Killarney 8 Hour Endurance Race.

Story by Deon vdl

Photo credit CLR Photography and Killarney International Raceway

On the 16th of December Killarney International Raceway has the last say when it comes to the end of the racing season. Never a disappointment the 41st annual Livingston Baths 8 Hour Endurance Race brought an all action packed raceday to end the year off with a bang.

23 bikes lined up on the grid in a traditional Le Mans style start. Nicolas Hutching was fastest to mount his bike and he gave the HSC Racing Team an early lead.

Missile Motorcycle and Project Sixty SA kept the pressure on Hutching – and a mistake took him out on lap 19. The HSC Racing Team fought hard only to retire just before the six-hour mark after completing 347 laps.

The first hour produced great racing. Project Sixty SA had already done 73 laps, only one more than Missile Motorcycles with Bulldog Racing not far behind. The hard charging Moto Da Corsa was only a couple of laps off pace.

Project Sixty SA was looking strong and had good pace when on their 109th lap, they had to enter the pits with brake failure.

It took a few minutes to get the team back into the race. They entered in third place, five laps behind Moto Da Corsa. They took back second place 13 laps later and while at it, Tristan Pienaar broke the track’s lap record with a time of 47.394 sec on lap number 125.

The rules of the 8 Hour state that no single rider may partake in the event. This brought In Focus Fleet Service Team’s Donovan le Cok to call it a day as he had to retire after his teammate withdrew at the last minute. Le Cok still managed to do an impressive 161 laps and 177 minutes of racing all by himself.

Pienaar was doing well for his team when lap 211 saw him high side and crash, fortunately he was unhurt. It took them more than 10 minutes to get back on track, once again in third place, 9 laps behind the Moto Da Corsa team and 20 laps behind the seemingly unstoppable race leaders Missile Motorcycles.

Moto Da Corsa’s sprocket bolts came adrift and needed to get to the pits fast and lap 335 cost them dearly with a 12-minute lap time and two spots as they exited the pits in fifth place.

This handed Project Sixty SA the second place on a silver platter.

This also led to a battle for third between Bulldog Racing, Moto Da Corsa, Hillbilly Racing, No Rush Racing and the OneX Leather 58 Performance team.

It was clear that nobody was going to stop the Missile Motorcycle team as they entered the last hour with more than 500 laps under their belt, 18 laps more than project Sixty SA.

Bulldog racing was in third with Moto Da Corsa 3 laps behind in fourth. But the racing wasn’t quite over… they took back the third spot on lap 493.

When the chequered flag came out it was the #19 bike of Missile Motorcycle that crossed the line for the win with a very impressive run.

They completed a whopping 553 laps in 8 hours.

Project Sixty SA came in 2nd , 17 laps less than the winners and Moto Da Corsa took 3rd. No Rush Racing placed 4th after a technical infringement saw the OneX Leather 58 Performance Team disqualified.

A tip of the hat to No Rush Racing Team member John Craig for competing in every single race since the very first 8 Hour Race back in 1983, That’s flippen impressive!

Awesome racing gave us enough action to see us through to next year when we start the 2024 Race Season.

The SA Classic TT is coming!

East london: 27th January

Kyalami: 3rd Feb

The SA Classic TT is on its way with some big names coming from abroad to do battle with our South African racers.

Steve Parish, John McGuiness, Ian Simpson, Adrian McCarthy, Gordon Grigor, Howard Selby, James Ellison, Danny Webb, Robbie Burns, Allan Duffus and James Hillier are all confirmed so far.

Team SA has some fast names like AJ Venter, Paul Jacobs, Fergal Mcadam, Matthew Herbert, Jaco Gous, Mike Mc skimming, James Barson, Etienne Louw, Douw Coetzee, taking the fight to them.

It’s going to be a family affair with stalls and all sorts, and if you have a spectacular custom motorcycle, plans are for RideFast to host a concours competition at the Kyalami leg.

It’s monster fun and if you are at a loose end, you need to get down to the track and watch the action.

Until we meet at the track again, have a splendid new year and stay safe.