Book deals with no less than 50 chapters from 1900, through two World Wars and the height of the South Africa Grand Prix, to the present MSA4.
South African circuit racing has an incredible heritage spanning 125 years.
The beginning..
Starting with an eight-kilometre two-car race around the Newlands cricket grounds in 1900, the adventurous practice of matching horseless carriages against one another soon gripped motorists with the same intensity that it wields today.
Over the next two decades, speed events spread throughout the country via record runs between cities, hill climbs and gymkhanas.
With officialdom frowning upon the use of public roads for such activities, closed circuits came into being and, apart from interruptions due to two world wars, track racing took deep roots in South Africa.
The country has hosted 33 world championship Grands Prix and hundreds of local races.
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The first official South African motorsport championship was held in 1933, and the last in 1986.
At that time, dire economic straits precluded the running of exotic race cars on these shores and the concept of an overall South African title holder over all categories perished.
Even so, circuit racing in many categories survived and thrive to this day.
Amazingly, the full story has never been written. Until now.
Veteran motorsport journalist and racer Michele Lupini offers South African Champion, the Entire, Epic Grand Prix, Formula 1, Single Seater and Specials Story.
From town to track
The 306-page, 30 by 33 centimetre table book comprises 50 chapters in eight parts, telling the story of every title year.
The 1930’s motorsport community firmly believed that real race cars do not have doors. Thus, the worldwide trend put overall championship drivers in single-seater vehicles and that was the case in South Africa.
Lupini tells the story starting in 1900 and ending in the present day. He takes the reader through the formative years and into formal circuit racing, when the 24 km East London Prince George track hosted the first official South African Grand Prix.
Around 42 thousand spectators – the biggest South African crowd ever to assemble for a sporting event at the time – lined the route, to watch British racer Whitney Straight win the six-lap race in his supercharged Maserati.
The seed was sown, and other overseas teams came to race here in following years.
It led to the formation of the South African Sunshine Series, which boasted international races like the Grosvenor and Bluff Grands Prix in the Western Cape, before World War Two brought everything to a halt.
After the war, local motorsport resumed much as it first started, with speed trials, hill climbs and eventually a real race in the 1938 Natal Pat Fairfield Trophy. That led to the establishment of various circuits throughout the country.
Overseas teams came to visit, while South African drivers again showed their versatility by building “Specials” out of pre-war race cars and modified road machines.
All of the above is noted and illustrated with brilliant vintage photographs, the finding and selection of which must have taken months of meticulous research.
The first official South African Championship was declared in 1953, with Dougie Duff taking the title in his Riley Special.
International stars arrive
Lupini takes us from there through the years of Specials and the odd imported overseas cars.
That includes the 1960s with F1 cars powered by 1500 cc normally aspirated engines, both overseas and here.
That brought the F1 circus back to these shores and the book covers every South African Grand Prix held since, plus the South African Formula 1 Championships.
In the Sixties, the Grand Prix heroes included Jim Clark, Graham Hill, John Surtees, Jack Brabham, Trevor Taylor and Lorenzo Bandini.
Local names to remember include Ernest Pieterse, Peter de Klerk, Neville Lederly, Syd van der Vyver, Gary Hocking and Doug Serrurier.
Love vs Charlton
Then came John Love, who won his first title with a Cooper Climax in 1964.
He went on to win the South African title for the next four seasons in a row, and came very close to winning the 1967 South African Grand Prix.
Love was the first driver in the world to land cigarette sponsorship, with Gunston colours on his Repco Brabham from the middle of 1967. A good deal of space is dedicated to Love and his ultimate six titles.
That is also the case with Dave Charlton, who took a variety of cars to six national F1 titles, always in Lucky Strike livery.
Other locals who drove F1 cars here were Ian Scheckter with Lexington money in a Tyrrell, Eddie Keizan in an Embassy Lotus 72.
Just as an aside, Lupini notes that the 1971 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami was the first race ever to see F1 cars racing on slick tyres, with Goodyear and Firestone shod teams taking the plunge.
Our greatest moment came in 1975 when Jody Scheckter won the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami in a Tyrrell 007, but he was the only South African on the F1 grid.
As time went on, the racing of F1 cars in a national championship here became prohibitively expensive, and adding five-litre V8 engine vehicles to the mix did not solve the problem.
Formula Atlantic era
It finally died at the end of the 1975 season, to be replaced by Formula Atlantic for four-cylinder 1600 cc Cosworth BDD engines.
Ian Scheckter became the man to beat in the Lexington March, with his closest rivals Charlton in his Lucky Strike Modus, plus Tony Martin and Basil van Rooyen in Chevron derivatives.
Other regular contenders were Nols Nieman, Roy Klomfass, Trevor van Rooyen, Mike Domingo and Bernard Tilanus.
Sadly, the same old story prevailed – the cars became expensive, the privateers started falling by the wayside and to top it off, the cigarette money gradually disappeared.
In 1980, the Mazda Rotary 12A engine became the power source of choice, with local Mazda importer Sigma assisting with engines, starting money and parts.
The results were full grids, close racing and the return of Ian Scheckter, who dominated the next two seasons in a Gunston-liveried March 82/3.
Then, in 1986, President PW Botha made his catastrophic Rubicon speech, the economy nose-dived, Formula Two chassis’ became extremely expensive and sponsors left in droves.
Public interest waned and at the end of 1986, Wayne Taylor became South Africa’s last official overall drivers’ champion in a Ralt RT4 Mazda.
From Formula Ford to MSA4
Single seater racing reverted to Formula Ford and the Ford Motor Company provided five cars, one of which went to Jody Scheckter.
He won the 1972 championship and the Driver to Europe Award, which set him on the road to F1.
In 1988, many of the local single-seaters saw their cars becoming valuable overseas, due to the ever-plummeting Rand. Most of the cars were sold and the formula died.
In 1989, the powers that be announced Formula GTi, with cars using Formula 4 chassis and Volkswagen provided four-cylinder eight-valve Golf GTi engines.
There were soon full grids, and the discipline provided a ladder of opportunity to young drivers.
Cutting their slicks and wings teeth were people like Anthony Taylor, Michael Briggs, Chris Aberdein, Deon Joubert, Hennie Groenewald and Shaun van der Linde. But again, rising costs meant dwindling fields and the formula died.
Formula Ford got a boost in 1990, when the Ford Motor company insisted the cars change from their long reliable Kent engines, no longer built by Ford, to the new Zetec powerplant.
Prominent drivers included Robert Wolk, Johan Fourie, Jonathan and Mark du Toit, Morne Jurgens, Jayde Kruger and Brett Mayberry.
The formula – run until early this year – has now been replaced by MSA4 using Mygale chassis’ and powered by Volkswagen’s turbocharged one-litre three cylinder engines used in the Polo Vivo GT.
The book boasts hundreds of brilliant photographs, dozens of driver profiles and – a special bonus – a number of brilliant paintings by Lupini himself, whom this writer never knew as an artist.
The book will be available from southafricanchampion.com.
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