Status update for the South African Endurance Championship
Nine-hour racing, also known as endurance racing, presents many variable elements that make it unpredictable, nerve-racking and extremely exciting. The South African Endurance Championship has set its sights high nevertheless.
![SAE 2023](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2023/01/sae-2023-780x470.jpg)
The Southern African Endurance Championship (SAEC) has been awarded National Championship status by Motorsport SA following a successful 2022 season.
The motivation is to improve the standard and quality of their racing properties as well as to afford competitors the opportunity to be crowned as national champions for both the overall title as well as the Index of Performance Championship.
Xolile Letlaka, the first black motorsport promotor in South Africa and SAEC’s owner, said, “It has been my objective to gain National Championship status for the SA Endurance Championship, which delivered the first black and youngest endurance champion last year when Kwanda Mokoena sealed the title at the final round. Our three champions will forever be inscribed in South African motorsport history, which makes me very proud.
“Now that we have achieved this goal, it makes our properties more attractive to sponsorships and in turn increased focus on development from our Africa Race Together Foundation. Our attention can turn to my medium-term objective of establishing an all-African championship, which will see us racing in various countries.”
The SAEC presents races from three to nine hours in duration and caters for cars ranging from open-top sport cars like the Ligier JS53, GT3 cars including Porsches, Lamborghinis and Audis, modified and standard saloons as well as the Class E Lexus-powered Backdraft Roadsters, which feature as a championship-in-a-championship.
The first round of the SA Endurance National Championship will be hosted at the Zwartkops Raceway on March 3 and 4.
Source: MotorPress