Passion for motorsport burns bright in Zwartkops owner Peter du Toit

As sporting property owners go, Peter du Toit is rather special. He is a long-time car racer, the owner of the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria, and a vocal advocate for the survival of local motorsport. He is also the founder of South African historic car racing, sustainable regional circuit competition, plus a variety of local circuit racing disciplines.

Du Toit is, at the age of 75, massively active in the running of the Zwartkops venue, is part of a story that started many years ago. Peter’s father was a motorcycle racer before World War II, which planted the seed with his schoolboy son. In 1948, father and son visited the Germiston road race and spectated at the Grand Central circuit, which made a huge impression on Peter.

“At the age of 17 I decided to build my own race car – a fibre glass body on an old Ford Prefect chassis. I got it together and running, but it proved extremely slow, and I realised I was not a South African version of Ferdinand Porsche,” Peter recalls.

At the age of 17, Peter built his own race car on an old Ford Prefect chassis. “It convinced me that I was no Ferdinand Porsche,” he says.

In the mid-sixties he raced a Mini Cooper at Kyalami, but financial impediments eventually put an end to the project. “I was a student and recall having to choose between replacing worn-out shoes and a worn-out tyre on the race car. I bought the tyre and put newspaper in my shoes for the next six months – something I remember every time current drivers complain about not getting paid to race,” he says.

The next decade saw Du Toit studying hard, attaining a B Com Advanced Executive Programme degree and going to work as a merchant banker and a lay preacher. “The money came in and by 1979 I bought two GSM Darts, a Lolette, a Lotus Cortina and an Anglia, to start an inland racing series for historic cars.”

Problems cropped up because the Sports Car Club, that administrated South African motorsport at the time, was not enthusiastic about historic car racing, and refused to include it on Kyalami’s regular racing schedules. Du Toit also had a huge crash with the Lolette at the Midvaal circuit in 1979 and was stuck in the car’s wreckage for a long time before any of the marshals noticed.

Pre-1966 Legend Saloon Cars is one of the Zwartkops Raceway’s biggest crowd drawcards.

“I could hear the car’s petrol pumps ticking away as I sat there in the twisted wreckage and I knew that club racing should be run a lot better,” he remembers. “I realised we would have to create our own playing field and bought the 1985 version of the Zwartkops Raceway. The circuit’s mission statement was to provide a home, specifically for club and historic car racing. If it also eventually attracted national championship racing that would be a bonus, but its initial mission came first.”

Zwartkops was an immediate hit with inland competitors, dozens of whom had old Anglias, Cortinas, Renault Gordinis, Mini Coopers, GSM Darts, MGAs, Austin Healy Sprites and Volvos standing in garages. It offered an affordable way to race these cars and revive a true club racing arena. To this day, old racers remember the “I’d rather be racing at Zwartkops” and “Half the size, twice the fun” stickers that adorned inland race cars, trailers and towing vehicles at the time.

“The idea was to create affordable, accessible and practical racing categories, and the competitors rewarded us by arriving in large numbers,” he recalls. A rezoning and two rebuilds later, the circuit still upholds that mission statement, though it plays a major role in the current national Extreme Festival tour, that comprises South Africa’s premier circuit racing travelling circus.

Keep it simple – affordability accessibility and practicality still ensures large grids at inland circuits, with competitors divided into various classes according to their lap times.

Zwartkops has called into being racing categories for Pre-1966 Legend Saloon Cars, Pre-1966 Little Giants, Pre-1966 Sports and GT Cars, Pre-1974 International Sports Prototypes and Pre-1980 Production Cars. In the modern arena, the circuit gave birth to racing for Superhatches, 111-Sports and Saloon Cars, Thunderbikes, VW Challenge, Lolus Challenge and Extreme Supercars. All of the above categories see competitors divided into specific classes via their lap times, instead of using the vehicles’ engine sizes or other technical specifications.

“That means you determine your own specific level of competition, making it possible for you to enjoy close racing against other people of the same pace, regardless of your respective budgets,” Du Toit says. “If you decide to spend more money to make your vehicle quicker, you will end up racing against other people who also go quicker. Or, you can stay where you are, and compete at a less expensive level. Affordability, accessibility and practicality are still the watchwords that keep privateer racers in the game and we will not change the formula soon,” he adds.

The idea also pertains to the Extreme Festival, which strives to combine its participating national classes with resident club racing categories at other circuits like Killarney, Aldo Scribante, East London, Red Star and Phakisa.
Supporting the whole Zwartkops agenda is a veritable fleet of race cars, owned by Du Toit, which are housed and prepared in a number of the circuit’s many pit garages.

The G&H Transport Extreme Supercar championship is one of the series born at the Zwartkops Raceway.

“We rent pit garages out to racers, which means that they do not have to turn part of their homes into race workshops. You rent a garage and you get a key, which means you can come and work on your race vehicle at any time.” Racing apart, Zwartkops houses an international specification kart circuit, three permanent advanced driving schools, a skid pan, a motorcycle riding school and an off road driving facility. All of which has, naturally and sadly, come to a grinding halt with the advent of the Covid-19 nightmare.

“We, and the country’s other motorsport facilities, need to get going again – just sitting there, the venues bleed money at an alarming rate. We could absolutely run race meeting without spectators, where we observe strict social distancing, temperature meetings and the wearing of face masks. Motorsport employs about 100 000 people throughout the country and is a hugely valuable training ground for thousands of youngsters, who learn intricate mechanical skills under pressure at a place they love.”

Currently, testing is allowed at Zwartkops on Wednesdays. Motor racing falls in the category of a non-contact sport, but the government will only allow it to be practiced by professionals. “South Africa has exactly four professional racing drivers – the two works Volkswagen Global Touring Car pilots, and the works Gazoo Toyota Hilux off-road drivers,” Du Toit says. “Somebody needs to point that fact out to the government and motorsport needs to lobby the powers that be to get racing on the go as soon as possible.”

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