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From the present into the Future… |
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Summary of meetings May and June 2014 |
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| The ‘Legends of the 9 Hour’ series came into being in 2003 after by a special invitation trip to Goodwood in September 2002. Our series was inspired by Lord March, David Piper and Mike Knight then director of the British Racing Drivers Club – the owners of Silverstone Grand Prix track. The directive was relatively straight … capitalise on where your heritage lies with a focus on the sixties. Having initiated the National Historic days at the short Zwartkops in the late eighties and early nineties the initiative was taken to create a series which was compatible with the rest of the world but within what would be affordable and practical in a South African context. To this end the ‘Legends of the 9 Hour’ series was established in 2003 with a primary focus on the Pre 1966 Production cars (one of the biggest draw cards at Goodwood – St Mary’s Trophy), our 9 hour heritage with Sports racing and GT cars with two cut off periods, Pre 1966/68 (the later date to co-inside with our National championship for Sports Cars) and Pre 1974 ISP Cars. The Pre 1974 Trans-Am category was also established being based on the inspiration these cars gave to the creation of South African derivatives, V8 Capri, V8 Chev Can-Am and imported Holden Monara plus the still Dodge Charger. | ||||||
| The International Sports Racing Prototypes (Pre 1974) was a derivative of David and Mike as they believed such a series was still possible in South Africa despite the fact that the Historic racing car register had banned these cars from their series leaving owners with only two special events every year. The ISP series was incorporated into the Legend series and today is an important part of our race programmes. Zwartkops International took on the role of the development and support of the series through underwriting the cost and promoting two high profile International events every year. | ||||||
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ZWARTKOPS INTERNATIONAL WORLD OF MOTORING 2015 – THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL PASSION FOR SPEED FESTIVAL |
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PRETORIA – ZWARTKOPS – 30TH / 31ST JAN DAY OF THE CHAMPION – 1ST FEB AND CAPE TOWN – KILLARNEY – 6TH / 7TH FEB |
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| The “Champion of Champions” Pre-1974 V8 Legends. The mighty V8 Production Cars of the Z+ Production Car Legends and the Trans-Am Legends up to 1974 –(72/74 second) racers.
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| Legends of the 9 Hour Pre-1966 Legends Production Cars From 80 to74 second competitors.
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| Pre-1966/68 Little Giants Legends From plus 80 second.
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| Pre-1966/68 Le Mans Sebring Sports & GT. Sports Racing GT Cars and a 45 minute (2 Driver) event; South African Tourist Trophy Championship International Invitation
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| Pre-1974 International Sports Racing Prototypes and Trans-Am Cars
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| Pre-1984 Classic Production Cars Lotus Challenge Marque Cars – Alfa Trofeo Historic Single Seaters
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Rosso Challenge – Pablo Clark Racing – “Can only be Red” International Invitation for Ferrari’s
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| To the Present Extreme Type GT 3 Super Cars International Invitation
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| Day of the Champion – Sunday 1st Feb 2015 South African Tourist Trophy for Historic Superbikes plus World Isle of Man Classic Sidecars. Celebration of the Great Heritage of South African and Isle of Man Motorcycles.
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The Result of 14 years of endeavour 2002 to 2014… |
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| From 4/6 Production Cars and 6/8 Sports cars the Legends of the 9 Hour Series has grown to a register of some 180 plus cars, made up as follows: | ||||||
TOTAL 180 |
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| A SUB SET OUT OF Production and Sports & GT Series. Whilst included in the total a good proportion of cars are under ‘wraps’ for various reasons the total also excludes the Pre 1961 ‘Grand Central’ type cars of which there are 22 | ||||||
| This is a HUGE achievement by South Africans made possible through the Legends of the 9 Hour club, the support of owners and competitors of these cars. The series has also created substantial public interest and the participative support of our National aspirational competitors. Trans-Africa Racing (TAR) has in recent years taken over the commercial aspect of the Legend series and have committed some R7 million in financial support which also includes the two Internationals. The annual local operating budget is R400k to R500k. | ||||||
| BUT it is not only TAR, Legends of the 9 Hour Racing Club, Zwartkops International that are the foundation on which the series stands but also those who responded to the challenge – at the risk of leaving someone out of the following list of achievers and supporters need to be acknowledged. | ||||||
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The way forward…2015 plus. |
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| Whilst Historic racing is growing worldwide and in South Africa, there are some formidable challenges before us: | ||||||
| Firstly: the rising value of the cars themselves. A whole new breed of historic/classic car owners have emerged and with it in many instances misplaced values. This puts us at risk as current owners are lead to believe that these cars are too valuable to race. | ||||||
| Secondly: the genuine cars have become too valuable to race, both here, internationally, and have now become museum pieces. | ||||||
| Thirdly: the cost of racing historics is becoming expensive. Cheque book racing is taking over particularly at high profile events. At Goodwood an E-Type Jaguar had a £100 000 engine – that in South African terms is R1.8mil! Imported racing spares for even a Mini Cooper is close to 26 to 1! | ||||||
| Fourthly: the development of the cars themselves. This is a worldwide problem. At Goodwood the promoter has resorted to ‘only by invitation’ competitors., the problem is twofold, when aspirational competitors get involved their focus is on winning not participating and b) the historic car is now being prepared and set up by race engineers who have present engineering skills as exposed to the emerging engineering skills of the sixties and seventies. The result of A and B above is that our historic racing cars are achieving concerning speeds which ate 30% to 40% faster than in their heyday! | ||||||
| Fifthly: South Africa has entered a period of ‘stag inflation’ ie. low growth and high inflation, in real terms money is getting tighter and racing budgets smaller. Affordability is a big issue. | ||||||
| Six: and finally – Motor sport sponsorships are on the back burner, motorsport in South Africa has failed in our transformation initiatives and corporate decisions on their involvement in the sport is compromised by management who today comprise mainly of black executives in setting branding, pro and sporting budgets. | ||||||
Our 2015 initiatives |
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| Taking into account our strengths and weaknesses the following ideas, suggestions and recommendations have been put forward in recent weeks. | ||||||
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Legends of the 9 Hour – Pre 1966 Production Cars For 2015 |
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| In order to motivate and stimulate the ZA/ZB class we need to consider: Keep the current cut off times as set out in the sporting regulations. There are a number of projects which have stalled and cars not competing as a result of ZA cars being up to two seconds a lap under the cut off of 74 seconds. There are a number of options available to us: | ||||||
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| After careful deliberation and receiving input from all the main contenders it was decided that; | ||||||
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| The above will resolve a number of issues which have resulted in the evolution of the series over the past few years however, it will be dependent on competitor support, the Champion of Champions class will need at least twelve closely matched cars on track. The existing ZA class will be diluted but we would expect the stalled projects to be reactivated, the ‘Champion of Champions’ Legend Production Cars will be officially launched at the International in January 2015. We are negotiating with car owners in Europe and the UK to compliment the entry. We would expect the initial race to have at least 15 – 17 cars. | ||||||
| To Conclude: | ||||||
| We have a dynamic series which is supported by the motoring public however, we must ensure that we have a promotable product which is identifiable and in the interest of our heritage – the magnificent sixties. | ||||||
| Peter du Toit Chairman -Legends of the 9 Hour Racing Club. | ||||||
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Legends Series – Points – 2014 |
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| Pictures: Paul Blackburn and Frikkie Ströh – www.RacePics.co.za | ||||||
