From start to finish: Reghard Roets

Experts do not often agree about motorsport specifics, or which attributes mark great drivers. One thing they do share though, is the knowledge that regular seat time is necessary to be even just a competent race car occupant.

It makes sense – just like playing tennis, golf or the piano well, the intricate art of guiding a violently fast vehicle through a complex ribbon of road quickly and efficiently takes a lot of practice. The more you compete, the better you race – that is the rule, with no exceptions. And then, we have Reghard Roets.

At the age of 46, he has not officially raced on a track in the past 10 years. Yet, since 2017, he popped up at the Knysna Hillclimb and won the event’s Supercar category overall twice, behind the wheel of a NXGEN Nissan GTR. Earlier this year, before the coronavirus strangled local motorsport, the NXGEN team entered Roets for the inaugural Emerald Casino Magic Mile event in Vanderbijlpark.

He rewarded them by taking their Nissan GTR to overall victory, beating a fine collection of regular racers in sports cars, Supercars and single seaters to become King of the Mile. He sat in the Nissan for the first time the morning of his first run through the 1.6km course. Strange thing is, Reghard himself can not satisfactory explain his uncanny ability to slot into the role of relentlessly efficient racer at a moment’s notice.

“I have always found it easy to learn the lines, apexes and braking points of new circuits – do not ask me why,” he says. “By the same token, I seem to be able to switch on maximum concentration when it is called for, which suits the nature of hillclimbs,” he adds.

Roets has a long and distinguished local motorsport career, much of which was not glamorous. It started at the age of 15 when his father, movie maker Koos Roets, bought him a very second-hand Formula M for the princely sum of R2 000, including a rusty trailer and five litres of oil. Father and son worked on the car, eventually rebuilding it entirely.

“That was where I learned to grind, weld and curse late at night while my friends went to parties and chased girls. Eventually we got the car competitive, at which point my dad managed to beg, borrow and plead enough for us to acquire a Ray 83 Formula Ford.”

Again, the car was a disaster – the previous owner had taken all the good bits out of it before delivery and it needed a lot of renovation before Roets could hope to become even remotely competitive at regional racing level.

“In the process I learned skills like rebuilding engines, setting up suspension, align wheels, repair fiberglass, spray paint and reverse a trailer. Also, I learned how to use a fax machine in a constant search for a sponsor,” Roets quips.

When he finished school his dad gave him the Formula Ford and he managed to land sponsorship from Gestetner – enough for him to contest the full 1995 national championship and finish second. It led to an offer from Nissan to drive a Group N Sabre in that year’s 9-Hour race at Killarney and Roets impressed with his immediate pace in the first tin-top he ever raced.

Honda signed him to drive a Group N Ballade the next season and a succession of other cars followed, culminating in a Class A Kaye-Eddie BMW 328i, that Roets used to win the championship in 2000. There were also, over the years, a BMW 330i, an Alfa Romeo 147 GTA, a Nissan 350Z, an Opel Astra OPC and a BMW 335i. None of which should create the impression that Roets was ever paid adequately for his driving services.

“I trailered my own cars all over the country for a full decade before I flew to a race meeting for the first time. It felt like winning the lottery. At the time, I was employed as an advanced driving instructor, while also selling dog food to small shops from the back of my beaten up Golf bakkie,” Roets remembers.

“I recall works drivers sulking because they did not get salary increases for driving their race cars and arriving at Killarney after towing my race car from Johannesburg through the night, to hear a young competitor complain about the lack of legroom during that morning’s flight. I promised myself to never become that complacent about the huge privilege of being able to indulge in this wonderful thing called race car driving, with somebody else picking up most of the costs,” he adds.

Reghard stopped circuit racing in 2010. “I moved to Balito and started my own little powder coating company, which demands much of my time. Besides, I know just how insidious motorsport can be – it is like a drug and if I compete in a regular championship I will let it take over my life again – something I cannot afford right now. I am content to tackle the odd events in the Nissan and I am hugely grateful for the team’s confidence in me.”

To further ease his need for speed, Roets competes in inflatable boat races, tackling the full national season in his G&H Transport Infanta Inflatable. He has advice for would-be car racers.

“A talent for driving a car fast is just the icing on the cake. You will need an understanding of marketing yourself, a high level of physical fitness, an above average mechanical understanding, hard work, and good ethics. It can be a very rewarding sport but also a cruel one, and if you get to the point where you can race in this country with somebody else picking up most of the costs, you will be doing very well.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.