McFADDEN'S PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IN MOTOCROSS

+ Click to Enlarge WATCH THIS MAN: David McFadden (Yamaha R6) burst on to the scene, seemingly from nowhere, in the latter part of the 2009 season. Image: Dave Abrahams

November 2, 2009
By Dave Abrahams

Saturdays' eighth round of the Westrern Province Regional Motorcycle championship will be the second-last of the 2009 season - the finale will be on December 5.

Rob Cragg (Kawasaki ZX-10R) has a commanding lead in the overall and Class A standings. Of his closest rivals, veteran Danie Maritz only began his title charge mid-season with a new Yamaha R1 and Trevor Maritz has had too many tumbles from his Kawasaki ZX-10R and missed one meeting due to surgery.

That leaves each with a point to score in the last two outings. Not only is personal pride at stake; strong showings will go a long way to securing sponsorship in 2010.

Cragg has the most to lose but Maritz and Westman have every reason to give it a full go.

The 600 Challenge has also been dominated by one rider, rookie Michael Wahl,. After only one season on the short circuit he graduated to Superbikes and started showing the establishment how it is done on a Yamaha R6, several times beating litre-class riders.

It's likely to be a different story in 2010 with teenager David McFadden - also on an R6 - bursting on to the scene in the second half of the 2009 season. His previous experiences was in off-road racing but he's challenging Wahl.

Watch these hot young riders – on identical bikes! – on Saturday. It's likely to be a needle match of note.

Class B, however, is wide open, with teenager Warren Guantario (Suzuki GSX-R600) battling it out with William Wakefield and Honda CBR600 rider Ramon Ziade, newly promoted to Class A but who has scored most of his 2009 points in Class B.

In the absence of Donovan Rogers and Wayne Fritz, Paul Medell is likely to ride off with BMW F800 honours in the Powersports/Classics races but Wahl (yes, again!) has entered the Powersport class on a Honda VFR400 to take on father-and-son team Roberto (Honda VFR400) and Luca (Honda RS125) Agostinelli.

Luca, 14, recently qualified in the top seven in the Rookies Cup trials, raising his game and picking up a lot of racecraft in three intense days of track time with the world's top teenage riders. He, his father and Wahl are all short-circuit graduates so used to banging elbows – expect more of the same on Saturday.

Racing will start at 10.15am and the bikes will be on an hour later.