SuperGP – Round 4 Race Report Red Star Raceway - 14th June 2015

Welcome to ETR Performance Yamaha Round 4 Race Report

ETR Performance Yamaha has been waiting to issue a Race Report like this one for quite some time.

After a two year hiatus in the Wilderness ETR Performance was once again on the top step of the

SuperGP race and oh so close in the Super600’s.

The weekend was quite an eventful one with some new changes and some building upon our

experience from Cape Town.

To summarize our weekend:

• Mathew Scholtz SuperGP – double winner and overall winner of the day

• Brandon Goode SuperGP – podium 3rd

place Heat 1 and overall 3rd

place of the day

• Anthony Shelley Super600 – podium 3rd

place and Lap Record

For the Red Star round ETR Performance welcomed a new Super600 rider in the name of Anthony

Shelley. Anthony has replaced our previous rider Jesse Boschoff who is unable to continue with his

rider commitments with us at this time – which was sad for us as Jesse had great potential.

The ETR Performance Yamaha Armada awaiting their berth for the weekend.

Some last minute preparation before FP1 at RSR

Ricky Morais – Crew Chief

Free Practise

For some time now I have been waiting to release a race report like this one. A perfect weekend.

Red Star Raceway situated in Delmas is not a track that our SuperGP riders are familiar with. Matty

hails from KZN and Brandon is a Benoni resident. Neither rider frequents, nor uses the RSR track for

practising unless it is a race weekend.

This meant that both our SuperGP riders were heading into unfamiliar territory and needed all the

precious track time available to them. FP1 showed that we were immediately on the pace when

Mathew started posting some impressive times of around 1:53’s. This was exceptionable considering

that the track is usually quite dusty in the earlier sessions – especially Winter time.

Brandon also went out and posted respectable times, but he felt uncomfortable with the bike and he

needed more setup. So FP1 ended up with Mathew 2nd

and Brandon fifth.

FP2 and 3 however were much better for Mathew and he landed up being the fastest rider for the

day. Brandon unfortunately was still struggling with setup of the bike.

In FP2 Brandon was nominated to be the “on board camera” for the TV Production crew. This

entailed him having a camera mounted to the front of the bike and on his helmet. Unfortunately due

to the fact that the tyre changing process was delayed, he was sent out straight away after having

had his tyres changed to a new set. So out he went on brand new COLD tyres. Brandon managed to

make it to turn 3 before dropping the bike and crashing.

After rebuilding the crash damaged bike and struggling with rear end grip we discovered a more

serious problem with the Yamaha. Having listened to the bike out on the track and on exiting certain

corners the engine did not sound responsive or being able to rev cleanly through to the red line.

This meant a complete engine change and our fantastic ETR Team Technicians managed to drop the

engines; swop them over and refit them to the two bikes simultaneously – all within 2 hours.

A real big shout out goes to the Team Techies – Marthinus; Paul; Scheldon; Brandon (the Prof) and

Patrick

Our substitute Super600 rider Anthony Shelley.

Anthony is fortunately no stranger to the RSR circuit and has clocked up many miles – however these

miles have been mostly on his Kawasaki. Anthony has never ridden a Yamaha R6 and it is a bike that

is not very easy to get onto and go fast straight away.

So for the FP1 and FP2 the focus was for Anthony to get as many laps under his belt on the R6. The

idea was to keep pushing as hard with old tyres in a race simulation so that he was aware of what to

expect towards the closing part of the races. This strategy paid off for him come race day.

The Race Weekend - #SuperGP

Qualifying was an extremely close affair between Clint Seller and Mathew Scholtz. The differences in

their times was 2/10ths

of a second for Pole. After braving a running in session and losing out on

much needed setup time Brandon still managed to put his bike on the front row for Heat1.

Heat 1 saw Mathew holeshot again and head into turn 1 in the lead. However the race was a very

closely fought one with Mathew eventually coming out on top and winning by a close margin.

Brandon had a dismal start after not managing the launch control correctly and got stuck behind

Kershaw and Isaacs for 10 laps. After finally dispatching of Kershaw Brandon also managed to take

advantage of the ill handling BMW of Lance Isaacs who had a massive high side coming on the main

straight allowing Brandon to get his head down and hunt Brent Harran on the Kawasaki.

So ETR Performance managed to secure its first double podium for many a year with Mathew 1st and

Brandon 3rd

.

Heat 2 actually saw a reversal of the holeshot and this time Brandon was first into turn 1 with Clint in

close tow and Mathew 3rd

. However it was not long before Clint managed to slice his way past

Brandon on lap 3 and then Mathew managed to go past Brandon after running a bit wide.

The Clinton / Mathew show continued for the next 8 laps until Mathew sat up a allowed Sellar to

pass so that he could study any weakness’s for the end of the race. On Lap 10 Mathew decided to

pass Sellar and put his head down and go for broke.

Mathew won Heat 2 by more than 7 seconds which goes to show that once ETR Performance had

the right equipment and rider pairing we would also become unstoppable.

Brandon fought all race long with Brent Harran for the last podium and was just shut out by the

narrowest of margins.

So Mathew got a double win for the day and Brandon got his first podium with the team.

Well done guys.

The Race Weekend - #Super600

As mentioned earlier coming to grips with the Yamaha R6 is not an easy job and this became

noticeable when it came to qualifying.

Anthony really struggled with rear end grip as well as traction coming out of the corners. The power

delivery of the R6 is so much more different to the R6 and Anthony’s riding style had to change a bit.

After some careful deliberation with Team Technical Chief Ricky a setting was decided upon for

qualifying and out he went.

Unfortunately qualifying did not go quite according to plan but 6th

position was not the worst to be

in.

Race 1 got off to a frenetic pace and all the testosterone teenagers wanted to head into turn 1 first.

As predicted satellite Yamaha rider Stephen Odendaal managed to holeshot the bunch and start his

usual pull away tactic that he has become known for. However this was not for long. After Lap6

Stephen started to have a few tyre issues and the rest of the pack pounced on him like a pack of

wolves. Leading the initial charge was Adolf Boschoff and Mike Whyte. Then out of the blue Anthony

managed to catch up and join the leading trio.

This made a fourway contest from Lap 10 to the end. Anthony managed to slice his way into the lead

on Lap 10 and managed to hold it up until Lap penultimate lap when Adolf and Stephen passed him.

However Anthony still managed to land up on the podium in his first outing with ETR Performance

and on a Yamaha R6.

Heat 2 was a lot tougher and again the four leading bikes from Heat 1 broke away from the rest of

the pack and had their own intense battle all race long.

Anthony again managed to sneak into the front and the lead chopped and changed numerous times

as all four riders were within thousandths of a second apart. Again on the final lap of the race

Anthony was bumped by another rider and pushed onto the dirty part of the track allowing Boschoff

and Odendaal to sneak through.

Anthony had a baptism of fire on the R6 and he came through with flying colours – also managing to

break the lap record in the process with a 1:55,385.

The ETR Performance Crew Chief in a debriefing session with rider Brandon Goode

I also wish to further take this opportunity to offer a big shout out to our own ETR sponsors, without

whom we would not be on the grid such as for this month:

AMP SHOEI – for their dedicated track side service and support of the ETR Performance

Yamaha Race team riders

DENT DOCTOR WITBANK – for their excellent turn around time and quality of service for

having our crashed kit repaired and returned in record time

RACETEC EXHUASTS – for their dedicated track side service and support of the ETR

Performance Yamaha Race team and riders

ETR Performance Caterers – for feeding a hungry and cold team of 40 members with an

excellent curry and rice

Our work is going to be cut out for us from now onwards as our expectations have been met with

the new bikes. As mentioned in our previous Race Report the bar has been set by our excellent

results in Cape Town and this has now carrid over to the RSR.

Our expectation is carry on and try to win as many races as possible to close the deficit left having

had to use the previous iterations of the Yamaha R1’s in the SuperGP Championship. Not all is lost

however and there is still a mathematical chance of Mathew winning.

Our whole Team and all its mechanics, logistics, caterers and most importantly our riders all stepped

up to the plate on Sunday and delivered some outstanding performances.

I am extremely pleased with how my SuperGP riders performed and their times are reflective of

their commitment to the team and the Championship.

Ciao from Ricky and bring on the next round at Aldo Scribante in Port Elizabeth.

Candid Pics

Nashua Sponsor Billy Shepard enjoying lunch

Pit guest taking a nap from the proceedings after

lunch

SuperGP Rider – Mathew Scholtz #20

Mathew went on to qualify 2nd

on the grid even after losing part of his gear lever half way through

Superpole. Had this not happened then Mathew would certainly have been in Pole position.

Mathew further went on to claim a double win for the day including an overall Riders win.

Mathew going on to qualifying 2nd on the grid even after losing his gearlever half way through the lap

Mathew backing his R1 into Turn 1 at RSR for Qualifying

SuperGP Rider – Brandon Goode #71

Brandon went on to qualify 3rd

on the grid even after losing most of his Free Practise time due to

some technical issues The engine was not running at full power due to a suspected dropped valve.

His 3rd

was even more impressive after having crashed the bike going onto the N4 backstraight.

Brandon #71 in a strong qualy mode going onto main Pit straight

Brandon #71 bringing his wounded R1 back to the pits after his small excursion with the sand.

Super600 Rider – Anthony Shelley

Anthony was thrown into the deep end of the weekend and mananged to hold his head up high after

a dismal qualification session. Anthony went on to lead both heats for some time in a bunch of 4 and

secured his first podium of 2015 and a hard fought 4th

. Anthony rode a faultless race in both heats

and was pipped to a podium in Heat 2 after being hit from behind by another rider.

Anthony Shelley #74 - qualified 6th on the grid to come in 3rd in Heat 1 in the Super600

Anthony on a charge in Qualifying.

Results Page: Sponsored by iAdapt and Emtek Racing.

ALL RESULTS ARE PENDING AS A RESULT OF AN MSA APPEAL AND WILL BE UPDATED ONCE

AN OUTCOME HAS BEEN DETERMINED.

Superbike

Round

1 Round 2

Behind

22-03-

2015

12-04-

2015

Place Name No TOTAL Leader Next Phakisa Zwartkops

1 Clinton Sellar 1 86 0 0 50 36

2 Lance Isaacs 38 77 9 9 36 41

3 Brent Harran 77 61 25 16 26 35

4 Mathew Scholtz 20 53 33 8 22 31

5 Nicholas Kershaw 55 53 33 0 33 20

6 Brandon Goode 71 44 42 9 21 23

7 Anthony Shelley 74 22 64 22 0 22

8 Garrick Vlok 64 20 66 2 20 0

No of Entries in Race 15 7 8

These results are all still pending outcomes of various appeals and only

reflect up to Round 3 Killarney as per MSA website.

Supersport

Pos Name R 1 R 2 R 1 R 2 R 1 R 2 R 1 R 2

1

Steven

Odendaal KAWASAKI 25 25 25 25 20 Dnf

2 Michael White KAWASAKI 16 20 20 13 16 25

3 Blaze Baker KAWASAKI 13 16 6 16 13 20

4

Nicole van

Aswegan TRIUMPH 10 13 10 9 10 16

5 Adolf Boshoff KAWASAKI 20 0 16 20

6

Malcolm

Rudman YAMAHA 8 11 13 11 11 Dnf

7

Allan-Jon

Venter TRIUMPH 11 0 11 10 9 11

8 Ricky Weare KAWASAKI 5 6 5 8 8 13

9 Dylan Barnard KAWASAKI 7 9 9 7 Dnf

9

Corbin

McCallum KAWASAKI 4 7 8 6

10

Sheridan

Morais YAMAHA 25 Dnf

11 Jesse Boshoff KAWASAKI 9 8 7 Dnf

12

Anthony

Lessing KAWASAKI 6 10

12 11 9

These results are all still pending outcomes of various appeals and only

reflect up to Round 3 Killarney as per MSA website.

A Huge thanks to all the support from our generous partners that make it

possible for us to partake in the sport we love:

WITBANK