information supplied by: BMW Motorrad Motorsport 02 May 2012
Race Preview – Greg Gildenhuys
Event Date: 28 April 2012
 
Event:Round 3 WesBank SuperSeries Aldo Scribante Circuit- Port Elizabeth                      
The Official BMW Motorrad entry entered Round Three of the series on a climatic high after their race win in heat two of the previous round held at Killarney. The team, their rider and the machine were ready to continue their onslaught in defending their Championship double of 2010 and 2011, their goal, the double win.
 
The Aldo Scribante circuit lived up to its home town’s stereotypical weather, with medium to high winds sweeping across the circuit throughout the course of the weekend.
 
Practice
From the first session of Friday’s Official Practice, Greg Gildenhuys and the BMW S1000RR proved their combined strength by posting the second quickest time of the session. The next two sessions were led by the number one S1000RR albeit by close margins, boding well as to the high level of entertainment both races would bring. The key focus during practice was to find the very best balance of performance versus tyre life out of the chassis and overall package of the S1000RR.
 
Qualifying
With tyre life in mind, Gildenhuys knew he could only do the minimum amount of laps in qualifying to ensure race longevity. After three laps, Greg had posted a blistering time of one minute and seven seconds, a mere one tenth of a second behind pole position man, David McFadden. Nicholas Grobler placed his S1000 on the front row with a scintillating third fastest time and Ryan Ottens on his Northside BMW found himself on P7. Gareth Davidson impressed with a second row start aboard his BMW in 8^thin this, his first outing at Aldo Scribante. Heinrich Rheeder and his all white S1000RR led the Masters contingent taking 10^th.
 
Race One
When the lights went out the drag race for turn one was between Gildenhuys, McFadden, Leeson and Steenkamp. Greg and his number one S1000RR settled into turn one in 3^rdposition behind Steenkamp and McFadden. Then Steenkamp and his Honda parted ways in spectacular fashion forcing McFadden wide. Gildenhuys took evasive action and pointed the nose of his bike towards clear track and 1^stplace. With McFadden out of contention, Greg made it his own race and soon settled into a very fast rhythm at the front of the field. Chasing Gildenhuys hard in 2^ndplace was the Witbank youngster, Nicolas Grobler on his S1000RR. By the time the chequered flag was waved it was Gildenhuys that had built nearly a two second lead over Grobler with McFadden recovering to take 3^rd.
 
Race Two
What with the rulebook stating that a rider’s second best lap time of qualifying earns them the grid position in the second heat, Grobler achieved pole position on his S1000RR with Gildenhuys in 2^nd. Grobler bogged the start and unfortunately his lap time didn’t help him as the front row leapt ahead of him. Gildenhuys’ start was silky smooth and he entered turn one in 3^rdplace behind Leeson and McFadden, with Grobler recovering from his poor start to follow the three in 4^thplace. When Gildenhuys saw McFadden pass Leeson for the lead, he knew he couldn’t allow the formidable Kawasaki rider to get away. A lap later he was past the Ducati and set out to chase the Kawasaki. Grobler too passed the Ducati and the two BMWs set chase for 1^st place.  After ten laps of all out thrashing, there was nothing the Boskruin resident could do and he had to settle for 2^nd place. Grobler and his S1000RR made it a BMW 2^nd and 3^rdon the podium for race two as well as overall for the day.
 
Ryan Ottens scored a respectable 6^th and Gareth Davidson 8^th.  Heinrich Rheeder won the Masters class with his 9^th in race two.
 
Gildenhuys had this to say: ”Overall I’m happy with today’s racing. A win is always great, but my plan was to get the double and well that is a little disappointing. It’s a long Championship and I’m by no means out of the running. I just want to win every race. That’s why I do it. To win! Thanks to BMW Motorrad, my team and sponsors for all their support.”
 
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Ends.
  Round 3 WesBank SuperSeries Aldo Scribante Circuit- Port Elizabeth.docx (75kB)

Complete Release: Round 3 WesBank SuperSeries Aldo Scribante Circuit- Port Elizabeth.zip (1,106kB)