Kyalami still on track to host 9-Hour

It seems that South African circuit racing will end this year with the staging of the Kyalami 9-Hour.

That became known this week, when the international SRO Motorsports Group, that administrates the Intercontinental GT Challenge for GT3 sports cars, made its 2021 plans public.

The GPX Racing Porsche 911 RSR that finished third last year.

The popular series has been decimated by Covic-19 travel and other restrictions throughout the world, which leaves it with just three events this season.

They will be the Total Energies 24-Hours of Spa on July 29-August 1, the Indianapolis 8-Hour on October 15-17, and the Kyalami 9 Hour on December 2-4. This will be great news for local enthusiasts, who will fondly recall last year’s race, won by a BMW M6 co-driven by South African racer Sheldon van der Linde.

The win that never was for the Honda NSX of Bertrand Baguette/Renger van der Zande and Mario Farnbacher.

It is much too early to predict anything, but who knows, by December we might be allowed spectators at Kyalami, and a larger field than the dozen cars that tackled last year’s event. Either way, it is important to keep the 9-Hour race alive, as a suitable finale to our South African circuit racing season.

Just to remind you, we enclose some works of art, taken at last year’s event by ace motorsport photographer Dave Ledbitter.