Port Elizabeth - The short, tight and twisty Aldo Scribante circuit lived up to its reputation for surprises when it hosted Round 6 of the SuperGP National motorcycle series at the weekend, with no less than three first-time winners.
Nevertheless, Yamaha star Mathew Scholtz extended his lead in the litre-class standings and Adolph Boshoff as good as wrapped up the Super600 title in the absence of Steven Odendaal, who was competing in the Spanish national Moto2 series.
Clint Seller (Yamaha) came off pole to take the lead in the first SuperGP race, with Scholtz content to play the long game, holding second and staying in contact during the early part of the race. When Seller began to battle with arm pump, however, Scholtz moved through into the lead and pulled away to win by 3.7 seconds while Seller just managed to hold off a late-charging Greg Gildenhuys (Kawasaki) and retain second.
Michael White (Yamaha) soldiered on to a somewhat lonely fourth place, ahead of veteran Lance Isaacs (BMW), who got the better of a race-long duel with Daryn Upton (Yamaha), to round out the top five.
White got a flyer to grab the hole shot at the start of Race 2, with Seller and Gildenhuys in hot pursuit. The two former champions threw everything they had at White but neither was able to make a pass that would stick, although the leading trio crossed the line within little more than a quarter of a second, with Seller just holding off Gildenhuys for second.
Scholtz spent a large part of the race in a battle for fourth with Upton, but was able to pull away in the closing stages; Upton took fifth with Isaacs sixth.
Seller's two second places moved him back to second in the standings, 39 points behind Scholtz but only a single point ahead of White.
Super600
Class Leader Adolf Boshoff came off pole at the start of Race 1 to lead the first lap from Capetonian teenager Hayden Jonas (Kawasaki) but on lap two they tangled and both went down, bringing out the red flags.
Blaze Baker (Suzuki) made the running from the restart, holding off a race-long challenge from Cape Town rookie Kewyn Snyman (Kawasaki) until the closing stages, when Snyman dived through to take the lead for his maiden National race win, just a couple of hard-fought lengths ahead of Baker.
Dylan Barnard (Kawasaki) took the final podium position, ahead of another Capetonian, Kawasaki rider Alex van den Berg, with Zante Otto, also on a Kawasaki, the last of just six classified finishers.
Both Jonas and Boshoff made it out for the start of the second race, although Boshoff had to start from pit lane as he was on his spare bike, and Jonas was battling with torn fingertops and an injured elbow.
Baker took the lead from the start and was never seriously challenged on his way to his first Super600 win, while Boshoff worked his way through the field to take second ahead of Jonas, and first-race winner Snyman had to settle for fourth ahead of Van den Berg and Otto.
Boshoff, however, still held a comfortable lead in the standings and with Odendaal, his only serious rival, having been offered a Moto2 wild card ride at Aragon on the same weekend at the next round of the South African championship, was unlikely to be overtaken.
SuperJunior
Top qualifiers, birthday boy Dominic Doyle and CJ Hackart, set the pace from the start of Race 1 in this one-make National series for teenaged riders on identical KTM RC390 singles, battling each other for the lead while pulling out a substantial lead over Aiden Liebenberg in third. Jared Schultz got the better of a great dice with Tyreece Robert to take fourth, while Riccardo Otto rounded out the top six.
Race 2 saw Doyle back up his maiden National win with a superb double, after another tight tussle with Hackart - but the battle for third was the dice of the day as Liebenberg, Schultz, Robert and Otto came home in that order, covered by less than a second.
Capetonian Brandon Staffen came to Port Elizabeth at the top of the standings but was forced out of both races by overheating problems and had to surrender the series lead to Liebenberg.
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