Motul’s Ian Simpson ended his tour in South Africa with four wins in a row at the packed Killarney race track in Cape Town this last weekend. The Scotsman, multiple road racing superstar, 3 times winner of the Isle of Man TT, with a record 8 podiums to his name and five British Superbike championships as well as two Ulster GP wins to his credit, totally dominated the 2014 SA Tourist Trophy with 2 wins at Zwartkops which he repeated at Killarney on Saturday.
At Killarney though, Simpson did not have it all his own way as he did at Zwartkops the week before. The Killarney race saw the former SA National champion Les van Breda give Simpson a run for his money over two superb races.
Simpson, on the 1981 Motul sponsored Suzuki XR69, put up an outstanding 1 min 19.054 qualifying time to put him on pole position for both races. A bad start in Race 1 saw van Breda and local champion David Bolding, both on a Suzuki Katana’s, and John Kosterman on a 1985 Suzuki GSX-R750 all hold off Simpson into turn 1.
The multiple international champion got settled on the big Suzuki and more comfortable in the next few corners, out-braking both Katana’s on turn 5 to take the lead and finish a good 12 seconds ahead on his rival van Breda.
Behind him, however, things were by no means as clear cut; Bolding made the most of home-track advantage to hold off the vastly experienced Van Breda in a stunning battle for second that lasted until the final lap, when the former SA champion out-braked the Cape Town rider in a bold move to take second place by 0.67 sec.
Kosterman held on as best he could for a few laps, but there was no way his essentially standard Suzuki GSX 750 cc was going to stay with a litre-class works endurance racer and two super-hot Katana’s. He trailed home half a minute in arrears, ahead of Robbie Burns - another Scot on an XR69, followed by five-times former Scottish champion Alan Duffus, now 67 years old, on a four-cylinder two-stroke Yamaha TZ750, and Mike Mc Skimming on Tony Sparg’s Suzuki GSX 1100.
Behind these front runners, locals and visitors from all over the world were mixing it all afternoon in two superb races that had the huge crowd on its feet, with battles throughout the field that in some cases weren’t settled until the last few seconds in a final sprint to the checkered flag.
The closest finish of the race however was between Tony Jones, riding Lourens Rossouw’s GSX-R750 after he blew the engine of his Ducati Paul Smart replica in practice, and Kevin Spratley’s remarkably well sorted Yamaha RZ 350 R, who finished just 0.287 sec apart after a race-long duel.
Van Breda got another scorching start in Race 2 to lead the field into Turn 1, only for Simpson to sweep by on to the back straight for another remarkable victory. Four seconds behind him Van Breda and Bolding swopped places at least twice a lap until Van Breda out braked the local man in to Turn 1 three laps from the flag and held him off to take second by 0.669 sec.
Kosterman and Burns took the next two places, closely shadowed by Simpson’s father Bill, who’d blown his Suzuki GS 1000 R in practice and was riding Alan Walker’s gorgeous 888 Ducati to considerable effect, Jones, Mc Skimming and Spratley - all of whom finished within four seconds, while Duffus passed Etienne Louw’s Kawasaki Z1 on the final lap to grab 10th by 0.189 sec.
Overall results
- Ian Simpson Motul Suzuki, Scotland
- Les van Breda Suzuki, RSA
- David Bolding Suzuki, RSA
- John Kosterman Suzuki, RSA
- Rob Burns Suzuki, UK
- Mike Mc Skimming Suzuki, RSA
- Tony Jones Ducati, RSA
- Kevin Spratley Yamaha, UK
- Alan Duffus Yamaha, UK
- Etienne Louw, RSA
- Bill Simpson Suzuki, UK
- Nigel Rigg Honda VFR 400
ABOUT MOTUL
Motul is a world-class French company specialised in the formulation, production and distribution of high-tech engine lubricants (two-wheelers, cars and other vehicles) as well as lubricants for industry via its MotulTech activity.
Unanimously recognised for more than 150 years for the quality of its products, innovation capacity and involvement in the field of competition, Motul is also recognised as the specialist in synthetic lubricants. As early as 1971, Motul was the first lubricant manufacturer to pioneer the formulation of a 100% synthetic lubricant for automotive engines, the 300V lubricant, making use of Esters technology and issued from the aeronautical industry.
All along the years, Motul has gained experience as an official supplier to many racing teams and manufacturers and contributes with them to further technological development in motorsports.
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