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SA RACERS CONTINUE TO SHINE
All across the world in various championships, SA riders showing their worth
It’s been a great year so far for SA riders
racing in overseas championships, and the
great results just keep coming in.
Not only is Brad binder dominating in
the Moto3 class, but the likes of Steven
Odendaal, Dorren Lourerio, Byron Bester,
Troy Bezuidenhout and Mathew Scholtz, have
all proved what world class riders they are
picking up great results at the highest level.
Steven Odendaal (#40), racing in the Spanish
Moto2 championship, went into round
two after picking up his first ever win in the
category at round one in Valencia.
Odendaal would once again stamp his
authority in round two by taking a clean sweep
- pole position and 2 race wins.
That put the current SA 600cc champion top
of the pile in the points standing heading into
round three at Catalunya.
Steven managed another front row start
but unfortunately luck was not on his side
as he suffered a puncture to his rear tyre in
the opening stages of race 1. He bounced
back in race two and was stood back on the
podium, where he finished in third position,
extending his championship lead to 39 points
from Alan Techer.
Moving over to America where current SA
SuperGP championship leader, Mathew
Scholtz (#720), filled in for the injured Shez
Morais (Shez tells all in his exclusive column
later on in this issue).
Mathew’s first outing was at road America
where he managed to qualify 2nd fastest
Superstock bike. He managed a thrilling
3rd place finish in race one. After another
intense battle in race two, he was
unfortunately hit off track by another rider
pretty much ending his race.
Mathew then travelled to Barber Motorsports
park and under the expert guidance of Shez
and Ricky Morais once again impressed,
picking up another podium finish in race one.
He managed to back that up with a 5th place
in race two. Those great results secured
Scholtz a ride in the Westby/Yamahalube
team for the remainder of the season. His first
race for the new team was at Utah and again
Mathew impressed, picking up 2nd place in
the superstock class in both races.
Cam Petersen also had another good race
weekend by picking up two 4th place finishes
in the supersport class.
Mathew will continue to also race here in SA
for Team Emtek/Nashua Yamaha, where he is
looking to win the SuperGP title.
In the European Junior Cup, Dorren Lourerio
(#20), Troy Bezuidenhout and Byron Bester
(#12) continue to improve.
The three youngsters were once again in
action at the Donnington round of the WSBK
championship. Dorren managed his best race
result in his two year EJC campaign finishing
5th overall and just over a second from the
winner (Perez). Dorren was involved in a six
way battle for the lead for the entire race and
was as high as second position at one stage.
Byron went into race one recovering from a
big crash in the Friday practice session and
had a poor start to the race and fell back
to 23rd position in the first lap, making it
difficult to fight back on this evenly matched
machinery. He did however manage to gain
a few positions and finished 18th overall for
the day. Troy was forced wide in the Fogarty
Esses (turn 9) by another competitor resulting
in a crash on lap 2 of the race. That would
see him miss the next round at Misano,
leaving Dorren and Byron to fly the SA flag.
Dorren was on form all weekend and again
qualified fifth as he did in the previous round
in Donnington, UK, but a crash on lap 3 of
the race ruled him out of another top points
scoring position. Byron struggled getting
to terms with the circuit and managed a
sixteenth place qualification. His race start and
some determined manoeuvres gained him
track position and a ninth place finish overall,
his first top ten in the championship.
10 RIDEFAST MAGAZINE JULY 2016