GLOBAL MOTORSPORT OVERVIEW
By Roger McCleery
Big time motorsport
hits Knysna
There are two premier motorsport events that provide exciting
entertainment in South Africa each year.
A
t the end of January the Classic
Festival of Speed at Zwartkops
Raceway outside Pretoria
sees 300-plus historic racing cars and
motorcycles gathering from all over
the world to do battle and provide a
weekend feast of competitive, high
speed motorsport.
Run by people who know and are
passionate about their motorsport,
some talented folk in Knysna led
by Ian Shrosbree, Francis Cussens,
Chick Ramsay and Geoff Goddard
have married Jaguar cars to their
2km Simola Hill Climb.
They bring a 120 car field of Historics
and Classics, plus the most powerful
sports racing sedan vehicles together
for a weekend of unending enjoyment
in front of the biggest crowd in years to
watch motorsport in this country.
Jaguar has a long history in world
motorsport dating back to the 50’s when
their cars were raced by the likes of
Fangio and others and were winning at
Le Mans.
In the 90’s Silk Cut Walkinshaw Jaguars
won two 24 hour Le Mans Classics.
Now Jag have found a great event to
support on the Garden Route.
It gets better as there is a museum in
Knysna with historic Jaguar cars.
It gets even better than that as the CEO
of Jaguar in South Africa, Kevin Flynn,
is passionate about his Ian Callum
designed Jags (not hard to do).
He joined in the activities of the Hill
Climb with total enthusiasm which has
spread down to his staff.
The overall result; A memorable
weekend of top cars and motorsport
enjoyed by the locals and hundreds of
people from all over South Africa who
made a pilgrimage to this special part of
the country.
Peter Lindenburg, who I thought was
going to give a Range Rover Sport
a demo run, was spectacular in a
standard 4x4, going sideways and
finishing just ten seconds off the fastest
recorded time in his first ever Hill Climb.
They were all there to watch a different
kind of event – a Hill Climb that wends
its way up through the spectacular
Simola golf course with the Knysna
Heads as a backdrop.
The sterile over-regulated Formula
Yawn, now an Economy Run on
degrading Pirelli tyres that decide the
outcome of a Grand Prix, is going
Hamilton’s way now he has overtaken
Rosberg for top spot in the F1
Championship.
Franco Scribante (Chevron) joined
the names of Sarel van der Merwe,
Geoff Mortimer, Wilhelm Baard and
Jade Gudzeit who were named the
Knysna “King of the Hill” in 2009, 2010,
’11 and ’12.
Scribante winner of both the Classic
Car event of the Friday and the Top Ten
shoot-out on the Sunday broke the Hill
record by a brilliant .8 seconds, which is
just half a blink. The first five cars were
within a second of each other.
Most powerful car on the track was Des
Gudzeit in his “Silver Bullet” Nissan
Skyline GTR with 1000 hp under the
bonnet. Six seconds after launch, he
was doing 200 kmh into the first corner
just 200m away.
Across the finish line 2km away up
a very steep hill, Des was touching
a breathtaking 265 kmh. Overall he
was only .6 of a second slower than
Scribante.
A media challenge in standard
XF Saloons was won by Classic
Performance Car Africa’s Stuart Grant,
who came from behind in the final run.
He was ahead of Jesse Adams (The Star)
and Angus Thompson, from Top Car.
| Wheels in Action
90
june 2014
Moto Grand Prix for motorcycles
continues to be the most spectacular
motorsport on the planet, followed by
the World Superbikes.
South African teenager, Jordan Pepper,
leads the International VW Scirocco
Cup in Germany, (won by 17 year old
Kelvin van der Linde in 2013).
Le Mans happens in the
middle of this month
(June) and is going to
be awesome. Current
winners, Audi, now have
their cousins, Porsche
to contend with whilst
Toyota, 2nd at Le Mans
last year, have won the
first two Endurance Races
this year at the Silverstone
1000 and the Spa 6-Hour in
Belgium.