Over the months we have covered various aspects of motorcycling on our site. In particular, we’ve followed the race adventures of Lee Singh, a promising young talent who competes in the KZN Road Racing Championship. This weekend it’s High Noon at Dezzi Raceway, as our resident bike correspondent explains.

The 2019 KZN Road Racing Championship sets at Dezzi Raceway this weekend. While an 85 cm3 two-stroke with an almost 200-point lead will claim the title, there has been a season-long battle for 150 honours that has been hard-fought by a band of fast, talented youngsters.

Young guns

Jessi Conci has often been the fastest in the class this year but suffered a few big crashes and has just not been able to string a season together. Another super-fast contender would have been Westville Boys’ athlete, Drew Gates. Drew shelved his 150 campaign to focus on his 2019 Red Bull Rookies opportunity by moving to the 300 class. Vince De Bock, who suffered many mid-season mechanical gremlins and further lost a tally of points after a fuel miscalculation, trails and Lee Singh (click here to read more about the talented youngster) who goes into the final round just a few points ahead of De Bock. They have everything to race for.

Tumbling lap-times

The fierce competition and constantly improving skills of the local youngsters have caused winning lap-times to drop steadily through the season. A sub 1 min 30 sec lap was race-winning pace and the 2018 lap record was a 1 min 27 sec. Although track changes might have shaved a second off, regular laps in the 1 min 25s have become the norm in 2019.

Excitement through the classes

The 150 masters title goes down to the wire with three riders vying for the top step while the exciting 300 class sees newly crowned national 600 cm3 Champion, Blaze Baker, hunting down Malcolm Rudman who is under pressure to remain error-free and maintain his points lead come Saturday. The third step will be fought over by Drew Gates and the Conci brothers, Nicolai and Jesse. The thrilling Motard class has been wrapped up by Hein Etzel while his father, Claus, is set to battle with Justin Mathie for the Master’s title.

Images by Colin Windell