Round 1 delivered an extremely satisfying weekend for the BikeFin Honda team, regardless of the withdrawal from the Superbike class due to the MSA ruling on the CBR1000RR. Team BikeFin Honda will be competing in the 2011 SA Super Sport 600 championship. The squad displayed their talent by qualifying first and second on the grid as well as showing the potential of the CBR600RR Honda. Clint Sellers, freshly back from the USA put his Honda CBR600RR on pole position with team mate Brent Harran in P2 making it a historical 600 qualifying for the BikeFin Honda team. For team rider Lance Isaacs, qualifying was a little more challenging as it was the first time he was able to mount his machine as he had not had a chance to ride the 600 in the Friday practice with all his focus still on the large one litre machine. However, talent shone through as he was short only point one of a second to make it onto the front row, his lap time saw him slot into the second row in P8. Sandro Carvalho, the team’s international rider from Angola was still learning the difficult Kyalami track in P17.
Race 1 saw the crowd on their feet for the duration as seven riders banged and bashed their way around the extremely fast Kyalami Grand Prix circuit. The lead changed several times during the ten lap race seeing Sellers in second place, less than a second off victory with Brent coming home in fifth. Lance Isaacs was not able to complete the first lap as an odd mechanical failure on the gear linkage mechanism forced him to make an unplanned pit stop and in doing so missing the first two laps.
Race 2 - history was made when Brent Harran claimed his first ever pole position, leading the race from the start. This was the first time the team’s young gun has ever lead a SA championship race. Clint Sellers took the lead from Brent to fight for the win throughout the race, in the end coming home in third position, again less than a second between three riders across the line. Lance Isaacs, starting from 7th on the grid, worked his way up to finish in sixth with Brent in seventh.
In a turn of events the Kawasaki rider, David Mcfadden, who won the days races was caught cheating. MSA gave him a R3000 fine and a three race suspended sentence. Sandro Carvalho didn't finish the second race, however he showed his potential by putting down some solid laps times in race one. The BikeFin Honda team left the first round of the Wesbank Super series with a lot of confidence and is well geared up for the next round at Cape Town, the home ground of Lance Isaacs.(The pictures of the day)
No comments:
Post a Comment