The Historic Times - Historic Racing South Africa

The Historic Times
Volume 10 issue 6
June 2009
Historic Racing Car Register
Only the g reat die young!
Ayrton Senna was born on 21 March 1960, the second
child of Milton da Silva, a successful businessman and
landowner. The family lived in Santana, a well-to-do
neighborhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Growing up Ayrton was
an awkward child and was later
diagnosed as having a motor coordination problem. His doting father, who was a motor racing enthusiast, noticed how his serious
little son was also attracted to
cars. The senior da Silva had
amongst his many holdings a car
components company and believed that cars would be the key
to reach his son’s potential. At the
age of four Ayrton was presented
with a 1-hp kart and getting behind
the steering wheel he was a different boy, no longer awkward but
focused and confident. The key
had been found and every weekend the family would go to local
parks where Ayrton could drive his
kart. He was an indifferent student
but facing the loss of his "driving"
privileges he would apply himself
as best he could while his heart
was obviously elsewhere. At the
age of eight he was driving the
family car and looked to Europe
and the exploits of Jim Clark and
Jackie Stewart as his inspiration.
During this time the first great Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi
was beginning to make a name for
himself driving for Colin Chapman’s Lotus. On his tenth birthday
his father gave him new full-size
100cc kart. Since the minimum
age for racing karts in Brazil was
thirteen, Ayrton had to settle for
Continued on page 6
Committee contact details
Historic Racing Car Register
Chairman
John Reidy
Vice Chairman
Barry Scott
Chairman of Touring Cars
Alan Poulter
Chairman of Sport & GT
Mike Altona
Chairman of Marque Cars
Howard Nel
Chairman of Historic Modified
James Bennett
Editor of the Historic Times
Terence Tracey
082 789 6555
011 314 2006
082 409 2493
083 601 7511 ttracey@polka.co.za
Club Secretary
Tracy Cilliers
082 330 3446
Competition Secretary
Harry Lombard
084 385 6632
Historics is happiness.
Page 3
DYNOTUNING IS OUR SPECIALITY
WE SERVICE AND MAINTAIN ALL MAKES AND
MODELS OF CARS, LDV’S AND 4X4’S
IN OUR FULLY EQUIPPED WORKSHOP
P. O Box 3282
Alpine Developments (Jhb.) (PTY) LTD.
TURBOS
TURBOCHARGER AND SUPERCHARGER SPECIALISTS
FOR REPAIRS, NEW AND RE-CONDITIONED UNITS,
SPARES AND SERVICE
TURBO AND SUPERCHARGER SYSTEMS INSTALLED.
INTERCOOLER KITS FOR MOST TDI MODELS AND
CUSTOM MADE INTERCOOLERS AND CHARGECOOLERS.
PERFORMANCE CHIPS INSTALLED AND WE CAN
TUNE AND MAP MOST MAKES OF CHIP
ALPINE DEVELOPMENTS (JHB)(PTY)LTD.
P.O. Box 552, FERNDALE 2160, SOUTH AFRICA
TEL. :- +27 11 792 5300 FAX :- +27 11 792 3930
Email :-info@alpinedevelopments.co.za
Honeydew 2040
011 794 12 12
Email: info@alpinedevelopments.co.za
Volume 10 issue 6
Page 4
TO WHOM IT CONCERNS
THANKS A MASSIVE AMOUNT!
Page 5
offered help, advice and bits
along the way.
It makes one appreciate the
fact that there are still people
out there willing to help when
things get tough.
Hopefully one day I will be
able to repay your kindness
and hopefully your racing will
be long and successful.
From this …...
PHOTO COURTSEY OF MICHELLE PERRY
After my big prang in
Welkom at the beginning of
the season, I was a little concerned about getting my race
car back onto the circuit in
good time.
Once I started stripping the
car, the further I went, the
more broken bits I found.
As in times when you need
help, plenty came my way
and this helped me to get
back out there again.
I feel that I need to thank
and appreciate where and/or
whom help came from even if
it was physical, bits offered
and /or financial contributions.
My Sponsors A-B Brickworks
and Vamp who contributed
although the car was off the
circuit momentarily, My wife,
son and daughter ,My
neighbor Louis and his son,
Eugene Gouws, Ferdi and
Martin Radel, Garrin and the
Volkspares group, Thys
Mostert, Billy Matthee, Ian
Richards ,George Nel, Roberts family and all others who
I finally got my brakes
sorted after many moons
when I found that some of the
rubber brake pipes were
“ballooning" when the pedal
was being pumped. This was
after I had removed, stripped,
re-assembled and bled the
brakes about six times. I was
even thinking about overhauling the calipers although they
weren’t leaking any fluid.
I rectified this by replacing
the pipes with steel braided
brake pipes, making the
pedal nice and hard - the way
I like the pedal to feel. It is a
bit costly, but I think worthwhile.
Harry Lombard
PHOTO COURTSEY OF TANZIMCGREER@YAHOO.COM
.
To this …...with a little help from my friends!!!
Page 6
Only the g reat die young!
http://www.ayrton-senna.com/s-files/picsf07.html
The Final Shot
practicing at Parque Anhembi, the local kart circuit. In
1972 Brazil had its first World
Champion in Fittipaldi and the
following year it’s first Grand
Prix at Interlagos, just outside
of Sao Paulo. The race was
won by the reigning World
Champion and all of Brazil
celebrated. In the midst of
this excitement was a young
boy who dreamed of being
not the next Fittipaldi or
Jackie Stewart but the best
ever.
He was finally thirteen and
could race legally. His first
race was that same year and
held at the karting track,
which was part of the Interla-
gos complex. Arrayed against
him were all of the local hot
shots including Mauizio Sala.
Ayrton displaying all of the
pent up energy he had built
up to this seminal moment
won the race. The adult
Senna would later relate that
karting was the perfect breeding ground for future racecar
drivers. In 1977 Ayrton won
the South American Kart
Championship and repeated
the following year. The goal
for any aspiring karting driver
was Europe and the World
Championships at Le Mans.
Against much stronger com-
petition Ayrton managed to
finish sixth overall which was
considered sensational for a
driver with his experience, but
he came away disappointed
in not winning any of the
three races which constituted
the final. In 1979 he returned
to Europe for further seasoning and finishes second in the
World Championships at
Estoril. Nivelles in Belgium
the following year saw another second.
He came to England in 1981
to race Formula Ford 1600
for Ralph Firman and his Van
Diemen team. Now married
to Liliane Continued on page 10
Volume 10 issue 6
Page 7
Classic Classifieds
1977 Alfa Alfetta GTV. Ready to race. Two sets of tyres and rims. R35 000
Dave Wray 084 552 4078
2006 CRG, Road Rebel with PCR 100cc motor. Chassis raced twice. Ready
to race. Spare tyres. R12 500
Jarryd Wray 084 405 4427
2000 Birel with Yamaha 100cc motor. Good condition. Ready to race. R8 500
Jarryd Wray 084 405 4427
Honda CBX, 6 cylinders with Pro-link suspension. R20 000.
Dave Wray 084 552 4078
Shamrock Cobra with 350 Chevy, Auto box, Jag suspension, 4 barrel Holley,
high rise inlet manifold. R125 000
Dave Wray 084 552 4078
Cobra chassis with BMW back end and Jaguar front end, as new. R10 000
Dave Wray 084 552 4078
Tow in comfort…
1992 Mercedes 500SE (Last of the 126)
Powerful, comfortable, reliable & economical.
I have owned the car for the last 8 years and it has been well
maintained as a company car.
R35, 000 ono Nigel Stokes 082 9077752
Page 8
Volume 10 issue 6
Anonymous letter from a well respected Pace
car driver
Rolling Starts
General
There are five main points one needs to remember with rolling starts.
1.
Improving your allocated starting position is forbidden even if vehicles are missing on the
grid ahead of you.
2.
Please do not leave more than one vehicle length between you and the next vehicle in
the grid position ahead of you (not the vehicle directly ahead of you, but the vehicle to
your right or left of you).
3.
The lead/pole vehicle must maintain the pace set by the pace car when he left the track/
entered the pits. This speed may not exceed 100 kph.
4.
No competitor may accelerate until the lights go out/flag is dropped.
5.
You may not overtake the pole car until you have crossed the line.
Zwartkops
1.
Please line up in the pre race paddock in your allocated starting position.
2.
Please be ready to leave the pre race paddock the moment the green flag is shown.
3.
Your first lap is an opportunity to warm your tyres, Please do not dawdle around the circuit making everyone wait for you. This happens on a regular basis with Historics.
4.
Once bunched up behind the pace car do not leave large gaps to the vehicles ahead of
you to get a run at them. This is both illegal and dangerous and the vehicles following
you may assume that you have a mechanical problem and overtake you before the start!
Safety Car
There are four main points to consider when a safety car has been brought out because of an incident.
1.
You must reduce your pace when the SC boards come out and line up in single file
behind the safety car.
2.
You must maintain a following distance behind the vehicle ahead of you of no less
than one car length and no more than three car lengths.
3.
You may not overtake the safety car unless signalled by the safety car to do so.
4.
Overtaking is forbidden for all competitors until you pass the green flag at the start/
finish line once the safety car has left the track and the race has been resumed.
Members would do well to pay heed to these rules that are to be found in the white book,
for those of you who actually want to follow the rules, the rest of you I guess you could
just carry on in your ignorant way, until you et caught out that is, and then don’t cry! ED.
Volume 10 issue 6
Page 9
Chairman’s Chatter
Last month I got a slap on
the wrist from our Editor as I
forgot to write an article for
the newsletter. Sorry
Terence, I’ll try not to let it
happen again.
Well winter has arrived with
a vengeance, ten days ago I
was swimming in the Drakensburg and now it’s
snowing there. Admittedly it
was a heated pool but I
couldn’t attempt that now.
Zwartkops on the 9th May
was a good day’s racing
and saw a couple of guys
out for the first time. Welcome guys and I hope you
enjoy the club as much as
the racing. John Simpson
has written an article in this
newsletter spelling out the
procedures for rolling starts
as well as restarting after a
safety car incident. Both
very similar but some subtle
differences. Read it guys
and girls as I believe that
we all will learn something
from it. MSA has become
concerned at the situation
where someone can get a
racing license without ever
having been on the racetrack. It has concerned the
committee as well and it has
been decided to allocate a
mentor to each new member at their first race where
he/she will be guided
through the process of
flags, documentation, scrutineering, drivers briefing,
qualifying etc. We also are
in the process of getting an
experienced driver to spend
some time with the new
member taking them around
the track in their race car to
demonstrate the lines as
well as showing them how
and when to let other cars
through.
Just before going to the
Drakensberg, I attended the
MSA Annual General Meeting. It was well attended
and the main discussion
took place around the loss
of R 4.6 million MSA sustained by hosting a round of
the World Motocross Championship in 2008. By now,
you have all probably received the Email from MSA
where they layout the detailed income and expenditure for the event. Somehow
I don’t think we have seen
the last of this.
After the first Formula 1
race of the year, I fired my
favourite driver for lying. I
then employed a new favourite, who although he
has got a couple of pole positions, has only won one
race this year. Well that is at
least better than the other
eighteen drivers who have
not. Wow, what a sensation
the Brawn Team has been
this year and Jenson Button
in particular. Maybe we will
see an Englishman crowned
champion which will in
some way make up for their
cricket team who can’t even
beat Holland at cricket.
Talking of cricket; what a
huge success the IPL was.
Full stadiums, people glued
to their TVs, lot’s of talk at
the office etc. Maybe there
is something to be learned
from the marketing of that
event or was it merely the
fact that the public embraced the new form of
sport with open arms? I
don’t know, what are your
thoughts.
I became a grandfather for
the first time on Saturday
night. Daughter and granddaughter are both well and I
could not resist sharing
Emma Jade with you.
See you all on the 20th June
at Zwartkops.
JR
Page 10
Volume 10 issue 6
Only the g reat die young!
conditions and few could
match his skill under these
conditions. That first year in
England saw him win both of
the series that he contested.
Ayrton was now at a crossroad in his life and to continue his racing career he
would need sponsorship.
With several other Brazilian
drivers ahead of him in
higher formulas the sponsorship money required was not
available. Frustrated, Ayrton
announced his retirement
stating that a bad driver with
money could always get the
been extinguished continued
to burn inside him and he
made the decision to return
to motor racing, his wife
would not. Having grown up
in a life of luxury Liliane
knew that life with Ayrton
would be difficult and that
many sacrifices would be
necessary as he struggled to
move up the ranks. They
mutually decided to separate
and his father would provide
partial sponsorship in addition to a Brazilian bank for
another year of racing. In
1982 he won 22 races and
best car but a
good driver without the same
was left out. He
returned to Brazil
and worked in
his father’s building
supplies
business. After
four months the
fire that had not
the championship for that
year.
The next stop would be Formula Three, which was the
last step before Formula 1.
The British Formula Three
Championship was made up
of 20 odd races and proved
the perfect test of man and
Vasconcelos and living in a
rented bungalow near Snetterton he quickly adapted to
the 1600 cc cars. Races
were held almost every
weekend and at Brands
Hatch, Ayrton debuted in
eighth place. A week later at
Thruxton he was third. That
year there were three series
running concurrently, two of
which he contested, and he
soon found himself back at
Brands Hatch. Van Diemen
seeing the potential in their
young driver assigned him
their newest car, which he
promptly put on the pole.
The race was run under wet
Page 11
Volume 10 issue 6
Only the g reat die young!
machine. Two drivers entered 1983 as pre-season
favorites, Ayrton Senna, as
he was now known and the
great British hope Martin
Brundle. Senna promptly
ran up nine straight victories
before crashing out in practice for the next race which
was won by Brundle. The
series now became a contest between the two preseason favorites with neither driver backing down.
The Championship would
be decided in the final race
at Thruxton. Senna, showing the determination and
attention to details that
would be his hallmark, had
his engine re-built and tuned
by the master tuners Novamotor of Italy. Senna took
pole and won the race and
the title going away. The
end of the year for Formula
Three was celebrated in the
Portuguese enclave of
Macau at the Macau Grand
Prix with drivers from all of
the national series. Senna
won and negotiations between him and a number of
Formula One teams became serious. This also became a time where Senna
was introduced to the politics of the senior Formula.
After wanting to go to Brabham but being vetoed by
Piquet, Toleman became
his only option. Strictly a
second-tier team, Toleman
was able to sign the most
promising driver in a generation to a three-year contract.
Senna made his Formula
One debut in front of his
home country in 1984 driving for the Toleman team
but things were different
then Formula Three. Here
even the best driver without
the right car and engine
would not be able to make
much of an impression on
the leader board. The team
would eventually form the
basis for the Benneton team
but at that time was strictly a
back marker and the best
that he could do was qualify
eighth. The next race at San
Marino was a new experience for Ayrton; he failed to
qualify. After the initial series of races in his inaugural
season the results were
slow in coming. For the
French Grand Prix he was
given a new car but the results were the same when
he suffered turbo problems
and had to retire. The next
race was at Monaco and
Senna qualified well back in
thirteenth place. The
weather was run under
threat of rain and Senna began to feel that he might
have his first real opportunity. Wet weather, as it always was in racing is the
great leveler and by the seventh lap Senna was in sixth
place. On lap eleven he almost crashed when he
jumped a curb and the Toleman became airborne. Prost
who was in the lead came
upon Teo Fabi who had
spun and stalled in the middle of the track. Just narrowly missing Fabi’s car he
struck one of the track marshals. Not knowing weather
he had killed the poor man,
he hadn’t, Prost was shaken
by the incident. Mansell, a
much harder fellow saw the
opening and assumed the
lead. Once ahead he began
Continued on page 16
Page 12
Volume 10 issue 6
TERRY’S TRIVIA
A group of about sixty
fans and friends of Jackie
Pretorius gathered recently at Kyalami to scatter his ashes and a short
and moving service was
conducted by Peter Du
Toit in a room adjoining
the Marshall’s clubhouse.
Everyone then walked
across to where it was
considered Jackie would
have braked for the old
Sunset bend which was
on the old circuit ( Dave
Charlton calls it the real
Kyalami) This was entered at a much faster
speed having just flown
down the hill from Crowthorne and then leaving
Barbeque and Jukskei at
a great rate of knots,
which meant that the
speed along the back
straight was considerably
higher than that achieved
these days.
Peter had requested anyone having memorable
stories to add their
thoughts to the gathering
and naturally these
raised a good few chuckles. I enjoyed Eddie Keizan’s story that he first
met Jackie in the pub of
the old Kyalami Ranch
Hotel—Eddie describes
his Motorsport involvement at that stage as a
“spanner boy” for John
Conchie—Jackie and his
conspirator in crime,
Doug “Screw” Serurrier
had been practicing and
Doug was busy telling his
beloved Doreen via the
pub phone that the reason why they were late
was because they were
still busy at the track carrying out some urgent
testing. To make the
story more plausible
Jackie was running back
and forth past the phone
making race car sounds--rrrraugh—rrrraugh!
Jackie’s choice of drink
was always Cappies and
Coke and I observed
several of these going
down the hatch by most
of his pals, in memory of
Jackie-- of course.
http://www.carsinaction.net/userfiles/image/
newsletters/lb_3039jackie6.jpg
Co
Page 13
Volume 10 issue 6
TERRY’S TRIVIA
http://www.toys-b2b.com/b2b/electronic_pets/5/
The little poem which the
tough, obstinate, outrageous man used to recite
---totally out of character
and not only when he
was stone cold sober
was supplied by Paddy
Green –Basil’s lady:-
MISS BEETLE
Miss Beetle kept a shoe shop inside a hollow Oak
Her customers were Pixies and other little folk
So many shoes and slippers she kept inside her store
There were teeny weenie boxes from the ceiling to the floor
There were shoes for Daddy Long Legs, a funny shape indeed
And a box of quite a hundred for Sammy Centipede
There were party shoes for Field mice in 1’s and 2’s and 3’s
And Country boots for Hedgehogs and Garden boots for Bees.
But, right up on the top shelf, hidden out of sight
She kept her magic slippers that fairies wear at night
The toes and heels of moonlight and buttons made of dew
How would I’d love to buy some –wouldn’t you?
.7gad
/www
http:/
tent/
p-con
om/w
gets.c
Continued overleaf
Page 14
Volume 10 issue 6
TERRY’S TRIVIA
Having always regarded
Jody Scheckter as a Super Star it only added
more to the admiration
felt for the man to discover recently an article
in Autosport which shed
more light on the career
of this remarkable South
African.
Most of us feel good
when the team or competitor that we are rooting
for succeed and win and
often it is almost as if we
have contributed something
to that triumph.
This is especially true
when our country is involved. However, motor
racing being of a particular competitive nature often produces occasional
evidence of sour grapes
and it was in a way
amusing to listen to some
of the comments when
Jody was making his way
up. Like I said sour
grapes.
comments from the
Knowledgeable
who
were aware that the car
had been provided by
Ford SA and prepared by
Basil Green and Doug
Serurrier and should
have been tops ,but on
the way home my wife,
who had watched the
race at that corner, remarked to me that she
had seen a driver in my
race—the same event
(which I didn’t win) and in
her opinion although he
spun a few times—he
was championship material. And don’t we all
know, our wives are
never wrong!
I have always felt that
more acclaim should
have been directed towards Jody Scheckter,
our first and only F1
World Champion in
1979 and apart from that
title who could forget his
exciting win in the
1975 South African GP.
After Jody’s first Formula
Ford race at Kyalami
where he spun on almost
every lap at Clubhouse
and finished nowhere
there were some “catty”
Due to financial priorities
I had swapped my racing
car for
racing takkies (only difference is that now I can’t
even run ) and we
booked seats in the
grandstand near the
Kink, and there was that
feel good vibe as our
man Jody swept to victory in his Tyrell-Ford.—
Magic day!
Because of our disgusting political status at that
time-- which we had even
experienced when I represented RSA at the
Nurburgring- Jody did not
enjoy the rave and financial rewards which normally accompany the
winning of the world title
and I’m sure this must
have been disappointing.
However, the story in
Autosport revealed just
how much determination
the man has, the friendship and respect that he
and Giles Villeneuve had
for each other. His fights
to improve the safety
side of motor racing ,
where he maintains that
FISA (the then governing
body) had no respect for
the drivers' lives . He
Continued on page 18
Self Catering
Accommodation
From R250 pp sharing
Thorntree is situated in Chartwell, just off Cedar Road, 25 minutes from Zwartzkops, and 20 minutes from Kyalami. We are 3 minutes away from Broadacres shopping centre. Broadacres Shopping centre hosts a Barnyard theatre and a variety of restaurants and fast food outlets. Fourways
Mall, Cedar Square and Monte casino facilities, offer full shopping, movies, theatre and casino
entertainment, are all within 5kms of Thorntree.
Thorntree offers a variety of fully furnished accommodation in a tranquil country setting. We cater for the single guest to full self-catering units for two to six people. Braai facilities, large lapa
bush pub.
Thorntree is also the ideal venue for medium to large private functions from casual spitbraais to
full service formal events. No venue hire.
For the Racing enthusiast we also have a fully operational and exceptionally versatile workshop
which includes a four poster lift, engine hoist, various welding applications including (MIG, TIG,
Aluminium and gas welding) Lathes and Milling machines to mention just a few.
Contact: Val to book or for more details. Cell: 082 555 3202
Email: thorntreebb@iburst.co.za - www.thorntreebb.co.za
Page 16
Volume 10 issue 6
Only the g reat die young!
t o
stretch his lead quickly, a
little to quickly and spun into
the Armco barrier. Lauda
who was in second place
made a small error and also
spun out. On lap 20 Prost
led the oncoming Senna by
33.8 seconds. On lap 31 the
gap was reduced to 7.4 seconds. The weather conditions continued to be treacherous and every time that
Prost crossed the finish line
he would signal for the race
to stop. On lap 31 the race
was stopped and Senna was
denied his first victory but
the legend was born.
Monaco would prove the
highlight of the season but
for Senna it wasn’t enough.
It was plain to him that he
would need a stronger supporting cast if he wanted to
challenge for the Championship.
Senna had been secretly
negotiating with Lotus for the
following season and even
though he had a three-year
contract with Toleman he did
have a buy-out clause. Lotus
represented to the young
Senna the pinnacle, the
team of Clark and Fittipaldi,
Gerhard Berger, won back
to back titles while being involved in fierce battles with
Prost and Nigel Mansell.
Eventually the loss of Honda
power and the rise of Renault would bring about the
decline of McLaren.
but Lotus had been on the
downward slope after the
death of their founder Colin
Chapman. To his new team
Senna was the man to return them to the top. After
showing the racing world a
glimpse of the future at
Monaco, Senna was more
determined than ever to
break through. Driving in
treacherously wet conditions
he would win his first race at
Estoril. This was followed by
another win at Spa, Belgium.
But even Senna could not
return Lotus to their prior
glory and in 1988 he moved
to McLaren. Ironically instead of vetoing Senna as
his teammate, Prost initially
welcomed the Brazilian. At
last all of the pieces were in
place and that year saw him
win 8 races and his first
World Championship. In
1989 he came in second to
his teammate Alain Prost
despite having more wins.
The relationship between
the two had deteriorated to
the point where Prost left
McLaren to join Ferrari. In
1990 and 1991 Senna, now
joined at McLaren by
Only Senna’s brilliance remained and in 1994 that too
left. Joining Williams was a
goal that he had long
sought, even offering to
drive the Williams for free at
one point. The new season,
which began with so much
promise for Senna, ended
almost before it began when
he crashed fatally at Imola.
The Grand Prix world was
already reeling from the
death of the young Austrian
Roland Ratzeberger and the
serious practice crash of
Rubens Barrichello. This final tragedy will haunt Formula 1 for many years. Ayrton Senna brought with him
seemingly limitless talent
and indomitable will to win.
On the track he could be almost belligerent yet off the
track he was just beginning
to show a more generous
and thoughtful demeanor to
the outside world that those
who knew him best had always known was there.
Those brief shining years
wh e n A yr t o n S e n n a ,
Mansell, Prost and Piquet
would fight tooth and nail for
the slightest advantage both
on and off the track seem
like so long ago.
http://www.ddavid.com/
formula1/ayrton-senna.htm
Volume 10 issue 6
Page 17
Page 18
Volume 10 issue 6
TERRY’S TRIVIA
comments on the 6
wheeled Tyrell which he
did not believe in although he gave it a victory in Sweden, the one
and only achieved with
the car. Then in a massive leap of faith in 1977
he switched to the WolfFord and won first time
out in Buenos Aires,
again in Monaco and finally in Canada to finish
second to Lauda in the
championship.
1979 was the Ferrari and
World championship year
with wins in Belgium,
Monaco again and at
Monza, plus solid places
at other races to ensure
clinching the title. Jody’s
teammate was Gilles Villeneuve and as mentioned before were great
pals and during the SA
GP Jody’s Ferrari was
delayed with tyre problems but he was soon
back in the hunt closing
on Gilles and although
the team orders prohibiting him from overtaking if
there was no opposition ,
he was actually in two
minds about doing it “but
anyway, thank Goodness
I didn’t –Gilles and I
trusted each other.
We kept a very good relationship throughout”
After retiring he quietly
pushed off to America
and started from scratch
with a gun stimulator
which he had designed
on the kitchen table forming a company FATS—
Fire Arms Training Systems eventually selling
out for a hundred million
dollars—Police and armies in 30 countries have
used it for training marksmen.
Always a fitness fanatic
he was invited to compete in the
1981 World Superstars
Competition and won it,
beating Olympic athletes
in the process during
events featuring running,
weight lifting, rowing, tennis, cycling, basketball,
gym tests and swimming—“racing drivers are
not expected to be ath-
letes” He still plays tennis
and squash and trains
daily in his own gym.
Then to crown it all he
has a 3000 acre organic
biodynamic farm in
Hampshire. Starting as a
means of producing
healthy and great tasting
food for his family he
then made it his business. There are various
outlets supplying water
Buffalo cheese and milk
( half of the amount produced from a cow but
with less cholesterol)
hams and salami, Gourmet Burgers and organic
beer. In America he even
had Bison which he says
a re more aggressive and
can even jump over
fences. A remarkable
man and one that South
Africa can truly be very
proud of.
Article prepared and
lovingly
written
by
Terry Townsend
http://grandprixinsider.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/gunston_71_pretorius_brabham_bt26a.jpg
Page 19
Volume 10 issue 6
FUNNY BONE CORNER
A lawyer was riding in his limousine
when he saw two
men along the road
side eating grass.
Disturbed, he ordered his driver to
stop and he got
out to investigate..
He asked one man,
Why are you eating
grass?
"We don't have
any money for
food," the poor
man replied. "We
have to eat grass."
"Well, then you
can come with me
to my house and
I'll feed you," the
lawyer
said.
"But sir, I have a
wife and two children
with
me.
They
are
over
there, under that
t r e e . "
"Bring them along,"
t h e
l a w yer
replied.
Turning to the
other poor man he
stated, "You come
with
us
also."
The second man, in
a pitiful voice,
then said, "But sir,
I also have a wife
and six children
w i t h
m e ! "
"Bring them all, as
well," the lawyer
a n s w e r e d .
They entered the
car, which was no
easy task, even for
a car as large as
the limousine was.
Once
underway,
one of the poor
fellows turned to
t h e
l a w yer
and
said,
"Sir, you are too
kind. Thank you
for taking all of us
w i t h
y o u .
The lawyer replied, "Glad to do
it. You'll really
love my place. The
grass is almost a
foot high ''
Mirth supplied by
Pam and
Townsend
Terry
Page 20
Volume 10 issue 6
Mirth sluppied by
Terry Townsend
Robertson Crusoe: Tony Maggs,
South Africa’s Forgotten GP Ace
By Greg Mills
follow family tradition. However,
the racing bug bit after he bought
a ‘Riley 9’ for £60, at a time when
he was working as a ‘learnerfarmer’ for £10 per month. His
grandmother later helped him
purchase the aforementioned
Austin-Healey 100/6. But he realised that given the South African
racing handicap system, “the
better you went, the more you
got handicapped” and he decided, much against his father’s
wishes, to go overseas. After
some good results in a secondhand Lotus 11 raced on a shoestring budget funded partly by
delivering second-hand cars
around Britain, he bought a Tojeiro-Jaguar ‘7GNO’ from Ecurie
Ecosse and shipped it back to
South Africa, using the car in the
1960 SA Grand Prix, a race won
by Paul Frere’s Cooper-Climax
from Stirling Moss’ Cooper Borgward. The Tojeiro, which
was equipped with a De Dion
back axle and inboard discs, ‘got
so hot to drive that the seals in
the diff would leak oil onto the
discs. Every time you touched
the brakes, the fumes would be
sucked into the cockpit making it
unbearable
to
drive.’
The heat had other costs: ‘I
brought the car out by boat, and
the car came out as unaccompanied baggage, and I drove it up
from Cape Town to the Transvaal. At the time I was a fan of
Chris Barber’s Dixieland Band,
which I had been introduced to
by Sir John Whitmore who drove
a Lotus Elite for Barber. However, the records which I had
stowed in my luggage melted
from the heat of the back-axle
and discs, taking the form of the
clothes.’
In 1960, he moved back to the UK
to drive a Gemini Formula Junior
and a F2 Cooper in which he
drove to a second, third, fourth
and the lap record at Snetterton
in just five outings. On the
strength of these performances
he was invited by Ken Tyrrell to
join his Formula Junior team with
Rhodesian John Love as his
t e a m - m a t e .
As Maggs recalls, “This was a
different time. With Tyrrell – quite
a character who loved to stir, and
one of whose favourite expressions was ‘drivers, they’re sh*t’ –
we drove the transporter, and
fetched the engines from BMC in
Birmingham by Mini van.” There
were plenty of off-track escapades too. “We once found ourselves at a shooting range in a
fun-fair after the races in the Formula Juniors. John was quite a
good shot and won a fluffy doll
for shooting down the targets.
Then he won another, and another. The owner got upset by
this and would not let him continue after he had won three or
four prizes after which an argument ensued. John then shot out
the light of the stall. The event
ended with the owner chasing
and shooting at John who leapt
onto the back of a man on a
passing motorised bicycle to
make his getaway!”
During 1961 there were plenty of
one-two finishes for the ‘Tyrrell
Twins’ that year in a racing sea-
son that took them all over
Europe. As Maggs recalls, “From
the team’s headquarters to the
cars themselves, they were
straightforward compared to the
highfalutin stuff you see today.
The hotels were probably the
cheapest, but that seemed to be
an acceptable part of racing then.
We had no fancy illusions of our
own importance.” With wins in
eight races at Goodwood, MagnyCours, Monza, Karlskoga, Zandvoort, Oulton Park and Montlhéry, the 24-year old Maggs
would share the European Formula Junior Championship with
the Lotus of a Swiss exmotorcyclist by the name of Jo
Siffert.
Magggs said of the cars of the
time that they “were very controllable. They would slide easily,
and the Coopers were always
very reliable. Some circuits were
more demanding to drive than
others. At Monaco, for example, I
calculated that I made a gearchange every one--and-a-half
seconds
for
two-and-aquarterhours of racing. No-one
ever spoke about safety, as it
was the same for all of us. I don’t
want to appear hairy-chested
about it, but danger was part of
the challenge. The only circuit
that tested my confidence was
the old Spa. There were big
drops on both sides, fast corners
with the car skittering on the
edge of traction, and in places
houses right next too the track.”
Of the drivers: “Clark was
smooth and very fast, taking a
different line to thee other drivContinued on page 26
Page 22
Volume 10 issue 6
Robertson Crusoe: Tony Maggs,
South Africa’s Forgotten GP Ace
By Greg Mills
The ‘Tyrrell Twins’: John Love and Tony Maggs, 1962.
(Photo: Courtesy Adri Bezuidenhout)
TONY MAGGS, who died on 2
June 2009, was South Africa’s
first Grand Prix ace, earning two
second places in the French
GPs of 1962 and 1963, two consecutive victories in the Kyalami
nine-hour sharing with David
Piper, and a number of top-six
sportscar finishes including at
Le Mans and Sebring.
ota bakkie was once his country’s top Formula One driver.
More than that, his career
quickly scaled great heights,
from his first race behind the
wheel of an Austin Healey in
Cape Town to a works F1 Cooper drive – one of the top three
teams of the time – just four
years later.
But very few living in the remote
Hemel-en-Aarde (Heaven and
Earth) valley, not far from the
Robertson wine district would
have realised that the man behind the wheel of the silver Toy-
Then Maggs disappeared as
suddenly as he had arrived on
the international scene, preferring life as a farmer and conservationist to the limelight of a F1
star. After a disastrous season
in the uncompetitive Centrosud
BRM team in 1964, he moved
back to South Africa where, following a bad crash at Pietermaritzburg’s Roy Hesketh circuit the following year, he left
the sport behind for good.
It was, however, a career that
might never have been at all.
Anthony Francis O’Connell
Maggs had been born in Pretoria
into a military family. His father,
Colonel Eugene Maggs, who
had had a distinguished war record notably in the Italian campaign, had expected his son to
Continued on page 21
There was a time when
famous Formula One drivers not only didn’t take
themselves that seriously
and also drove other race
cars in what one would
consider lesser classes of
racing such as sports car,
at the 24 hour bunfight in
France and certainly would
also race in Formula Two
events –sadly at such an
event in Hockenheim the
beloved Jim Clark was
killed-driving a totally uncompetitive Lotus which
saw him starting way back
on the grid. But that was
then and now the untouchables compete only in the
Elite category.
rick Head who used some
clever methods to keep
costs down. Rather than
going the route of the very
expensive carbon fibre they have used carbon
composites—suspension
components are largely
symmetrical and therefore
inter-changeable which obviously reduces the number of spare parts needed.
The JPH1 car was
designed entirely through
a CPD programme using
an outside contractor assisted by Patrick Head and
it was decided to NOT use
a wind tunnel which, apart
from pushing up casts
would also have interfered
st
However, May 31 with the continual developwill see the rebirth of the ment of William’s F1 effort.
Formula Two ChampionThe one make seship with the last race havries will not be linked to F1
ing taken place some 25
as is the GP2 championyears ago. Among the 33
ship, Palmer feels that the
provisional entries are
fees demanded would be
some famous names:astronomical and rather
Alex Brundle (Martin’s son)
than being linked to the F1
Henry Surtees (John Sursupport bill they prefer the
tees) Jolyon Palmer
deal arranged with Euro(Jonathan Palmer) Jack
sport which provides live
Clarke ( Roger) Jason
TV coverage.
Moore (soccer’s Bobby
Each driver has to
Moore?).
pay 100,000 pounds beThe brainchild of
fore the opening race at
former F1 driver Jonathe Valencia circuit and
than Palmer with design
then continue regular payassistance from Team Wilments throughout the sealiams and in particular Pat-
son. Anyone defaulting will
be replaced by others from
the waiting list of those
who missed the boat.
Palmer states that
all of the top GP2 teams
have massive budgets with
which they can “buy” an
advantage but “in F2 an
advantage cannot be
bought—it is like going into
the Lion’s Den and you
can be sure that the F1
teams will be watching to
see the super talent of who
wins here”
The initial JPH1 car
was launched recently and
although run with incorrect
tyres and wrong settings
was very impressive. The
tyres used were from the
Formula Audi -- special
new casings were not
ready and no suspension
adjustments were done at
the track because it was
merely a demo run with
testing still to be carried
out later. So watch this
space for what could be
some competitive competition
Pam and Terry Townsend
Page 24
Volume 10 issue 6
Classic Classifieds
HRCR Compliant 1975 Class F Corolla (car #163) Race ready.
With registered trailer
R50 000
Louis Brazer
083 795-2666
louis@brazer.co.za
Car trailer for sale R11,000 call Eugene 083 601 7511
Sunbeam Tiger wanted. In any condition. Phone Johann on 083 462 0419 or
Email Herman at herman_jooste@yahoo.com.
13 inch Split rims 108 PCD. (7 inch wide) R5,000
Call Alan
011 314 3720
VeeDub Beetle or floor pan required for re-build
Call 082 952 5724
1. Nomex.
I have a spare red nomex overall which is suitable for a beginer.
Will require wife/girlfriend to do a small amount of stitching.
I find it a bit tight for me (6' 1") so would suit someone a little shorter.
Price : gratis (or buy me a beer at the noggin!)
2. Racing seat.
'As new' Cobra "Trophy" seat. Colour black. (used in my Merc 500SEC for 1 season)
Price : around half of new price ex ATS
3. 4 point racing harness.
"As new" - 4" wide, Colour blue (used in my Merc 500SEC for 1 season)
Volume 10 issue 6
Page 25
Classic Classifieds
“Scalextrix”; Six lane (older style) track (approximately 6x40=240 metres) as
well as an additional 20 metres (plus) of spare track. Board included. Make me
a reasonable offer. Graeme 082 9012442.
“Double axle car trailer”: Urgent sale of very strong, quite neat (2 years old)
trailer with new tyres. Unregistered. R14,000-00 onco. Graeme 082 9012442.
“Cortina GT”; (MkII) Complete car undergoing restoration. Bodywork already
done (“Perana” metallic silver) and now ready for reassembly. Spare modified
1600 engine. R25,000-00 onco. Graeme 082 9012442.
Jaguar 3.4 engine & gearbox with O/D; ex MK VII. Numerous Jaguar (incl XK
140 and XJ6) manuals and XJ6 spares. Brand new rear screens for 3.8S / 420.
Moss gearbox with O/D (ex MKII). Offers; ideally for everything but will sell
items. Graeme 082 9012442
48 Side Draught Weber’s – R4000
Auto delta cams R3000
OMP high racing seat.
John 083 308 5754
Honda 400 Four for sale.
Exceptional condition, 1 very careful owner (Gavin Ritchie)
only P.O. A.
Gavin 083 653 773
Robertson Crusoe:
Tony Maggs,
South Africa’s
Forgotten GP Ace
By Greg Mills
pers suffered from a lack of
horsepower when compared to
thee Lotus-Ford of main rival
(and later Clark F11 team-matte)
Trevor Taylor. As Maggs puts it:
“At Reims, which was made up of
long straights and a couple of
corners, we were at a terrible disadvantage compared with Taylor’s Lotus. Our BMCC units had
88bhp, hiss Ford 104bbhp, or
grounding for a range of future
stars: Hulme, Siffert, Lotus driver
Peter Arundell, American Peter
Revson (who was killed at Kyalami in a Shadow practising for
the 1974 Grand Prix), Jochen
Rindt and Clark all cut their teeth
in the formula. Rhodesian Dave
Riley and the South African
farmer from Hekpoort, Trevor
Blokdyk, would also both win FJ
http://continental-circus.blogspot.com/2007/12/o-piloto-do-dia-tony-maggs.html
ers. He was inclined to go into
corners tighter and slower, take a
different apex,, but come out
faster and get a higher speed
down the straight. Jack Brabham
was tough –– another John Love.
He once nearly put me into a pedestrian bridge at Silverstone,
but I got my own back on the
Silverstone short-circuit b y braking impossibly late and spinning
him off.” Before his death in
22005 from cancer, Love shared
the sentiment about Clark, saying
he was “the ultimate driver –
though it is difficult,” he added,
“to know how he would do today
with all the technology drivers
have to deal with.”
20%% more. We simply weren’t
in it. We could only compete by
slipstreaming the Lotus, so I
went to Ken who agreed to stick
a higher ratio in the gearbox so
that we could keep up in the slipstream on the straights. Although
I was quicker in some corners
than Taylor, he could outaccelerate me. So the trick was to
see who could out fumble each
other as to who would co me out
of the last corner first.” Despite
the 1,100c engines, the FJs,
Maggs re calls, could reach over
140mph o n the long straights.
After three heats at Reims, Taylor
finished just 0.88secs ahead on
aggregate.
races in 1962 in their Coopers. (A
former racing motorcyclist, Blokdyk was regarded as a real talent,
though his career was cut short
by a leg injury which meant he
had to fashion a spring tied to a
garter on his leg to pull his foot
back. A bad crash also at Albi in
the last race of the 1965 European F3 season reputedly cost
him a Lotus F1 drive the following year. He would later race a
Cooper T51-Maserati, a Cooper
T53-Ford and Cooper T59-Alfa in
the SA domestic F1 series until
his retirement in 1969.)
Maggs’ GP debut was in a privateer Lotus 18 owned by a wealthy
American Louise Bryden-Brown
The Tyrrell Formula Junior Coo- Formula Juniors were a good in the 1961 British GP when he
Robertson Crusoe:
Tony Maggs,
South Africa’s
Forgotten GP Ace
By Greg Mills
finished 13th. He also finished
11th in the German GP. He
moved on to the Cooper F1 team
for 1962, though continued to
drive for Tyrrell in the Formula
Juniors when his F1 commitments allowed, and also for the
Midland Racing Partnership in
their Lola Formula Two alongside
Dickie Attwood.
Although Maggs and Love were
very evenly matched, Tony believes he likely got the call from
the Cooper F1 team on account
of his age, being thirteen years
younger than his Rhodesian
team-mate. Maggs: “Tyrrell enjoyed a strong association obviously with Cooper. When Brabham left to do his own thing,
Bruce McLaren moved up to be
the number one driver, and I got
the number two drive. There was
not much difference between
John and me in terms of driving
capabilities. I was quicker on the
faster tracks, and he was faster
on the tricky, tight stuff. He was,
however, a lot older than I was.
And this might have had a lot to
do with Cooper’s selection.”
John Cooper confirmed this view
in Adri Bezuidenhout’s early biography of six-time SA Driver’s
Champion Love: “People always
want to know why I chose Tony
Maggs and not John Love for the
Cooper Formula One team in
1962. Two factors influenced me
in my decision to promote Tony
and not John. Firstly, Tony was
single and, secondly, he was
younger. Even now I would hesitate to say who was the better
driver, John or Tony. All other
things being equal, there was not
much between them.”
He finished seventh overall in the
World Championship in 1962
when racing for the factory Cooper team with 13 points (a year
won by Graham Hill with 42 with
Jimmy Clark second with 30),
with the highlight being second
at Rouen behind Dan Gurney’s
eight-cylinder Porsche. He raced
again for Cooper in 1963, finishing eighth in the overall standings with nine points, the year
the title race was dominated by
Jimmy Clark. Replaced at Cooper
by Phil Hill for 1964, he joined the
privateer Scuderia Centro Sud
BRM team, scoring just four
points. “The team management
was shambolic, the car poorly
prepared and I think they still
owe me money today. That car
left me upside down in the sand
at Zandvoort,” Tony recalls in his
characteristically humorous manner, a dry quip never far from his
lips. Thereafter he returned to
South Africa permanently, taking
in one final GP race with Reg
Parnell in a Lotus 25 in his home
GP in 1965. He gave up the sport
after a bad accident when a
steering knuckle broke in the
Willment Brabham BT10-Lotus at
the Natal Winter Trophy held at
Roy Hesketh in June 1965 in
which a young spectator standing in a prohibited area lost his
life.
Maggs’ career also took in three
Le Mans appearances, in an Aston-Martin DBR 1¬300 with Roy
Salvadori in 1961 (they dropped
out in the 19th hour “after I managed to spin it through the Esses
in practice without touching
sides”), finishing sixth overall
(and second in the 1500-3000cc
GT class) in 1964 in a Ferrari
GTO with Innes Ireland, and in a
flat-8 Porsche prototype with
Swede Jo Bonnier in 1963 (they
crashed out in the ninth hour
when a Ferrari blew-up in front of
Jo on the Mulsanne, coating the
windscreen with oil). Of the Astons, he says while ‘they were
quick in a straight line, their handling left a lot to be desired. They
understeered like hell. You had to
go into a corner and brake hard
to get it sideways, and then give
it a great boot full of throttle. If
you could not get the back to
break away, you just went
straight on. There was not,’ he
says, ‘much finesse involved.’
Despite his success in
sportscars, Maggs preferred single-seaters in which he achieved
a great deal of success in just
three short seasons, finishing
second twice in the French GPs
at the real driver’s circuits of
Rouen and Reims in 1962 and
1963. He also “hated Le Mans –
almost all F1 drivers did.” This
was because “you could not
drive the car flat out, and you
were always running at 75% of
your car and your capability. Like
that it just gets bloody boring. I
did it in the Aston, which was
hopeless and the fuel tank split.
It was quite an adventure with
Innes Ireland in the Ferrari. The
clutch was slipping like crazy –
we could hardly get the thing out
of the pits. Innes would drive it
like hell. I would then spend my
session trying to get it working
again, only for Innes to thrash it
again!”
Maggs: “Although you were not
allowed to change any major
components, there were plenty of
tricks to getting cars to the finish
at Le Mans, which the organisers
kept a close eye on: ‘The mechanics would drop old parts into
Continued overleaf
Robertson Crusoe:
Tony Maggs,
South Africa’s
Forgotten GP Ace
By Greg Mills
long-distance, hard compound
tyres. The track ran right through
the middle of the town. When it
started to rain the car became a
real handful – so much so that I
missed my braking and turned a
whole block to late.” Another
year Johnnie [Love] went up in
the D-type. When people
crowded all around the car he
blipped the throttle and collected
it. A lot of the time, the car was
airborne. There were trees,
hedges, forests – and it could be
raining in one part and dry in another, literally from corner to corner. You would ‘drive’ the circuit
beforehand in a hire-car, probably a VW Beetle. At racing
speeds, however, many more
corners appeared.”
SA Grand Prix, 1960. Don Philp’s Cooper leads Tony Kotze’s Lotus,
Eric Glasby’s Tojeiro-Bristol and Tony Maggs in the TojeiroJaguar. (Photo: Frank Hoal Collection)
a bucket full of dirty water to cool
it down, and would feel around in
the bottom and pick up a new
part which had earlier been put
there.”
Maggs says the old Kyalami “was
much more fun than Le Mans
with its miles of straight.” And,
he adds, nine hours against 24
makes a big difference.’ There
were other antics in Southern
Africa: “We did one race in Angola [in 1964] with David [Piper]
in the GTO and LM. He asked me
to drive the GTO but we only had
a gendarme who slid right up to
the windscreen.” Even then, he
recalls forty years later, “Angola
was a wild place. We were not
allowed more than ten kilometres
outside Luanda.”
He also raced the Lola GT prototype (the forerunner of the emblematic Ford GT40), including
with South African friend Bob
Olthoff at the Nurburgring
1,000kms in May 1963, a circuit
Maggs regards as his favourite
and most challenging “by miles”:
“No circuit could hold a candle to
Maggs eventually came back to
South Africa as he had “enough
of racing in Europe, and I wanted
to pursue my great love in nature.” It was not a way to get rich
either. “Jimmy Clark told me that
he calculated that his first World
Championship was worth just
£8,000 at the time, and then you
had to deal with all the public
events that went with it from the
opening of supermarkets, giving
speeches, and so on.” In those
days “You signed up with a fuel
company from which you could
make £3-4,000 annually to use
their products in return for which
they could use your name to promote them. Then you received a
percentage of the start money
and usually 50% of the prize
money. We normally had to pay
our own flights and hotels with
the F1 team, though we sometimes got a bit of assistance with
the long distance travel.” Nonetheless, it was a special time.
“There was tremendous closeness between the drivers. Jimmy
Clark and Trevor Taylor might
have been enemies on the track,
but off the track we held fantastic
parties and did other things such
as going water-skiing together.
There was a tremendous bond,
not unlike the bond, I suppose,
between World War Two fighter
pilots.”
“There was the time at Brands
Hatch when [Lotus driver] Alan
Stacey [killed at Spa in 1960 after
being hit in the face by a bird]
was chatting up a girl in the pitlane, resting his artificial leg on
the wheel of his car. Innes
walked up and thrust a screwdriver into Alan’s leg, which the
girl did not know was false. She
simply passed out!” Or there was
the time at Reims “when we retreated to our usual bar where a
few drinks developed into a food
fight with pot-plants being tossed
about. The police were called, but
in the meantime the mechanics
responsible for much of the carnage had left. We pleaded ignorance, and the police departed.
But they did not get too far. The
mechanics had unscrewed their
wheel nuts, and they only made it
a few metres when their wheels
fell off!”
Such ‘highjinks’ were perhaps
unsurprising since motorsport
then was a very dangerous activity, in which drivers were being
killed virtually every race. “I remember racing with David Piper
at Montlhéry in France, an old
banked circuit. The problem,”
says Maggs, “was the banking
had been designed for much
slower speeds. We were coming
though the banking so fast that
we were sideways up there on
the rough corrugations and then
had to somehow get the car
straightened out as we came off
the banking at more than
140mph.” Some were not so fortunate – or perhaps as skilled.
During the same race at Montlhéry, “a lightweight E-type
crashed in front of us killing the
driver.” But there were lighter
moments. “David Piper, whom I
raced with often, had a mechanic
by the name of Fairfax ‘Fax’
Dunn. He had a very short fuse,
but was quite a character. At one
race, he emptied the bucket of
soapy water he had been using
to clean the windscreen between
driver changes onto a French
photographer replete with cameras and lenses who had been
getting in his way!” He also relates racing in a rainstorm in the
Sebring 12-hour with Piper in a
Ferrari 250LM. Although they finally managed to finish third
overall in a race won by Jim
Hall’s Chaparral, Maggs recalls
having to open the door of the
car round bends to allow the water out of the cockpit, otherwise
“it flowed under your seat and
over your head under acceleration and under your feet and into
the dashboard under braking
causing all manner of problems.”
In 1967 he was an unwitting passenger in a light aircraft accident,
which exploded on impact. Tony
managed to get out, but got
badly burnt when he went back
into the flames to pull out the
other passengers.
Cancer claimed Tony Maggs in
his seventy-second year. To the
end, he was ever the softlyspoken gentleman, habitually
avoiding the limelight. “We did
not do it for all that rubbish,” he
gently recently admonished me
over suggesting a tribute should
be arranged for him, “it was for
the racing you know.” But as this
author can confirm, he retained,
too, a keen motorsport eye in his
infrequent trips to the Killarney
circuit outside Cape Town, offering some useful advice on the set
-up to my historic Dulon Formula
Ford at the Piper Series historic
revival. He also complained that
most of the cars were not being
driven hard enough, a limit that
he knew of only too well.
Dr Mills heads the Brenthurst
Foundation in South Africa, dedicated to strengthening African
economic performance. In his
spare time he has authored five
critically‐acclaimed books on
Southern African motorsport (all
published by Ecurie Zoo in Johannesburg –
voszoo@global.co.za – for the
benefit of the Motor Racing Legends Fund), most recently Paddy
After his crash in the Brabham at
– Who? A Driver’s Life of Bikes
Hesketh in which he injured his
and Cars.
shoulder and suffered severe
concussion, Maggs ran the family beef farm in the then Northern
Transvaal before establishing a Article retrieved from the MSA
h t t p : / /
nature reserve on 5,000 hectares w e b s i t e
in the Soutpansberg where he w w w . m o to r s p o r t . c o . z a / m s a /
stayed until a little over a decade NewsView.asp?ID=3948
ago.
http://www.motorsport.co.za/msa/
NewsView.asp?ID=3948
Phillip Pantazis roaring his way on a glorious drive that was a delight to watch.
The best drive of the season???
Photo courtesy of tanzimcgreer@yahoo.com
HRCR Calendar for 2009
Date
Venue
31 Jan
Zwartkops*
07-Feb
Killarney*
14-Mar
Phakisa
21-Mar
Zwartkops
04-April
Midvaal
25-Apr
Lichtenburg
09-May
Zwartkops
20-Jun
Zwartkops
11-Jul
Kyalami
08-Aug
Midvaal
19-Sep
Zwartkops
21-Nov
Kyalami *
Legend:
* = Invitation Event
M = Marque Cars
G = Sport & GT
S = Single Seaters
T = Touring Cars
M
G
S
T
Scrooge’s inspirational thought for this month:
"Three things that never come back: the spent arrow; the spoken word; the lost opportunity."
Willam George Plunkett
All day Breakfast still only R19
Best darn value anywhere!!!
Ask Terence, he knows! 083 601 7511