Kyalami 9-hour is back!
Posted Thu, 23 Aug 2007
The 9-hour endurance race at Kyalami represents a significant slice of South African and world motorsport history — it’s a hallowed saga from a halcyon past that until now had been confined to the history books…
Now the Kyalami 9-hour is back, returning to celebrate those glorious long distance races in an all-new Revival meeting at the Johannesburg, South African circuit on Saturday 17 November — only this time in 2007 and as a preamble to the 50th anniversary Kyalami 9-hour in 2008.
One of the most evocative endurance races of the 1960s and ‘70s, the original Kyalami 9-hour would start at 2pm with the field thundering down the main straight into Crowthorne corner and on through the bright Highveld afternoon sunshine, into the evening and well into the night.
The world’s fastest, most significant racing sportscars from Ferrari, Porsche and Matra; Mirage, Lola and Chevron et al, mixed it with everything to the humblest of saloons — Toyotas, Minis, Fords and Renaults, Alfas and even Minis — around the great Kyalami racetrack. November Johannesburg thunderstorms would inevitably toss in an unexpected hurdle — ever seen a Renault R8 pass a Porsche 917? It happened at the 9-hour.
In 1970, Jacky Ickx and Ignazio Giunti managed to get the works Ferrari 512M 370 times around the then 4.096km Kyalami in nine hours — 1515.52 kilometres at an incredible 168km/h average to beat arch rivals Jo Siffert and Kurt Ahrens’ Martini factory Porsche 917K by a lap. The fastest 9-hour ever, it was the ultimate of so many greats featuring the world’s greatest ever sports cars driven by the greatest drivers on one of the world’s ultimate racetracks...
The Kyalami 9-hour also started off the Springbok Series every year — a championship of endurance races through the African summer from Welkom in the Free State via Lorenzo Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique to Natal’s Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town, among various other intriguing race venues…
Celebrating those great races, the Kyalami 9-hour Revival is open to Historic Sports, GT and Saloon cars that were eligible for the original Kyalami 9-hours and that made the race so special all those years ago. Cars will compete in three era classes of Pre-1966, Pre-’74 and Post-’72, comprising nine races run through a 9-hour period.
Each era will start with a sprint race around Kyalami, followed by a one-hour mini-endurance race per category before closing off with a night sprint per category after dark. A parade at the traditional finish time will wrap up proceedings before a buffet prize giving on Sunday morning.
Organisers hope that the 2007 Kyalami 9-hour Revival will attract overseas entries among a strong field of representative cars from the period still in South Africa, while plans are already well under way for 2008’s 50th anniversary 9-hour, which is expected to attract a strong overseas entry to a milestone weekend.
The Kyalami 9-hour Revival also offers international historic racers the opportunity to leave their cars in South Africa for three further events when the cars would otherwise normally be sitting in their winter cocoons. The annual Border 100 races at the historic East London Grand Prix circuit on 15 December and the already well-established and brilliant Springbok Series Revival Races at Zwartkops in Pretoria on 2 February and at Killarney in Cape Town on 9-10 February 2008 together offer a unique South African summer circuit for historic racers from around the world.
These four classic events not only give competitors the chance of entering all four meetings or choosing the best out of them to suit their own specific needs, but also to put together a great leisure and vacation programme around the various racing dates.
Revival organisers will arrange for the most favourable freight and shipping rates, cover the storage and accommodation of the local transportation of cars and crew to the various racetracks for all four races, but will also tailor make specific leisure, vacation and safari packages to ensure their time away from the racetrack takes full advantage of the very best South Africa has to offer — from beautiful beaches to the best of the bushveld and the rest in between.
For regulations and more information on the event well as freight, travel and accommodation arrangements on the 2007 Kyalami 9-hour 2007 along with advance information on the 50th Anniversary Kyalami 9-hour celebrations in 2008, contact michele@carsinaction.co.za.
