Zontes Cup Championship

The Art of Coming Last But Still Having Fun

- Harry Fisher

For three years now, the Superbike Magazine Short Circuit Series has been offering an opportunity for relaxed, informal, affordable and, most importantly, fun racing at various venues around Gauteng. As the name suggests, the venues are generally karting tracks, such as those at Vereeniging and Zwartkops, which make for intense, limited lap and duration races, allowing for three races per class each meeting.

Talking of classes, there are 10 at each race; Clubmans, Mini Moto Novice and Stock, Super Moto Junior, Super Moto Masters, NSF100, Super Moto 2, Super Moto 1, Pocket Bikes, 150cc Cup and the class I was particularly interested in, the Zontes Cup.

The observant among you will have noticed the Zontes adverts in BikeSA and, this month, you’ll be able to read a review of one of their 310cc-engined ZT310X machines elsewhere in these pages. What the importers have also done is set aside about 30 of these bikes and, suitably race-prepped, made them available to anyone who wants to have a bash at racing for a very modest fee, either for the whole season or just for one race, if you want to test the water.

The important thing to stress is that, despite each class having its own championship at stake and containing riders who are vying for that championship, there is a refreshing absence of ‘big money’ spoiling the relaxed atmosphere; most competitors are there for the fun of it all and grids were made up of the seriously fast and the woefully slow alike, everyone simply getting on with enjoying their racing, no matter where they came in the results.