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RACE REPORT: FULL THROTTLE GAUTENG
MX CHAMPIONSHIP - ROUND 5: SYRINGA
30 July 2013
by Laren van der Westhuizen
125 High School
This race report is going to be a little different. The race results
in the results column speak for themselves, but I want to highlight
a few aspects of the race day and a few riders that stood out.
Regional MX was a welcome return to Syringa Spa, which is one of
the oldest and most iconic MX circuits in South Africa. It has been
many years since senior mx bikes charged around Syringa for a regional
title, it has only been juniors over the last few years. 140 bikes
rocked up to what is now a radically modified version of the old
track, but does still have “mineshaft hill” albeit with
jumps now.
Syringa is set in a way that just promotes a great atmosphere and
even though the winter cold has all but killed the grass, the spectator
area is a great place to hang out and watch MX.
Jannie has worked hard on the track and was prepped to the best
I have seen it ever. The riders appreciated it by putting on a great
show. Racing in all classes was great. The stand out rider on the
day was Sacha Naude. He has really peaked right now and is riding,
I believe better than anyone at the moment. He rode the tight and
twisty track as if he was on rails. He not only tamed the track
in both MX1 and MX2, he tamed some rather stiff competition in Richard
VD Westhuizen, who looked a little rusty after taking a month off
the bike. Richard will start to train hard now for the North South
challenge which he will be representing Gauteng in the MX2 class.
With Sacha on such great form, Gauteng can expect a great result
in the MX1 class, which Sacha will be racing. It was great to see
Jesse Wright back from the USA. He borrowed a KX450F from 2nd gear
and whilst looking a little small for the beast, he still rode to
a solid 3rd.
MX1 & MX2 #54 Sacha Naude
Sacha won the MX2 class as well, but there were 2 noticeable great
performances. One being Nicholas Phelps, who finished 4th in heat
1 in the MX2 class. Nicholas went out and won the 125 class to end
off his best day in the saddle ever. Danny Lailvaux was another
top performer, as he lead heat 2 for a while and managed to hold
off some big names to finish in 3rd.
The Pro-mini class was great to watch. Marcus Phelps freshly back
from Europe, got out there and won heat 1 from a hard charging Marco
DeVrye. Justin Thompson had some bad luck all day and was out of
the picture. In heat 2, Marco DeVrye holeshotted and didn’t
look back. Marcus Phelps battled with Josh Mlimi for a while and
then got through. He chased down Marco, but to no avail and had
to settle for 2nd.
The 65cc class has been a real battle this year, for 2nd that is.
Dalton Venter cleared out for the win, but a real mix and match
of results saw the youngsters coming through, like Camden McLellan
and Josh Mlimi. Christiaan Cilliers was fast, but heat 1 was a disaster
as a big crash left him with some loose teeth.
The 50cc class was good to watch. Camden McLellan was very fast,
but when the last lap board got shown twice, he and many other riders
pulled off thinking the race was over. He lost many positions and
learnt the hard lesson to race till the chequered flag. It was good
to see the improvement in Ethan Segal and another noticeable performance
came from Nathan Bester.
Mathew Kruger got junior rider of the day for winning the 85cc class.
He has been working hard and it paid off. This is just a week after
a big crash at the same venue that left him concussed. I just have
to mention that Aiden McGuire was really fast and was his best performance
to date.
There were many great things about the day, including great catering,
albeit a little slow, it was worth the wait. The riders had fun
and ended off with the announcement and presentation of the Gauteng
team.
We look forward to the FIM Africa event there at the end of August.
#4 Matthew Kruger
For pictures from the event contact:
SLN-PHOTOGRAPHY - 082 560 0519
[email protected]
. www.sln-photography.com
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