MRW Issue 33

Sub 500
For the Sub 500 riders, Kyalami is one of the
fastest tracks in the country where they and their
machines are put to the ultimate test. Who out of
these future SA stars would emerge victorious at
the end of the day? We will find out soon enough,
but first, they headed out for qualifying.
Pole man with a lap time of 2.00.473 was the
talented Ryan van Nieuwkerk on his Kawasaki 400
Ninja followed by teammate, Diego De Ponte in
second, KJ Mononyane in third, Tyler Richardson
making his debut in fourth, Oratilwe Phiri after a
crash in fifth and lady rider Nicole Fourie in sixth
who was battling with some mechanical issues on
her Kawasaki.
Race 1 was dominated by over 16 seconds by van
Nieuwkerk who also set a very impressive 1.59.6
lap time on his way to victory. De Ponte had a
lonely ride into second with KJ Mononyane also
with a lonely ride into third. The battle out on the
track that everyone had their eyes on was between
young Phiri and Richardson who were glued
together the whole race. Eventually, Phiri crossed
the line in fourth, less than two-tenths of a second
ahead of Richardson in fifth. Fourie, unfortunately,
had to retire due to a mechanical issue.
Race 2 was once again won by van Nieuwkerk,
the only man to set a sub-2-minute lap time. This
time his victory would be 8.3 seconds over De
Ponte in second. The biggest battle out on track
this time was for third as Phiri found great pace in
the second race and after a race-long battle with
Mononyane took a well-deserved third place by
less than 3 tenths of a second over Mononyane.
Richardson had a lonely ride to fifth and a day to
forget for Fourie who didn’t start race 2 due to the
mechanical issue she encountered in qualifying
and race 1.
Super 600 SBK’s
The Super 600 Superbikes which were combined
with the Sub 500s for the day’s action would
put on great racing, as always. Qualifying saw a
new rider on Pole Position, with Keo Mokonyane
setting an impressive 1.52.9 lap time to take his
first Pole ahead of Clinton Fourie, Keegan Mills,
Tristin Pienaar, and Matthew Schultz, all believe it
or not on Yamaha R6s.
Lap times dropped for race 1 as the riders
fitted new, fresh rubber. Clinton Fourie took a
comfortable win, setting a PB lap time of a 1,51,7
on his way to victory. The race for second was
covered by only 2 tenths of a second but was
eventually taken by Mills ahead of Pienaar who
looked to have solved the electronic issues he
was having before the race. Poleman Mokonyane
had to settle for fourth despite improving on his
qualifying lap time. The ever-improving Schultz
took fifth also setting a PB lap time.