Revival attracts spectacular field
Posted Fri, 09 Nov 2007
The 2007 Classic Car Africa Kyalami 9-hour Revival at the Midrand circuit on Saturday 17 November has attracted a line-up that’s set to bring back halcyon scenes from each of the three 9-hour eras to be represented on the weekend.
There's the very Ferrari 275LM David Piper drove to win the ’64 9-hour, which is set to do battle with the Cobras, Ferraris, Corvettes and Jaguars just like he had to contend with back in the day in the Grand Central Trophy for Pre-1966 cars.
Add to that a field of Porsche 917s, Gulf Mirage, Ferrari P4 and Ford GT40s in the Pre-’77 Kyalami Trophy; and the Porsche 956 and 962Cs competing in the Pre-’88 Kyalami Cup, and fans are in for a race history lesson of note at Kyalami…
An incredible history
The original South African Nine Hour Endurance Race started at 2pm on Saturday 15 November 1958 when a Ferrari led a field of assorted racers away in a racing challenge until eleven that evening. A Porsche 356C won that race, but a GSM Dart Climax won the 9-hour a year later and a Porsche Speedster took honours in ‘60.
1961 saw the 9-hour move to the then brand new Kyalami racetrack, where the Porsche once again took honours, but ’62 saw the first overseas visitors come to race in SA’s greatest race. David Piper won his first 9-hour that year — a feat he repeated the following year in the same Ferrari 250 GTO.
The following year Piper raced the same Ferrari 275 LM he will drive again this weekend to victory in the ’64 9-hour. David would go on to two further back-to-back victories in a Ferrari P2 and a P2/3 in the following two years, before Jacky Ickx started his impressive run of 9-hour wins by taking wins in a Gulf Mirage in ’67 and ’68. Piper struck back for his sixth win in a Porsche 917 in ’69.
A year later Ickx and Ignazio Giunti scored perhaps the most emphatic 9-hour win ever when they completed 370 laps to beat the factory Martini Porsche 917 by a lap in the works Ferrari 512 M. Ferrari continued to dominate in 1971 and ’72 when Clay Regazzoni took back-to-back wins in a 312P and a 312PB respectively.
A Porsche 908 won the ’73 9-hour and Matra Simcas raced to a 1-2 in the ’74 race shortened to six hours in the middle of the fuel crisis. The race became the Wynns 1000 in ’74, when it catered for highly modified production based cars with victory going to the likes of Zakspeed Ford Escorts and a BMW CSL Batmobile with SA ace Jody Scheckter taking a couple of wins in that era. A Datsun 160Y, believe it or not, ran in to a reliable victory in ’78 when the fancied runners all retired.
A BMW M1 took the ’79 win and a Porsche 908 won the ’81 race that had returned to a 9-hour format, by then a round of the world sportscar championship. Ickx won his fourth 9-hour in a Rothmans Porsche 956 in 1982, a 956 won again in ’84 and the Martini Lancias dominated the following year. But a pair of Porsche 956s beat the more fancied 962s to win the last endurance race at the great old Kyalami in 1986…
Time to recall a legend
So Kyalami changed and the great endurance races that had become legend became a thing of the past, staying as just a vivid memory.
Now the Kyalami 9-hour returns — not as a flat out race as a for modern cars, but in the form of a revival designed to recall those magic years. Promoted, organised and run by Classic Car Africa magazine, the Sports Car Club (which organised all the original 9-hour races), and Kyalami, the first 9-hour Revival is split into three classes that represent the three principal eras of the original races.
And the Pre-1966 Grand Central Trophy, the Pre’77 9-hour Trophy and the Pre-‘88 Kyalami trophy have each attracted an entry worthy of the eras they respectively characterise…
The event sees each class running in three race heats, every one with a compulsory pit-stop where crews can change drivers, refuel or just wait for the obligatory minute to tick by. The Grand Central trophy kicks the Revival off at midday with the traditional hooter blasts leading up to a 45-minute race off a Le Mans-style start.
Similar first heats for the 9-hour Trophy and Kyalami Trophy classes will immediately follow that, before each class comes back for a one-hour race apiece. The final trio of races are a 30-minute night heat per class starting at 7pm before a full field parade to mark the end of 9-hour racing at 9pm…
The Grand Central Trophy – back to the beginning
Representing the first decade of the 9-hour, the Grand Central Trophy for car originally eligible for the Pre-1966 9-hour races is the oldest class running on the day.
Many of the cars that competed in the first race are represented including that ’64 9-hour winning Ferrari 275Lm driven by Englishman David Piper and Italian team-mate Mario Casoni, who shared one of Piper’s Porsche 917s in the 1971 event. Other international entries in the Grand Central Trophy include 1960s F3 drivers, Mike Knight and Frenchman Pierre-Francois Rousselot in an Austin Healey and the Dutch entry of Michiel Campagne’s fearsome yellow Chev Corvette.
They face a strong local entry including ex SA Drivers Champion and Daytona 24-hour winner Tony Martin’s Cobra, Paolo Cavalieri’s Ferrari 250 GT, a Jaguar D-Type and XK140, MGAs Lotus, and local heroes the Dart and Protea that both celebrate 50 years of production this year.
The rest of the well over 30-car Grand Central trophy is made up of giant-killing SA saloon cars of the era, including a swarm of Minis, a gang of Alfa Romeos and Fords, as well as Renaults, Volvos and Fiats that made those early 9-hour races so special.
The 9-Hour Trophy - the glory years
Kyalami’s greatest 9-hour races happened between 1966 and 1974, when that year’s event first formed part of the World Sportscar Championship. And just as the entry list back then swelled with the likes of Ferraris, Porsches, Mirages, Matras, Lolas and Chevrons, this year’s Pre-’77 entry is just as exceptional.
At least one Porsche 917 will be fighting for glory against its erstwhile rivals among the high quality field that also includes a few Ford GT40s and Ferrari P4s, Mirages, a Lola T70 and the Automa specially built for the 1970 9-hour race that all made the original 9-hour races their own.
A sparkling field of GT and Production Cars will mix it with the big ones just like they did back in the day – a selection of Porsches, Morgans and MGs fighting for a piece of the track with Trans Am Mustangs and Camaros, little Chev Can Ams and a fleet of Alfas, Fords, and Renaults among a field approaching 40 cars.
The Kyalami Trophy - monster action
The most modern Classic Car Africa Kyalami 9-hour Revival field, the Kyalami Trophy for Pre-1988 cars calls back a most interesting era in Kyalami’s endurance racing history.
Firstly, the 9-hour made way for a series of Wynns 1000km enduros in the late ‘70s — catering for highly modified production-based cars — before reverting back to sportscars and changing in format from a 1000km race to a 6-hour, back to a 9-hour and then a 500km sprint in the last ever race at the old Kyalami.
Back then the weapon of choice to win endurance races was the Porsche 962C, although that car was beaten by two of its 956 predecessors at the ’86 Kyalami 500.
The Kyalami 9-hour Revival not only welcomes the Trust Porsche 956 to the fold, but also the very first Advan and last Kenwood 962s, which is expected to be driven by none other than Sarel van der Merwe following owner and ex WRC star, Finn Harri Toivonen being sidelined with a shattered wrist.
Also on track in the most modern of the Revival races are a pair of C2 Tigas and Can Am Shelbys, a few Porsches including a 956C and 911 RSRs, a BMW 3.5 CSL Batmobile and the ex-Tony Viana Winfield BMW 735i.
A classic day’s racing
The Classic Car Africa Kyalami 9-hour revival is being run as a spectator friendly event with free access to the pits in an easy afternoon of classic racing entertainment.
A 9-hour Heroes Lunch will also see many of the legends that raced in the original 9-hour around and about the pits happy to chat and recall the past. Your entry ticket covers all grandstands and spectator areas, outside of hospitality areas, as well as the pits and paddock.
Gate entry is R25 with tickets available at the gate or in advance through Computicket.
Racing starts at midday following practice, qualifying and various parades and shows in the morning and there will be several stalls selling 9-hour memorabilia, models, paintings and books among other autojumble attractions.
The comprehensive Kyalami 9-hour website at motoring.iafrica.com/9-hour has all the details you need to know about the racing and the weekend in general.
