Boost for motorbike riders

road racing at the home of motorsport in Zimbabwe — Donnybrook Raceway — said yesterday that Bokomo Weet-Bix Cereals have agreed to become the official sponsors of the Megelli Series.

“Motorcycle road racing is (now) back up and growing again, as a sponsor has come to our rescue.

“The (new) sponsor is Bokomo Weet-Bix Cereals. And this means the Megelli Championship, which will be held this year in Harare and Bulawayo, will now be known as the Bokomo Weet-Bix Cereals Series.

“The Bokomo Weet-Bix sponsorship will cover each rider’s entry fees and fuel for each meeting and then the remainder is being put into race tyres that will subsidise the price for each rider.

“We cannot thank Bokomo Weet-Bix enough as our race series took quite a setback when one of our fellow riders, Peter Whyte (Junior), had a horrific accident in December 2012 at the Bulawayo one-hour race meeting.

“Peter sustained some serious head injuries and was in a coma for six weeks, however, he is a fighter just like he was on the track and against all odds, has recovered unbelievably fast and is up and about and back at work,” Shaun Whyte said.

And now all is set for the staging of four motorcycle road racing meetings in Harare and Bulawayo during the course of this year, thanks to Bokomo Weet-Bix Cereals’ sponsorship package, which Shaun Whyte and his friends in the local motorcycling family secured from this company.

Some serious and competitive motorcycle road racing is now back in Zimbabwe now that Bokomo Weet-Bix have decided to put a toe on the track and the man in the hot seat Shaun Whyte said they were now looking forward to staging two race meetings at Donnybrook in Harare and two more in Bulawayo between next month and December.

He said the coming on board of Bokomo Weet-Bix will see motorcycle road racing “taking its rightful place” among other popular motorsport events in this country.

“In fact, main circuit racing is on the up and is attracting more and more spectators at each meeting and since the early 1990s, we’ve not seen Donnybrook like this,” Shaun Whyte said.

Shaun Whyte is a former South African superbikes national champion and has of late been working tirelessly to revive motorcycle road racing in Zimbabwe, especially at Harare’s Donnybrook Raceway which is now attracting thousands of Zimbabwean motorsport enthusiasts at each event, be it a drag racing, motocross, karting or main circuirt racing meeting.

Apart from being involved in the organisation and running of motorcycle road racing in this country, Shaun Whyte is also into motocross and motor rallying.

Shaun Whyte quit competing in the South African superbikes national championship series at the end of 2009 and joined hands with other Zimbabwean motorsport enthusiasts in promoting motocross in this country.

And he has now “spread his wings” to motorcycle road racing which is set to go from strength to strength following the arrival of Bokomo Weet-Bix as the major sponsors of the sport in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, this Sunday will see the staging of the FIM Southern Africa Off Road Enduro Challenge at Arda Farm in Shamva.
The 2013 FIM Southern Africa Off Road Challenge is part of the African Enduro Championship, which comprises of five rounds of competitions with events held in each of the following countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.

What is an enduro?
An Enduro is a motorcycle and quad bike race.  In each round, the motorcycle or quad riders run on a course that is predominantly off-road.

Each rider must complete the course as fast as possible.

In a traditional time-keeping enduro, riders leave together in groups or rows, and each group starts at a certain time.

The object of the event is to arrive at pre-defined locations according to a strict schedule.  Early or late arrivals result in the riders’ scores being penalised. Throughout the day there will also be allocated periods for re-fuelling and servicing of bikes.

In this weekend’s race, the riders will race five laps on the same 45km course, with a five-minute interval in-between to allow for re-fuelling, servicing of bikes and refreshments.

Some of the Zimbabwean riders participating in this weekend’s race are Brian Cocker (riding a KTM300, he is also hosting the event), Dale Holliday (riding a KTM200), Tony Rowley (riding a Gas Gas 300 and he is currently fifth place in the Championship), Grant Gardiner (riding a KTM350 and he is currently in seventh place in the Championship) and Ryan Cheney (riding a KTM300 sponsored by Banda’s Boat and Bike Tours and he is currently in ninth place in the Championship).

Round one of this year’s event was held at Dorvic Farm in Zambia on March 16 and was very successful with 78 riders participating in the event and they came from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Botswana.

Round three will be held on the June 8 in Namibia with next two rounds scheduled to be held later this year in Gaborone, Botswana.

This weekend’s event in Shamva is open to all motorcyclists provided they have or buy an FIM Africa Off Road Licence available at the documentation on Saturday at the competition’s venue.

Entry is US$60 and all these entrants are subject to the FIM Africa Off Road regulations.

For those who do not want to form part of the SORC, they may still race as a “clubman”.

This may be done individually or as a team and each member’s entry fee will be US$50.

There will also be a Ladies Class but the organisers have indicated that they will not be catering for quads in the senior event at all.

However, there will be a class for the juniors  as well as for the young girls.

Documentation and entry will be available at the Sables Motorsport Club house in Harare tomorrow at 5pm or Arda Farm on Saturday.

All the bikes will be scrutinised, after which, all riders may do a “sighting lap”.

There will be a bar and catering tent as well as bush ablutions. The DSP (service park) is by the dam.

So those brave enough may have a swim to wash off the dust etc!