Yesterday the overseas TV channels were full of eyewitness reports of an executive jet coming down on houses near Biggin Hill.
Today I read that Richard Lloyd and David Leslie were among those killed. Both were stalwarts of the UK racing scene and both had enjoyed international success as well.
Richard raced at Kyalami in the 1974 9 Hours, sharing a Lola with Mervyn Tunmer. According to the programme notes, he had once been Cliff Richards’ manager. What is more certain is that he was a very successful team owner, in particular with a Porsche 962 and with Audi. As Murray Walker would say, unless I am very much mistaken, his 962 appeared in one of the very last Kyalami endurance races in Gunston livery. His Apex Motorsport team clinched a Le Mans win in 2003.
David Leslie was a saloon car ace with many wins when the BRDC series was the place to be.
For fuller details of their racing careers, take a look at www.autosport.com.
Saturday 29 March saw a round of Zwartkop’s Inland Championship. I had not been to one of these events before but, given my inbuilt prejudices against most things modern, was pleasantly surprised. The programme included two races each for HRCR cars, split over various classes, a trot for Pre-66 Legends as well as Historic Sports and GTs.
After a spell in one of the stands I moved down to the old tower at the hairpin, where I often find myself with no more than the odd passer by. Alack. This time the place had about ten teenagers getting progressively more drunk, foulmouthed and loud as the laps went on. The reason why I stopped going to Kyalami in the 80s. I abandoned my place and moved into the open beyond the hairpin and got hit by a heavy rainstorm. It was then that I noticed the signage on the tower ‘Luendo Youth League’. Clearly not open on race days, or perhaps it was.
Anyway.
The wet track produced some interesting stuff. Superkarts for one. Odd devices to my mind but I must tip my hat to them. The damp is a great leveller. The Du Toit Galaxie had a poor first race and started down the grid in the second race and was on tip-toes even more than the rest. My free downloads in the ‘Members’ area offer a graphic idea of what it was like. Even the two A35s had too much power or too little downforce for the conditions and both spun at the hairpin.
The Sports and GT race also produced some novelty. Tony Martin led uncomfortably in his Cobra but was going round the hairpin at barely tickover, like a hedgehog making love. Nonetheless experience told. Behind him, fellow Cobra drivers Westuson and Klinkerk had their hands full with the Morgan of Chris Clarke and Mike Altona’s Dart.
Join ‘Members’ and take advantage of free downloads from Zwartkops racing on 29 March 2008. NOT JUST HELMETS GOING AROUND CORNERS.
It is no secret that 2007 was not the year Honda had planned for their GP team. It seems an interviewer remarked to Rubens Barrichello that Jenson Button regarded the car as a dog. ‘Do you agree, Rubino?’ ‘Not at all’, was the answer, ‘I like dogs.’
Forty years ago entrance to the Nine Hour at Kyalami was R2,00 and a programme set you back 30 cents.
In the programme Basil van Rooyen told the truth about STP: ‘Is it a drug?, A secret society? A new oil perhaps?’; John Love extolled the virtues of Turtle Wax (both paste AND spray on); Dave Charlton at 252 Marshall Str (between the flyovers) offered tyres for whatever car you owned. |