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Words by Brannigan Achadinha
Zwartkops kart circuit was the destination for the Scooter 101 Round 2 and getting there early for a good pit was the idea. Arriving at 6am sharp seemed like a good idea but when we rolled up the PRD team looked like they slept there from the night before. Gazebo’s all set out chairs, scooters all nicely lined up. Proper factory looking team, thank goodness we’re all good mates and they kept us Malossi team guys a good spot next to them.
Once all was unpacked and nicely lined up the day began with the qualifying warm up session. This is where we have the warm up and qualifying in one session to try save time through the day as we now have tons of riders and classes from Mini moto and NSF100 guys joining in the fun!
After qualifying it was clearly seen that Zwartkops, in the morning, is like riding on ice! Brannigan fell from leaving the entry gate into the very first corner, hard not to laugh but that was properly funny! He set the tone for the rest of the 20+ guys who fell trying to get their scoots around the circuit as fast but as safely as they could.
Stock class Heat 1, 2 and 3 were all the same in front but in Heat 2 and 3 we had some epic battles going on for 4th, 5th and 6th position with Fernando Da Silva, Shannon Anderson and Gareth Padiachi battling it out till the very end, literally. One of those races where no one knows who’s gonna take it. Heat 2 Shannon got 4th but Heat 3 Fernando fought through the field and found his way around Shannon and took his best finish of the season, 4th place in stock class. The Malossi team took 1, 2 and 3 overall in stock class with once again Louw du Toit taking the win and setting a statement that he is a force to be reckoned with this year. Trevor Woolfson in 2nd, also killing it this year and Brannigan Achadinha taking 3rd.
Open Class was another story, with warriors and dragons and big bad ugly beasts that spit fire and nice smelling 2-stroke from their bowels. These riders are scary with tattoos (Rudolf) and lots of facial hair! Little children scream and run to their mommy’s when they see the hordes of the open class scooters getting ready to line up on the grid. But like any great battle its always the best to watch and draws all the attention of every spectator and farm animal in a few km radius.
Heat 1 started off with the guys jump starting the line at least 3 times because as tough as the open class is there are some old folk riding and they forget how a race light works. Once they figured it out the guys power wheelied off the line into the first hairpin corner. Clinton took the holeshot with Jeremy on his tail, behind them were Cheyne Hersal, Louw and Brannigan who made a small front pack and pulled away from the rest of the group leaving the epic battle behind them as they had their own battle to concentrate on. Jeremy and Clinton had properly pulled away but the battle for 3rd place was on. Cheyne had it with Louw trying every manoeuvre he could to pass him while Brannigan stayed back waiting for his chance to pounce. Nearing the end we settled on our positions with Clinton taking the win, Jeremy 2nd then Cheyne taking 3rd, Louw 4th and Brannigan 5th.
We saw from the time printouts that this was going to be seriously epic with the top 5 riders setting times of 56 sec – 55 sec laps compared to last year’s lap time of 57’s and 58’s.
Heat 2 was up, and the start was better with only 1 restart this time. Alzheimer’s must be hard to deal with. Second start down and same positions into corner 1. Almost a carbon clone of Heat 1 but it looked like Louw and Brannigan were battling it out properly. Brannigan found a corner he could almost fit through and looked like he judged it ok until he tried his manoeuvre to get passed Louw and properly side swiped him on that huge Vespa, slid under him on the inside and funny enough the move stuck and no one got hurt, except Louw’s feelings cause what happened in the next couple of corners definitely showed that Louw was not going to be pushed around this year. Louw found a small gap and shoved his wheel in the inside literally onto Brannigans leg and hip and ran him wide to push back into 4th position. Crazy manoeuvre but properly awesome racing by both. Heat 2 finished the same in top 5.
In heat 3 the start was perfect and all got through the first corner safely. The battle was on now, Jeremy was in front, Clinton in 2nd, Louw in 3rd, Cheyne in 4th and Brannigan in 5th. Jeremy was finally giving Clinton a run for his money where he made himself as wide as the track and made sure Clinton wasn’t going to pass him this time. Behind them the battle for 3rd was again insane. Louw got in front of Cheyne and Brannigan from the start and started pulling away as Brannigan and Cheyne were having their own race. Brannigan found a gap past Cheyne and took it but looked a bit rough with a bump here and there, but he did put up his hand through the next straight to apologise and so the race went on. The only problem with being fast is the dreaded back markers, and Jeremy and Clinton were having their fare share! Trying to race each other and weaving through back markers seemed to have gotten the better of Jeremy as Clinton found a nice little line on the last few laps around Jeremy and a few backmarkers to take back his lead as well as setting another course record. Heat 3 ended with Clinton in 1st, Jeremy in 2nd, Louw in 3rd, Bran in 4th and Cheyne in 5th.
At Prize giving all the top riders received their INDY BUCKS to use towards buying the best oil on the market, and the top 3 all got awesome medals and the winners took home a case of Monster Energy.
End of the day the overall results were:
OPEN CLASS
1st – #34 Clinton Achadinha
2nd – #2 Jeremy Pincus
3rd – #48 Louw Du Toit
4th – #45 Cheyne Herschel
5th – #101 Brannigan Achadinha
6th – #33 Johan Le Roux
7th – #777 Mark Phillips
8th – #98 Shaun Portman
9th – #10 Derek Macdougall
10th – #26 John Morford
STOCK CLASS
1st – #48 Louw Du Toit
2nd – #55 Trevor Woolfson
3rd – #101 Brannigan Achadinha
4th – #464 Fernando Silva
5th – #58 Shannon Anderson
6th – #24 Gareth Mark Padayachee
7th – #84 Daniel Anderson
8th – #11 Norman Grove
9th – #23 Damian Steenkamp
10th – #46 Anglique Lindeque
Championship points standings are after Round 2 are:
1st – Clinton Achadinha – 150 points
2nd – Jeremy Pincus – 120 points
3rd – Louw Du Toit – 84 points
4th – Brannigan Achadinha – 83 points
5th – Johan Le Roux – 61 points
6th – Mark Phillips – 52 points
7th – Derek Macdougall – 49 points
8th – Cheyne Herschel – 40 points
9th – Trevor Woolfson – 37 points
10th – Justin Parker – 26 points
What an amazing day and everyone is still talking about it! Our Round 3 is at Kyalami Kart circuit on the 27th April from 8am till 5pm. Bring the whole family and enjoy a day of the best racing in SA!
A huge thank you to all our sponsors who make every event as big as it is and off the hook as it is. Jonway Gomoto for our amazing stock class scooters and the best naming brand out there! Monster Energy Drink for amazing drinks that always keep the riders going all day and bringing the vibe to all the events. Indy Oil for the Indy Bucks and keeping the 101 team riders scoots running smooth and clean. LW Mag for always posting our story and reviews and letting the world know about all our up and coming events, Malossi for the race parts and brightening up the pits, Novik Gloves for keeping team 101 stylish and holding on and Bandit signs for always making sure the crowds have the best 101 decals as well as keeping the 101 team riders proper factory with custom vinyl work on their scoots and the 101 van!
