The Final Round of the ZX-10R Master Cup for 2023 at Zwartkops Raceway

Words & Pics: Neil Phillipson

Saturday the 18th of November 2023 saw the final clash for 2023 of the ZX-10R Masters Cup take place at Zwartkops Raceway out west of Pretoria. With temperatures often north of 30° Celsius track side it was a fairly uneventful day at the office for the racers, this does not mean it was boring. Easily the most exciting racing on the day with a lot of close racing, particularly up front.

The ZX-10R Masters Cup forms part of the Regional Extreme Festival with a whole bunch of Car race series. During practice on Friday one of the cars dumped its sump on the track, bringing proceedings to a halt whilst the marshals cleaned the track. Interestingly, it was fully synthetic oil and cement dust does not clean it up, so it needs to be washed thoroughly with degreaser and even then, it is not a certainty that that section of the track is restored to full traction. Rumours abound that this caused a lot of consternation amongst the bike racers, (as it should), and they refused to go out for their final practice – makes sense to us, who wants to destroy their steed the day before the final race of the season.

The ZX10’s were out first on Saturday morning and the Zwartkops marshals had managed to get the track properly prepped for the day’s racing. Racing got off to a great start with a big challenge for the hole shot into turn one and some very tight racing up front for the rest of the race. As soon as the results are ratified and get published, we will let you know who finished where, until then keep watching this site for updates.

Damion Purificati leading Trevor Westman and Graham van Breda into turn 4

Johan LeRoux being chased through turn 4 by David Veringa and Wayne Shelley

Renatus van Niekerk keeping Teddy Brooke honest

Stephen Galgoczy with Piers Canute in the background

Pieter de Vos, Henk Kruger and Appanna Gamapathy

Eskil Suter leading Nicole van Aswegen and Jason Lamb through turn 4

Lone Wolfing through turn 4 is Appanna Gamapathy

A camera shy rider behind Jason Lamb through turn 4 and Johan LeRoux in the background

Bontekoning bringing up the rear on Nicole

The third race of the day saw the BMW M-Performance Part Race Series cars go out. Racing was quite argy bargy and two of the competitor managed to get tangled up and flatten a safety barrier track side in turn 4 which red flagged the race and brought a complete halt to proceeding for more than an hour while the marshals once again repaired the damage and made the track safe again for racers and spectators alike.

This pushed heat 2 of the ZX10’s back from the scheduled 13:30 to closer to 15H00. Heat two got off to the usual flying start and the racers went at it hammer and tongs for 10 laps, with a lot of elbows out and some very tight racing. The highlight of the day was a certain Mr Eskil Suter competing in the ZX-10R Masters Cup. YES! That Eskil Suter from Suter Racing, the guys that build the race chassis for a lot of teams and run their own team in Moto 3. Always lekker to have well known international racers enjoying the African sunshine on a local race track. As mentioned earlier…. As soon as the results are ratified and get published, we will let you know who finished where, until then keep watching this site for updates.

And that is a wrap for 2023 folks.