A personal view
My last visit to Kyalami was for the inaugural ‘revival’ last year. The entry was not bad, and included David Piper and Mike Knight from the UK.
Kyalami is by no means a spectator-friendly place. Where no high fences obscure the view of us lowly species, lofty hospitality chalets shun our presence.
This time I went out on the Friday and decided to explore a bit. The place was to all intents and purposes deserted. I found what was once the Sunset to Clubhouse section (I have pensioner status) and came across what I called the clubhouse but is now the new owner’s VIP Lounge. Frankly, it looked a bit unkempt. A solitary flag marshall had never heard of Clubhouse or the Esses and I think regarded himself as Post Seven or similar.
For those who prefer the good old days, I can report the primitive and rocky old access road around the outside remains the same, except to the right across the fence are up-market business units and to the left also across a fence are not so well kept hospitality units. I found no way up to Leeukop and was told entry was only from the bottom end on certain days (I guessed when Wesbank had their boma open) as the Leeukop Correctional Services had some control over access down those parts. So no species ever got there.
Anyway. I had another commitment on race day so took all my photos at practice, but race numbers only became available after three pm that afternoon (pity the poor historian). It was patently obvious attendance would be very low so I decided after all to return by noon on race day.
Was there a poor crowd? Actually ‘handful’ is the only word to use. Pathetic. Up at the VIP Lounge about 30 souls had gathered, a dozen of whom braai’d all day and set up a TV to watch rugby later.
The racing itself consisted of some 10 lap races for pre-1966, pre-1972 and post 1971 cars and then a three hour endurance race that ended at 18h30. Not that much close racing but it’s about the cars and there were some very good lookers, albeit a lot of replicas. Sadly, Terry Townsend’s rebuilt Mpiti failed to appear on race day and I missed the ‘Gordon Murray Special’ mmm??? and the Chev Biscayne.
Pictures are better than words. The ‘members’ section has free downloads of a number of competitors. The balance are in the main section of the website. Click on year ‘2008’, track ‘Kyalami’ and you will get them all; or select class ‘portrait’ for some general views, ‘saloons’ or ‘sports cars’ for just those categories.
I hope you will buy a few.
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