First black female drag racer trained at Nitro Raceway
Nitro Raceway in Boksburg recently announced that the first black woman in South Africa to drag race is being trained by organisation promoter and local racer Isabel Greyvensteyn.
Yvonne ‘Snowy’ Hlongwane started working for Greyvensteyn as a domestic worker in 2009 before being asked to help with some of Nitro Raceway’s big events.
“As I prepared for my race one day and my pit crew helped me to start my dragster, one of my friends told her that her employer was going to race now and she couldn’t believe it,” said Greyvensteyn.
As she stopped, Snowy ran up to Greyvensteyn and said that she would like nothing more than to follow in her footsteps.
“I started teaching her to drive later that same day. At first, we just drove up and down in my yard and later, when she was ready, I took her out onto the open road.”
In May, Snowy was told that she would race in a Nissan Skyline GT-R and although she was understandably nervous at first, she quickly learned how the timing of the race lights worked and she was off on her own.
“When we stopped she went to my son and said that the car is too fast and that she was scared. So my son and I told her she had no reason to be scared and later she built up enough courage to take part in an actual race.
“She really surprised me in her second race where she clocked the quarter mile (400m) in 18.32 seconds. I pushed her into the deep side in a fast car. I would never have imagined that she would go so fast.”
Snowy resides in Lakefield, Benoni.
Greyvensteyn insisted that she would keep on training Hlongwane as she believes she has a lot of potential and could go far in the world of motorsport.
For more information, you may contact Greyvensteyn on 083 766 6606.
