KWA-ZULU NATAL - Young motorcycle racer, Blaze Baker, applied some extreme two-wheel torment to his competitors at Dezzi Raceway, Oslo Beach at the weekend by winning both the classes he entered even with a fall a few laps from the finish of the second Power Sport heat.
In the heat, Baker powered away from the start rocketing his Optimech Engineering Kawasaki to the front of the field chased valiantly – as he had done in the first heat – by Drew Gates on a 150 Super Production Honda. Four laps from the end Gates crashed in Turn 2, remounted and rode back to the pits spilling a trail of oil behind him.
Leading the field into Turn 8, Baker hit the oil and went down, sliding off the track. He quickly recovered and continued, but five other riders fell foul of the oil and went down in the same spot, bringing out the red flag with Baker declared the winner as enough laps had been completed to call the race.
For the day he won the 300 Class with Gates still managing to finish second overall for the day with youngster, Lee Singh, also Optimech backed, finishing third overall and looking ever more comfortable on the bigger bike he is riding for the first time this season.
Llewelyn Puren took the overall honours in the Powersports category from Arthur Moller and Sandile Mthembu with Peter St John Ward claiming the top step in the 300 Masters with Kyle Robertson doing the same in the 300 Veterans class.
In the Formula Extreme category, it was Baker out front and after the two heats Jonathan Low claimed second overall from Clinton Massey Hicks, the pair producing an entertaining tussle by swopping places regularly throughout the heats.
On four wheels, the Super Modifieds and Modifieds produced an almighty scrap between Elton Fuchs (Mtrac VW Golf), Pierre Potgieter (Speed Shop VW Golf), Keegan Sansom (Ram Plant Hire VW Golf) and Hank Lombard (PSA VW Scirocco).
These top four were locked together from the opening lap and so evenly matched it would need a mistake from a driver to allow a clean pass. At the end of the first heat Fuchs to the chequer from Potgieter, Lombard and Sansom.
However, the second race generated a massive effort from Sansom who wormed his way to the front and hung on grimly to the finish with Fuchs, Potgieter and Lombard glued to his tail.
Another Lombard, also in PSA VW Scirocco, had a fine outing with Nicole Lombard winning Class B from the VW Golf of Gary Commins and the stunning VW Beetle of Rodney Potgieter. In Class C, it was Greg Bennet (VW Golf) who emerged victorious from Charmaine Petzer (Reztep VW Polo) and Brian Clifton, finally having an outing in his neat Toyota Tazz.
The normally ‘kamikaze’ Super Motard brigade was dealt a harsh blow in Qualifying when Ryan Matchett went down hard in Turn 11, breaking a collarbone – not enough, though, to stop some vigorous racing in the two heats where Hayden Louw came out on top from Riley Nadauld. In the Super Motards Masters category Brett Sharp took overall honours from Craig Dunington and Adrian Jansen Ter Laeck.
Back on four wheels, a strong contingent of Lotus 7 cars took the track with Byron Oliver taking overall honours in the Sports Car category from Chris Wooley in the colourful Suzuki Hyabusa powered ‘7’ and Mark Futcher, while Peter Blofield won the Super GT class.
An interesting entry here was a first time run for the Piet Bredenhann engineered Chevron powered by a Lexus V8 engine.
Lee Singh was on top of his game to win overall in the 150 Class motorcycle from Tai Robinson and Felix Kroeber with Arthur Moller taking top honours in the 150 Masters from Sven Christenson and Gary Robinson. In the 150 Super Production, Shaun Joffe emerged victorious from Llewelyn Puren and Peter St John Ward while Quinn St John Ward won the Junior category from Brody Galvin and Hannah Puren.
Colin Windell reporting for IOL MOTORING