Ready for the racetrack, Ballito’s Trevor Graham has a Cobra for every occasion

Trevor Graham, Ballito native and car enthusiast, is primed to get back to the racetrack. 

With Red Rooster, a Backdraft Cobra roadster for racing, and a brilliant blue ‘Sunday car’ for the weekends, Trevor has a Cobra for every occasion. 

Motoring has been a hobby from a young age for Trevor whose love for racing came from his father.

“My dad used to race bikes and enduro,” said Trevor, which also became his lifelong passion and he now competes regularly in the South African Endurance Series. 

Racing is a naturally socially distant sport, and has been able to carry on almost as normal under the lockdown measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic over the past few months.

The first two races in the series, at Zwartkops and Port Elizabeth, went by without a hitch and Trevor will now turn his attention to East London where he and co-driver Brian Martin will be competing on September 5.

Endurance races in this series are generally 4 or 6 hours, with a 9-hour finale at Killarney race track in December.

This means driving duties need to be shared and no time is to be wasted in the competitive event.

Trevor and Brian have had success recently, winning their GT5 Class in both 2018 and 2019 and are hoping to make it three in a row this season.

Although termed a hobby, racing at this level is a time-consuming endeavor. 

Trevor recalls a recent weekend: “I worked for three days, 12 hours a day.” 

With no real prize money to speak of, drivers are reliant on sponsors and are often out-of-pocket for general upkeep and maintenance expenses.

“We race for the love of it and for prestige.”

When not flying by in the Red Rooster, Trevor uses his other Cobra, which is street-legal and has an extra seat for a passenger making it more suitable for use on the weekends.

It is part of a series of turnkey minus cars manufactured at Backdraft’s South Coast facility. These are chiefly made for international export, but with an output of 20 a month, many find their way into South African homes. 

Ballito residents may have seen the bright blue Cobra, decked out with racing stripes as a hint to the power of its Ford V8 Engine, but for a glimpse of the Red Rooster they will need to get down to the track.