It was smoke and fun at the Riverlea Primary School netball courts as bikers showcased their skills on two wheels. Neil van der Ross, coach and manager of Herbalife bLU cRU team, said that their visit to Riverlea Primary was to give their 67 minutes for Mandela Day.
“We have our riders from the Herbalife bLU cRU and the Ikageng development team that we have been building over the last six years and we have a special guest here with us today. Brian Capper is a national champion and he is also an international racer. Today, Capper will be here to do a show for our kids to show them the different off-road categories there are. So, we have a ten-year-old motor kids rider, Kati Makhene. We have Thabang Katees on the bLU cRU Yamaha, he is thirty years of age and he is a qualified pharmacy assistant and he is part of the Ikageng programme where we focus on education linked to sport and he has been the pilot of the project and then we have the Ikageng team, the riders are: Eddie Mdodana, Oscar Massango, and Katlego Mogwasa, they work under a mentorship at ASAP Racing where they are learning to qualify as motorcycle mechanics. Today we just want to showcase the off-road motorcycles, motocross trials and endure type racing,” said Van der Ross.
When asked why they chose to visit the Riverlea Primary School, he said, “I’m based in Bosmont and we have been doing these roadshows with Motorsports South Africa. We have taken it to Thembisa, Tokoza, to Soweto and finally this year we bring the show to the southern part of Johannesburg which Riverlea is part of. It’s a very impoverished area, a government assisted school where the kids get fed every day so we here to plant seeds in this community today.”
According to the coach, the aim of the visit is to share their programmes with the children and explain how they can get into motorcycle racing. In their Motorkids development programme, they do a drive to recruits kids from the ages of five up to the age of twelve. When it comes to licenses van der Ross explained, “If you join the motor kids programme, we introduce you to the sport and Motor Sports South Africa charges R110 for the year just to get the children into the grassroots level of the sport. When you get to a more senior level you have to have a club license, then graduate to a regional licence then a national licence.”
For more information visit, their Facebook page: Motor kids rider development
