Hosting the best mid winter motorcycle / bike rally in South Africa.

News Article

8TH PONGOLA CANE RALLY – 2008

(reported by Swannie, Venessa & Johan)

 

At the end of June the small town of Pongola on the North coast of KwaZulu Natal was alive with biking activities for the eighth Cane Rally hosted by the Pongola Cane Riders. The local school was transformed into a rally site and accommodation was offered even within the classrooms, an indication of the hospitality towards bikers in this region. Financial gains from proceeds of the 2008 Cane Rally was donated to the school and amounted to a magic sum of R77 600.00, what an example to non-bikers of the generosity of true bikers when it comes to charity work. 

 

The Cane Rally is known as the Best Mid-Winter Bike Rally in South Africa, this is partly due to the Sub-Tropical climate of the area, the warm hospitality of the Cane Riders and the safest biking playground for stunts and drags held at the local airfield. Back at the rally site the entertainment was great, the old faithful, Ronaldo got everyone into a party mood before a couple of young guns from Lemon Grass took over and had young and old dancing throughout the night to a selection of cover performances. The bonfire was constantly fed from a huge stack of firewood throughout the weekend whilst the variety of interesting rally stalls, good booze prices at the bar and good food stalls made the 2008 Cane Rally exceptional once again.

 

Saturday morning started with a slow mass ride of 850 bikes through Pongola town, most without helmets. This gave some sense of freedom to the rally participants as this small town was buzzing with bikers. The mass ride destination was the local airstrip where a professional safe drag and stunt setup greeted all. With the low altitude the speedsters clocked good times and Michael Louw on a Suzuki GSXR 1000 managed to do a quarter mile (403 metres) run of 9,357 seconds with a speed of 229,31km/h. OTRE (On Track Riding Experience) sponsored the 600 and 1000cc drag winners with a Kyalami track day experience at Clinton Pienaar and SA Biking Academy. After the drags the stunt competition was contested, some hair-raising stunts were performed. One stuntman underestimated the number of practice runs he undertook and subsequently ran out of fuel on the strip, (No Names mentioned). The stunt competition was closely won by Robbie Du Veviers taken from Robbie Stoltz (No Rules).

 

In true tradition of the Cane Rally, everyone at the rally site shared in the tasteful potjiekos supper. The scale of the meal prepared was such that the ingredients included 400kg of meat, 1000kg of vegetables and 30kg of rice. A total of 13 pots were prepared by the Cane Rider team of 10 people as cooks and 1 guy constantly stoked the fires. A total of 1160 bikers were served and 2000 people would also have been no problem to feed. The Venison meat ranged from Impala, Buffalo, Giraffe, Blue Wildebeest and Warthog with Chicken for the faint-hearted. A real Cane Rally feast that was enjoyed by all!

 

Prize giving was well organized and presented with no time being wasted.  Unique trophies and medals were made up and handed to all competition and games winners. The Streetwise club from the Vaal-Triangle once again took the honours for the Best Represented Club at the rally, their third year in succession. True in the fashion of a rally at a school some bikers needed to be disciplined and 4 "naughty" bikers ware caned by MEESTER (Mr Swannie Swanepoel current school Principal) all done in good spirit and to the enjoyment of the crowd.

 

The Pongola Cane Riders thank all the sponsors, the local town council including the law, business community, enthusiastic locals and club members for their hard work. To the rally participants from all over SA and neighbouring countries, with your support 2009 is going to be even bigger and better. Once again the damage to the school, if any was insignificant and the rally is to be back the last weekend in June, so see you at the 2009 Pongola Cane Rally.

 

DRAGS RESULTS FROM THE CANE RALLY 2008

 

600cc

1.            Jaco Olivier                             Kawasaki ZX6                         11,11sec                 194,7km/h

2.           Francois Nel                            Suzuki     GSXR600               11,40sec                 186,3km/h

3.           Chris Blignaut                         Kawasaki ZX6                         11,96sec                 191,2km/h

 

750cc

1. Fred Pretorius                                    Suzuki     GSXR750               10,38sec                 186,5km/h

2. Spyker Vernandez                           Suzuki     GSXR750               10,47sec                 206,1km/h

3. Kobus Engelbrecht                          Suzuki     GSXR750               11,19sec                 197,1km/h

 

TWINS

1. Jacques Scheurkogel                      Aprilia      RSV1000                11,03sec                 190,4km/h

2. Andre Pretorius                                Suzuki     SV650                      11,90sec                 190,3km/h

3. Bertie Barnard                                  Suzuki     TL1000                     11, 94sec                189,4km/h

 

1000cc

1. Michael Louw                                     Suzuki     GSXR1000             9,35sec                    229,3km/h

2. Gary Vandayar                                 Yamaha  R1                             9,55sec                    227,5km/h

3. Faze Mansur                                      Yamaha  R1                             9,75sec                    224,6km/h

 

1200cc

1. Dan Mansfield                                   Kawasaki ZX12R                    10,02sec                 214,5km/h

2. Adriaan De Villiers                           Kawasaki ZX12R                    10,27sec                 225,6km/h

3. Rudi Van Der Merwe                       Suzuki     GSXR1300             10,32sec                 208,9km/h

 

HIGHEST SPEED CLOCKED

1.           JACO VIVIERS                       Suzuki     GSXR1000             9.80sec                    239,13km/h