1 Ackermann Jacques 70 A
2 Bezuidenhout Gareth 22 A
3 Bontekoning Brian 16 C
4 Brooke Teddy 93 C
5 Collard Jonty 11 A
6 Cragg Rob 78 A
7 De Vos Hannes 15 B
8 De Vos Pieter 17 C
9 Didcott Guy 88 B
10 Ganapathy Appanna 77 A
11 Gous Jaco 43 A
12 Grüne Sven 66 B
13 Harwood Ian 24 B
14 Lamb Jason 46 B
15 Le Roux Johan 44 C
16 Le Roux Pierre 56 C
17 Oberholster Ruan 34 A
18 Schoeman JB 23 C
19 Smit Michael 49 A
20 Spicer Wayne 90 B
21 Themba Sifiso 63 A
22 Van Breda Graeme 1 B

2017 Records

2017 Race Winner: 

Graeme Van Breda

 Best Lap:

1:21.695

Graeme Van Breda 

 Average Speed (km/h) 

Average Speed (km/h)

The Grand Prix

History – East London Grand Prix Circuit

The interest in motor racing was ignited in the early 1930s after the municipality had constructed a circular road on the West Bank of East London.

Mr. Brud Bishop, the motoring editor of the local newspaper, The Daily Dispatch, took a Sunday drive around the route and the idea sprung to mind to hold a race there.

His ideal position at the Dispatch allowed him all the right contacts and, as he was born in England and had started his working career there, entries were soon being received from abroad, as well as around the country.

Read more…

Pre Race 5 – East London

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We are loading the Red Square truck and heading to East London’s Grand Prix Circuit, run by the Border
Motorsport Club! Welcoming two new members from there, although one would not say that Pierre le
Roux (#56) and Jason Lamb (#46) are strangers to the ZX10 Club, they both used to be members of the
Club in the distant past and we still got to see them at our events there. We are super exited having
them back in our midst and we are looking forward to this very fast circuit and the extra horsepower
courtesy of the fresh coastal air and sea-level. We can also call it our annual “road race” as the track is
used as roads every day. Imagine going through Potters Pass on a daily basis, can only be fun!

Sven Grüne (#66) currently leads the overall championship with 10 points, with Graeme van Breda (#1)
in second place. But there is also an epic battle for the third overall spot between Pieter de Vos (#17),
Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) and Jaco Gous (#43). Gareth is also starting to catch up to Jaco in the
Masters Class championship and they are to be super focused at this event. These riders have just
proven themselves so much this season and all deserve the spot, really an exciting contest to keep your
eyes on. From the 7 th overall place to 10 th place there is a similar race happening between Michael Smit
(#49) who has 56 points, Appanna Ganapathy (#77) with 55 points, Johan le Roux (#44) and Jonty Collard
(#11) both with 54 points.

But there are also a few riders who have consistently improved their personal best times this year, and
they are sure to make an impact, such as Sifiso Thamba (#63), Jacques Ackermann (#70) and Rob Cragg
(#78) who has more experience at the coastal circuits, than the bunch from Gauteng. And also keep your
eyes on the two East Londoners, sure to wow the crowd.
Going to East London the points look like this:

 

1st Points 2nd Points 3rd Points
Overall Sven Grüne (#66) 185 Graeme van Breda (#1) 175 Pieter de Vos (#17) 98
Masters  Jaco Gous (#43) 180 Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) 171 Michael Smit (#49)  111
Veterans Sven Grüne (#66)   185 Graeme van Breda (#1) 175  Sanjiv Singh (#12)  96
Extreme
Veterans		  Pieter de Vos (#17)  170  Teddy Brooke (#93)  144  Johan le Roux (#44)  132

 

On behalf of all the members of the ZX10 Masters Cup we would like to thank our sponsors:
Bridgestone, Kawasaki, and Red Square and a sincere thank you to everybody at MSA.

We will see you at the track!

Lynette

Post Race 4 Report: Zwartkops

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Congratulations to Sven Grüne (#66) who won both races at Zwartkops, now leading the Overall and
Veterans championships! We are almost reaching the halfway mark on this season’s racing calendar and
the battles are fierce for the championship spots.

There was plenty of action between Jaco Gous (#43), his brother-in-law Michael Smit (#49), Jonty Collard
(#11), Johan le Roux (#44) and Appanna Ganapathy (#77). They were all in the running for that fourth
spot overall, with Pieter de Vos (#17) having an unfortunate incident on lap 3 of race 1. He made up for
it in the second race though, and managed to stay second for a couple of laps, before being overtaken
by Graeme van Breda (#1), making big strides to catch Sven.

What an excellent finish by Jacques Ackerman (#70), only his third time out at Zwartkops and finishing
his best ever position in the series in eleventh place, with consistent lap times in the 1.07’s. Greg
Bezuidenhout (#10) and Wayne Spicer (#90) finished only 0.03 seconds from each other. Lower down in
the pack another group of riders made life difficult for each other with very similar lap times. Ian
Harwood (#23), Pelo Seate (#80), Sifiso Themba (#63) and Ruan Oberholster (#34) battled to overtake
each other, and had a race of their own within the race!

The results for Zwartkops were as follow:

Overall: 1st ​Sven Grüne​(#66)                   2ndGraeme van Breda (#1) ​​  3rd Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22)
Class A: 1st Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) ​​2nd Jaco Gous (#43)             ​ 3rd Michael Smith (#49)
Class B: 1st Sven Grüne (#66) ​                  2nd​​ Graeme van Breda (#1) 3rd Greg Bezuidenhout (#10)
Class C: 1stJohan le Roux (#44)               2nd Teddy Brooke (#93)​​       3rd Rodney Mclachlan (#42) 

The Rider of the day was Michael Smit (#49), finishing 5 th overall, his best position since he started racing
in the ZX10 Masters Cup and he also took 3 rd in the Masters class.

On behalf of all the members of the ZX10 Masters Cup we would like to thank our sponsors:
Bridgestone, Kawasaki, and Red Square.

We will see you in East London on 16 June and in Port Elizabeth on 14 July!
Lynette and Sifiso (#63)

Zwartkops Race Schedule – 12 May 2018

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Friday 11th May 2018 – Official Practice

Practice 1 Fri 8:00am
Practice 2 Fri 10:25am
Practice 3 Fri 13:30

Saturday 12th May 2018 – Race Day

Qualifying Sat 8:40am
Race 1 Sat 11:20am
Race 2 Sat 13:45pm

Competing Riders:

Surname Name Race # Class
1 Ackermann Jacques 70 A
2 Bezuidenhout Gareth 22 A
3 Bezuidenhout Greg 10 B
4 Brooke Teddy 93 C
5 Christie Stewie 65 C
6 Collard Jonty 11 A
7 De Vos Pieter 17 C
8 Ganapathy Appanna 77 A
9 Gous Jaco 43 A
10 Grüne Sven 66 B
11 Harwood Ian 24 B
12 Le Roux Johan 44 C
13 McLachlan Rodney 42 C
14 Oberholster Ruan 34 A
15 Seate Mmusapelo 80 A
16 Smit Michael 49 A
17 Spicer Wayne 90 B
18 Themba Sifiso 63 A
19 Van Breda Graeme 1 B
20 Van Vollenstee Andre 82 C

2018 Records

2018 Round 1 Race Winner:

Sven Grune

 Best Lap (2011):

1:03.549

Steward McLeod

 Average Speed (km/h)

Average Speed (km/h)145.4km/h

The Grand Prix

Zwartkops race track is an undulating road circuit 2,4 kilometres long circulated in a clock-wise direction. It has been designed to FIA/FIM International standards for racing vehicles of all categories with the exception of Formula One and Moto GP.
The track has a width of 10 metres over its entire length with the starting straight past the Pits, 12 metres wide. The run off areas and safety measures were designed utilising the speed profile of vehicles which can achieve lap times as low as 55 seconds.
Zwartkops can be categorised as a short circuit which has 8 corners of which three are fast and challenging and one corner being a 180 degree hairpin. Overtaking opportunities are good with 3 corners offering overtaking under braking.
Zwartkops is a “technical circuit” with three of the corners having compound radii, and the track has been designed to enable competent competitors achieve fast lap times.”

Pre Race 4 Zwartkops

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We are moving to our home track, Zwartkops for 12 May. If you are a Gautenger make use of the
opportunity to come witness all the ZX10 Masters Cup action!! And for our East London and Port
Elizabeth fans, we are heading your way in June and July.

So going to Zwartkops one might ask what has changed? Nothing …….yes, nothing has changed in the
Overall and Veterans’ championships as Graeme (#1) and Sven (#66) is fighting like raging bulls for those
leadership points. And there is still no difference in points between the two of them. It is truly
something to watch. With Sanjiv (#12) not able to attend this event, Wayne (#90) and Greg (#10) have
an opportunity to move up to that third spot in the Veterans championship.

Gareth (#22) on the other hand has made progress in the Masters’ championship by winning both races
in this class at the Phakisa event and snatching up 50 points, thank you very much! He is now only 19
points behind Jaco (#43), but Jaco is fast around Zwartkops, he lead a Zwartkops race somewhere last
year, maybe he will do it again. Jonty (#11), Appanna (#77) and Michael (#49) are in for a fears battle for
the 3 rd place with 1 point each between them.

The Extreme Veteran class is the only class where the leader Pieter (#17) has managed to pull a slight
lead on the other riders in this class. But he will not relax, he knows that Teddy (#93) and Brian (#16) in
2 nd and 3 rd place are not going to let him get away with it for long. Brian has found first gear since Phakisa
(where he tried to pull away in 10 th /no gear) and will be all concentration.

Come and enjoy some racing and the autumn sunshine with us at Zwartkops, we would love to see you
there. We are pitting just next to the canteen, what more do you want!
Going to Zwartkops the points look like this:

 

  1st Points 2nd Points 3rd Points
Overall Graeme van Breda (#1) 135 Sven Grüne (#66) 135 Pieter de Vos (#17) 82
Masters  Jaco Gous (#43) 140 Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) 121 Jonty Collard (#11)  81
Veterans   Graeme van Breda (#1)  135 Sven Grüne (#66)  135  Sanjiv Singh (#12)  96
Extreme
Veterans		  Pieter de Vos (#17)  145  Teddy Brooke (#93)  108  Brian Bontekoning (#16)  91

 

On behalf of all the members of the ZX10 Masters Cup we would like to thank our sponsors:
Bridgestone, Kawasaki, and Red Square and a sincere thank you to everybody at MSA.

We will see you at the track!

Lynette

Extreme Festival – Post Race 3 Report: Phakisa

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“That was a very lekker race weekend” to quote Jonty Collard (#11). We all had fun, and an “away race”
for the Gauteng crowd always gives us the opportunity to spend some social time with our fellow riders.
Maybe that’s what made the weekend lekker!

On the track, Graeme van Breda (#1) ran into some engine problems on Friday, and Ian Harwood (#23),
the Bridgestone man, offered his bike to Graeme, as not racing would mean the end of Graeme’s
championship for the entire year. What a great sportsman, Ian you are! And Graeme prooved that it is all
about talent. Having some setup issues for sure, but he didn’t give Sven Grüne an inch of the tar. Sven
had to work just as hard as always and they put up a great show. We all held our breath for both races.
Just to give you an idea of how close it was, the total time was 27.42.469 for Sven and 27.42.667 for
Graeme; it was as close as two coats of paint! Sjoe!

Ruan Oberholser (#34) had a tumble in qualifying, but still finished both races, well done Ruan. Bonti
(#16) had a dismal start in race 1; this didn’t hinder him from ending third in his class. Wayne Spicer
(#90) took the rider of the day trophy, his hard work is paying off and riding two different categories at
each event, is not easy at all, but Wayne is getting super bike fit and teaching a lot of the younger
generation in the other categories a thing or two. Wayne is also the current leader in the overall Sub10
Superbike championship and the leader of Class A in that championship.

Sanjiv Singh (#12) loved the track and described it as one of the best tracks in South Africa. It was Sifiso
Themba’s (#63) first time racing at Phakisa and he said he is learning new things at every event. And a
big thumbs up to Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) for taking the class win for the masters, with Jaco Gous
(#43) second and Appanna Ganapathy (#77) in third place.

Pelo (#80) being his home track gave it all that includes a Win in the Bridgestone Challenge.

The results for Phakisa were as follow:

Overall: Sven Grüne (#66) Graeme van Breda (#1) Gareth Bezuidenhout(#22)
Masters: Gareth Bezuidenhout (#22) Jaco Gous (#43) Appanna Ganapathy (#77)
Veterans: Sven Grüne (#66) Graeme van Breda(#1) Sanjiv Singh (#12)
Extreme Veterans: Pieter de Vos (#17) Teddy Brooke (#93) Brian Bontekoning (#16)

For the Points table log click here

I can assure you no other racing in South Africa can be compared to the racing of the ZX10 Masters Cup,
if you ever have an opportunity to attend one of their races, do yourself a favor.

On behalf of all the members of the ZX10 Masters Cup we would like to thank our sponsors:
Bridgestone, Kawasaki, and Red Square and a sincere thank you to everybody at Extreme Festival, the
Marshalls and the medical personnel, without you we cannot race.
We will see you at the track!
Lynette and Sifiso (#63)