KALAHARI HIGH SPEED CHALLENGE

Round three of the National Offroad Series – the “Kalahari 400” – was held this past weekend in the area of Vryburg in the North West Province. On Friday National competitors had to complete the 50 km time trial course to determine the starting order for the next day. All the top contenders were between one and two minutes apart from each other, doing an average speed of more than 90 km/h.

Brother Broadlink KTM off road specialist Gray Dick (450 EXC) finished the time trial in a comfortable third position, only 49 seconds behind first placed Mahoney and a mere 17 seconds behind Gutzeit. Dick’s team mate Riaan van Niekerk finished the time trial in fifth place on his KTM 350 XC-F and youngster Tyron Miller in an impressive 9th place on his 250 EXC-F.

Recent rain promised for a good day’s racing with hardly any dust. The first outside refuel saw the top 20 riders coming in all at once after the leaders had crashed into a fence and lost some time. On the second lap Dick and Van Niekerk had made up good time and were in for some top results. Dick however had problems with his chain tensioner and lost some precious time while trying to fix the problem. He fell back to 12th position and all hopes for a victory were gone. As the race progressed Dick made up time and caught some of the competitors, crossing the chequered flag in eighth position.

Brother Broadlink KTM team mate Riaan van Niekerk had to battle with a collapsed mousse on the third lap which forced him to slow down. Other riders saw this opportunity to pass Van Niekerk who as a result ended up losing three places. The last loop did not offer enough time for the talented rider to catch up, only finishing in 6th place and second in the highly contended OR2 class.

17-year old Tyron Miller did his team and sponsors proud when he finished 10th Overall on his 250 EXC-F 4-stroke machine, winning the OR4 class for the third consecutive time this season.

The race was finished by 13.15h in the afternoon, a 5h race for the top contenders, resulting in an average speed of about 80 km/h.

Competitors are now getting ready for round three of the Liquorland National Enduro Championship that will take place in the Humansdorp area (PE) on 14 May.

Author: Franziska Brandl KTM SA