The good ol’ days of racing at Kyalami

An auction in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, yesterday saw the historic Kyalami race track sold to Porsche SA for a whopping R205 million.

Lead auctioneer Joff van Reenen took no longer than two minutes to wrap up the sale of the property to a telephonic bidder. Porsche SA CEO Toby Venter was in Cape Town when the sale was made.

Lance Chalwin-Milton, joint managing director at High Street Auctions, said because the buyers were in the motoring industry, the race track would remain as is, with “possible development around the track”.

This sale is the highest auctioned price paid for a single property in South Africa – the previous highest being R120 million, said Van Reenen.

Fast cars take part in a test drive at the Kyalami race track in Johannesburg on July 23, 2014, a day before it went up for auction

Piece of history

The Kyalami circuit was built in 1961, on a piece of land chosen by the late rally driver Francis Tucker, “because nobody would ever think of building anything there”.

It was completed the same year and its first major race, the Rand Grand Prix, was won by Jim Clark in a Lotus Climax.

Over the years, the circuit was widened, becoming a regular host of the F1 Grand Prix world championship.

It was revered as one of the fastest circuits in the world, with F1 cars reaching higher speeds than on tracks like Monza, Spa and Silverstone.

In 1988 it was cut in half and redesigned to its current shape.

Its last F1 took place in 1993, won by Alain Prost in a Williams Renault, leading home Ayrton Senna (McLaren) and Michael Schumacher (Benetton).

In between, the venue also hosted international sports car and truck races, superbike events and manifold rounds of SA championships for single seaters and saloon cars.

Its last major international event was the final round of the 2010 World Superbike championship.

FILE PICTURE: The Kyalami Racetrack in Johannesburg. Photo by Gallo Images/Sowetan/Tshepo Kekana