Kyalami 9-Hour: Local motorsport’s showpiece ready for blast-off

Officially, this year’s premier South African circuit racing event will take place at the Kyalami circuit this weekend.

The 2021 Joburg Kyalami 9-Hour will conclude the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge, which was scheduled to happen in November last year, but was postponed due to the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

The race will see Audi Sport and Ferrari go head to head for the 2021 Manufacturers’ title, with a number of competitors still in line for the Drivers’ accolade.

Going to Kyalami, Audi will enjoy an almost unassailable Manufacturers’ championship lead.

There will be four international Audi R8 LMS GT3 entries, with the two top cars respectively manned by Markus Winkelhock/Patric Niederhauser/Kelvin van der Linde, plus Christopher Haase/Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor.  

Ferrari’s main quest will be to clinch the season’s overall Drivers’ title, led by Alessandro Pier Guidi/Come Ledogar and Nicklas Nielsen.

Pier Guidi leads the championship after winning both the 24-hour classics, Le Mans and Spa, in a Ferrari 488 GT3 last year. The second points-scoring Ferrari 488 GT3 will be in the hands of Alessio Rovera/Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina.

Mercedes-AMG will have one driver, Timur Boguslavskiy, in-line to challenge for the year’s Drivers’ title. He will share an AMG-GT with factory stars Jules Gounon and Raffaele Marciello, while a second car will be in the hands of Kenny Habul, Martin Konrad and Mikael Grenier.

The local entry list includes several teams and drivers usually found in the burgeoning South African GT Racing Series.

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Some will only contest the opening hour while others continue for the full nine hours. One of the latter, Stradale Into Africa, features the first all-black African driver crew to contest the Joburg Kyalami 9-Hour.

Xolile Letlaka, Tschops Sipuka and Phillip Kekana will share a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

Also set to tackle the full distance will be Charl Arangies/Arnold Neveling/Michael van Rooyen (Lamborghini Huracan) and Marius Jackson/Kishoor Pitamber/Mo Mia (Audi R8 LMS).

Driving the first hour only, as the opening round of this year’s South African GT Racing Series, will be Mikaeel Pitamber (Audi R8 LMS GT3), Aldo Scribante (Lamborghini Huracan GT3) and Silvio Scribante (Lamborghini Huracan GT3).

Qualifying for the 9-Hour will initially be split into three 15-minute sessions. Each driver must complete at least one timed lap in their designated session after which the eight fastest cars by average progress to the Superpole session.

In this 25-minute session each car is permitted one run featuring no more than two timed laps.

Free, unrestricted live streaming of the event will commence begins from Friday’s Pre-Qualifying session at 10h15 on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel, plus IGTC’s Facebook page and website where live timing available. SuperSport will have live race coverage in South Africa.

The international competition will be supported by races for the M Performance Parts BMW category, with more than 50 cars entered, plus rounds of the 2022 Mobil 1 V8 Supercar championship.

Admission to the event will cost R450 per person plus R100 per car, which will allow you access to all parts of the circuit apart from the pits. All spectators must present identity documents, plus a vaccination certificate.