Third round of SA Motorcycle Championships

Bike SA - March, 1986

Jean D'Assonville set about making this class his own with pole position almost half a second faster than team mate Jamie Thomas who was second quickest.

Hein Lategan showed great promise riding the fastest qualifying Suzuki in third place, splitting the by now usual Yamaha foursome on the front row. Fourth quickest was Sean O'Donnel (Yamaha) followed by Clive Spender, also Yamaha mounted. The first 8 bikes were separated by a mere 1.57 seconds.

From the start, O'Donnel and D'Assonville led followed by Lategan (Shell Suzuki), Spencer (Yamaha), Eglington (Jimmy's Scrap Metals Suzuki) and Mike Ramsay (Kawasaki KR250). Early in the race, Gavin Ramsay had the front wheel of his BP van Bread Suzuki slide out from under him in the sweep. Jamie Thomas who was right behind him ran over the fallen bike, crashed and hurt his back. Gavin hurt the same arm which he injured here in the first event of the season, fortunately without breaking it.

Up front the dice for the lead was very interesting. O'Donnel being very late on the brakes and running very deep into the turns, pushing the front end to the limit. D'Assonville on the other hand, concentrating on getting power on early, had the rear end break away quite often. With such opposites in style it became a very entertaining race to watch with D'Assonville doing most of the front running.

On the last lap O'Donnel put everything into an out braking effort at the end of the back straight. D'Assonville got the power on really early, using his superior drive out of Castrol Corner to get the inside line over the subway and held on for the finish. Hein Lategan, who had to rebuild his whole bike after his Cape Town crash whilst leading, scored a fine third place for Shell Suzuki.

Mike Eglington, the fastest privateer in this class, was once again mixing it with the leaders and brought the Jimmy's Scrap Metal Suzuki home in fourth place. Mike is something of a short circuit specialist and is reaping the rewards of his efforts being a consistent top 6 finisher.

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