IHRO has been asked to ask if any of our riders would like to go to the South African Classic Race series to be held over 3 consecutive weekends next February.

The details are still to be finalised, but a report by Alan Cathcart on this year’s events is below this post.

Cost of shipping a bike would be around £600GBP from Hull, but if there is sufficient demand, shipping could be arranged from a European port as well. The bike must be crated but the crate can include tools, leathers, helmets etc. to reduce airline costs. The same container will be used to transport the bike between the meetings and the cost of this is included in the £600GBP.

The rest of the arrangements are up to the individual, but a typical cost for one person with flights, car hire, food, hotels etc would be around £2000GBP for the 3 week stay, of course this could be reduced if 2 or more people travelled together.

Please read Alan’s article and contact me if you think you might be interested.  The original article appeared in Motorcycle Sport and Leisure magazine.

SOUTH AFRICAN TT REVIVAL 2010: In The Limelight

Whether you like football or not, there’s no disputing that the eyes of the world will be focused on South Africa for a whole month later this year, between June 11 and July 11. That’s when the FIFA World Cup will be held for the first time in an African nation, in a country that’s by and large a modern day success story, home of the Rainbow Nation which, both before and after South Africa’s first fully-free elections in 1994, chose democratic multi-culturalism over tribal conflict, parliamentary rule rather than armed insurrection, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission instead of bloody revenge for the injustices of apartheid. South Africa well deserves its coming month in the world’s limelight, and even if its Bafana Bafana national football team is a long way from attaining the kind of sporting supremacy that its reigning World Champion Rugby squad has achieved in the oval ball game, the 50 million inhabitants of black Africa’s most prosperous and – thanks above all to the man acclaimed by many as the greatest living human being, Nelson Mandela – most stable nation, will have a great deal to be proud of, come July. And many football fans from the rest of the world over will have discovered what a great place it is to explore, and experience.

But a smaller yet growing group of motorcycle enthusiasts and their families have already been there and done that over the past four years, as the South African TT Revival roadshow run by Britain’s former TT ace and Grand Prix star Mick Grant has gone from strength to strength. It’s something that’s rather bizarrely never been advertised, just expanded organically via word of mouth. “I’ve been going to South Africa for decades, ever since I raced there in my GP days.” said Grant fervently when I first quizzed him about his project, “and I just love the place. For years I used to run an annual Supersport circus at two or three tracks, where we’d bring a load of young lads out from Britain who were just getting going, but who I could see had potential, just to expose them to riding overseas – guys like Cal Crutchlow, Steve Plater, Craig Jones, Tom Sykes and the like. Well, we must have chosen well, seeing where many of them have got to – but the problem was they didn’t ring any bells in South Africa, being complete unknowns back then. So my friend Clive Strugnell from Johannesburg who helps me organise it, suggested we should switch to older bikes by linking up with David Piper’s Historic sports car series, that comes out here each year with famous ’60s era sports cars like the Ford GT40, Porsche 917 and Ferrari 312. So we did that for the first time in 2007, and it just took off. Here – why don’t you join us next time? I’m sure we could find you something to ride, if you don’t want to ship one of your own bikes out with us?!”

So that’s how my wife Stella and I came to book flights to join the 2010 SA TT Revival circus, a three-round series kicking off on the last weekend of January at the 2.40km long Zwartkops Raceway, a hospitable, well-run circuit north of Jo’burg near the South African capital of Pretoria, with an interesting layout that makes good use of the hill it’s built on, even if engine performance suffers thanks to the 1360-metre altitude. The combined car and bike Day of the Champion historic meeting there that began the series, is the best attended motorsport event in the country annually after the World Superbike round held at nearby Kyalami. A week later it was the turn of the Western Cape’s Killarney circuit to stage another combined event, a track located right down at sea level 30km north of Cape Town just inland from Table Bay, and possessed of two long straights which allowed the faster bikes to stretch their legs with full power now restored, whereas Zwartkops had been more of a handling course where engines struggled in the thin air. 3.27km in length, and first used for racing back in 1947, Killarney was rebuilt in 1959/60 to conform to the needs of the Formula One cars of the time. Back then, South Africa had a flourishing annual F1 series run during the European winter, and hosted a World Championship round each year at the third track in the TT Revival calendar, the East London Grand Prix circuit literally on the shores of the Indian Ocean. It’s an amazingly scenic 3.92km long time-warp facility in essentially the same condition today as when newly-crowned World champion John Surtees, the only man ever to win World titles on both two and four wheels, finished second in his Ferrari there to Jim Clark’s Lotus in the South African GP run on New Year’s Day 1965 – the last time the track was used for a GP race. But since then the local Border MC bike club has so far managed to persuade local politicians not to concrete it over and build on it, and while the pit complex is very, er, original, the track surface is excellent, the location unparalleled – a sort of African Phillip Island, and just about as fast – and the biltong sold from the only concession caravan in the paddock [see photo!] is absolutely scrumptious, a kind of spicy, chewy, cured meat, usually either beef or ostrich, that’s the snack of choice in EssAy.

OK, flights, tracks – action! But first I needed something to ride, though. By the time I was sure that my injured right foot that I’d damaged in a big testing crash last October was going to be up to the trip, I’d missed the cutoff to ship one of my own racebikes out in the 40ft container that Mick Grant rents each year to leave the UK in December, which is also used to transport the bikes and material between each track, thus saving on renting trucks or vans and the like. Thanks to welcome sponsorship from shipping company Safmarine, the roundtrip freight cost taking in all three race meetings is an affordable GBP600 per bike, including as many spares and riding equipment as you wish to take, within reason – unlike airfreight, shipping by sea has no weight issues, and you don’t need such a sturdy crate since the container is sealed, and the only time the crates are forklifted is out and in again at each track. There’s no entry fees for any of the track events, which in the past were only ever demonstrations or high-speed parades, though a new feature of the series for 2010 was a triangular catchall SA TT Revival race series, open to bikes manufactured before December 1990, and divided into three classes based on the age of the machine, encouraging some of the touring party to compete. “But there’s no age cutoff for the the bikes we bring along,” says Grant. “About the only requirement we have is that they must be ‘interesting’ – so we’ve got everything from a mid-‘90s Honda Britain RC45, back to your McIntyre 7R and the other Team In-Complete bikes, which makes a nice variety for the spectators to hear and see.”

Indeed so, for riding to my rescue with the offer of a bike for all three events was Jo’burg-based magazine publisher Ian Groat, proprietor of Team In-Complete and owner of a desirable collection of well prepared bikes, mostly replica ‘50s British singles, that he’d built in company with his fellow expat Brit, John Boswell, owner of South Africa’s first dedicated motorcycle museum located near Deneysville, 90 minutes from Johannesburg near the Vaal Dam resort area (www.lakeavenueinn.co.za). Without Groat’s magnanimity and deep pockets, many more famous riders than me would have been sitting on the sidelines just watching instead of riding – starting with 78-year old Jim Redman, South Africa’s six-time World champion, who rode Groat’s lookalike RC173 Honda replica constructed from a 250cc streetbike and tuned to run to an indicated 20,000 rpm (yes, really!), with a totally authentic howl from the four open meggas that soon made you soon decide not to follow him for too long on track if you weren’t wearing earplugs! “It’s the smallest bike out there, but has the biggest shout,” grinned Redman. “Following Jim on that bike reminds me of when we used to race each other in 250GPs, me on my Yamaha twin and him on that bloody Honda six!” grimaced another illustrious member of Team In-Complete, Phil Read. “I’d be deaf for days after if we’d had a close dice – but then it was my turn to inflict the pain when I rode the MV!”

Like me, Read had cadged a ride on one of Ian Groat’s machines after he too missed the cutoff to ship out his replica Paton 500 twin, and although the 350 Beart Norton – painted in the distinctive pale green colours of the legendary Brooklands tuner Francis Beart (actually, Ford Ludlow Green, the shade they used to paint all Ford Prefect cars in!) – was a lot slower than the fleet Italian twin, that didn’t bother the eight times World champion. “It’s the same as the 350 Manx Norton I won my first TT on 50 years ago next year, in 1961,” he said. “It’s just great to be out here again – as a reward for the TT win my sponsor Reg Kirby sent me out here that winter to race in Rhodesia and South Africa, and I did pretty well against the local heroes like Redman and Co. who knew their way around on what were some rather rough tracks. I just bought a van and drove myself around with the two bikes in the back, but it wasn’t like it is today with the fantastic road system they have here which is certainly the best in Africa, and better than many European countries, too. Back then, many of the main roads were dirt tracks, so it took a long time to get anywhere. But you always had a good time when you arrived – same as now: people here are so hospitable.” Indeed so, with the local car & bike club staging a welcoming braai (barbecue) at each track for the European guests, and the lunchtime spread at East London on race day consisting of tasty home cooking by the ladies of the Border bike club. Indeed, the whole organisation of that round in particular was straight out of the 1970s British club racing scene, with relaxed but efficient down-home hospitality that was very welcoming. We were all sorry to leave….

If Phil Read felt at home on the 350 Beart Manx, his improbably youthful-looking ’70-something teammate Jimmy Guthrie had an even greater link with the Team In-Complete bike he’d been entrusted with – an exact replica of the 500cc Beart Norton he won the 1965 Manx Senior GP on for Francis Beart in the Isle of Man, before retiring at the top in favour of a career in engineering which eventually brought him to South Africa, where he now lives in retirement outside Durban. Son of the famous pre-WW2 works Norton rider of the same name, after whom Guthrie’s Corner on the IoM TT Course is named, Jimmy helped Ian Groat transport and prepare the fleet of bikes throughout the three weeks, as well as riding himself, sharing a 350 Ducati single with Ian after the Manx engine dropped a valve at Zwartkops. Also a recipient of the Groat largesse was South African Peter Labuschagne, a fixture on the UK racing scene for several years in the 1980s, at a time when many other Southern African riders like world champions Jon Ekerold and Kork Ballington, plus Alan North, Mario Rademeyer, Les van Breda, and Dave and Robbie Petersen, all competed with honour in European world class racing – a flow of talent that’s sadly been halted in recent years. Labuschagne was riding Groat’s Matchless G50, the first time he’d ever sampled a Classic-era four-stroke single, and especially the first time he’d grappled with a right-foot gearchange! “I’m in love!” he enthused after the first meeting at Zwartkops. “Even though I’m still forcing myself not to change gear with the rear brake lever, I can’t believe how fast and friendly this bike is to ride!” By the end of the three weeks Peter was already planning how to get an entry for the Classic Manx and Goodwood Revival in 2011. Gotcha!

Peter’s G50 was just like the one sitting in my garage at home in Britain– but instead I’d been entrusted with an even more special G50-powered bike courtesy of Team In-Complete. This was a beautifully-prepared brand-new replica of the ex-Jack Findlay McIntyre Matchless that finished 2nd in the 1968 500cc World Championship, which Groat had only finished building one month earlier, and which in deference to Mick Hemmings, the UK-based owner of the genuine bike and a supplier of parts to Ian, he’d christened instead as a McIntyre 7R, even though it had a 500cc G50 motor. But it had the same 20kg weight advantage over the stock Matchless as the real thing, with a much lower and more aerodynamic semi-reclining riding stance, and the rearsets a long way back, necessitating a bit of effort to get my injured foot to shift gear properly on the right-foot linkage. But it worked out OK, and I guess it must have been good physiotherapy riding the bike like that for three weekends in a row – thanks, Ian!

But don’t get the idea that the lineup of bikes in the TT Revival only consisted of stars of the past and classic British singles, for such bikes were in the minority, and there were lots of more humble enthusiasts there, too. And while amongst those mounted on more modern bikes were famous names of yesteryear like Mick Grant and Dave Petersen on factory Suzuki RG500s – Mick on the 1983 XR45 used by Barry Sheene in 1983 GPs before being passed to Grant in 1984, when he last raced this bike in anger to win the 1984 Macau GP, and Petersen on the ex-Team Gallina XR70 from a couple of years later – there was a very current star of road racing along for the ride (well, several rides, in fact, since he kept hopping on a different bike each session!), Honda Britain’s 2009 Senior TT winner and reigning British Supersport champion, Steve Plater, who’d brought along his dad for a winter holiday, before flying back to the UK after Cape Town to start preparing for the coming 2010 BSB season.

“This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve been on one of Mick’s South African tours since my first one in 1999, and it’s absolutely megga – I can’t recommend it highly enough,” said Plater, who like everyone else pays his own way, and this year brought his dad along as a significant birthday present for him! “But this is the first time I’ve been on one of his Classic racing do’s, and it’s only the second time I’ve ridden a two-stroke since I rode a 500 V-twin Honda at Macau, and the throttle stuck open on the first lap, which was very, very frightening! It’s been really educational riding all the different Classic two-strokes, and I love the atmosphere of the Historic racing scene, where it’s the bike that counts and taking it out on the track to show the fans what it’s like to see and hear it in action as you ride it to the best of your ability without having to worry about winning races, is what matters. I’m going to try to come back next year and bring the family with me – this is a great country, with something for everyone, and it seems the World Cup is helping them get on top of things at last, and bring some prosperity in. And at this time of year it’s a lot nicer here than it is in Europe, with all the snow and fog! I’m gutted that I can’t stay for the final round at East London – next year, maybe!”

Indeed, Plater took full advantage of the many sessions of track time in between the car races to sample different bikes, after first taking the precaution to get the OK from Honda Britain boss Neil Tuxworth to ride any Historic GP bike from a rival marque – in this case several of the myriad Suzukis in the lineup! That meant a series of outings on Grant’s XR45 two-stroke, now owned by tyre dealer and former racer Tony Salt, who’d also brought along an even more historic and topical bike for himself to ride. This was the first Suzuki GSX-R750 to reach Britain in the winter of 1984/85, before the model was actually launched in the marketplace exactly 25 years ago this year. Mick Grant duly won the British Superstock title on the bike, which still has the dent in the frame and scrape on the tank from when he crashed it the very first time he rode it, before winning the first four title rounds in succession. The bike is a real time-warp special, unchanged from when I tested it for a magazine article back in 1985 at season’s end after Grant clinched the title, and since the chance to swap bikes with fellow-tourists is all part of the enjoyment of the South African jaunt, I ended up renewing my acquaintance with it by riding it twice at Cape Town, while Mick rode the McIntyre G50 as good practice for the Goodwood Revival! Paul Boulton, the same Heron Suzuki GP race engineer who looked after the GSX-R750 that day I first rode it was also on the trip – talk about rolling back the years! – and after Dave Petersen lunched the crank on the XR70, Paul tackled a full rebuild of the square-four two-stroke engine in the Killarney pits, just like in the old days….

Over in the Latin corner sat a quartet of Ducatis, two air-cooled Pantah-engined 750TT1 bikes ridden by Roy Thersby and Bryan Bayes, and more modern 888 and 999 Superbikes both belonging to Alan Walker, taking time off from running his Leeds-based shopfitting business. Beautifully prepared by John Bywater, who however kept having to repair the 888’s primary drive till finally the East London track manager personally went and sourced him the right parts –see what I mean about hospitable?! – the 888 took Alan to victory in three out of the six Classic Superbike races, but sliding off at Zwartkopf and one mechanical DNF dented his points total, and allowed Cape Town’s Tony Jones to pip him for the overall series win by finishing every race aboard his remarkably fleet Cagiva Alazzurra 750.

Steve Plater kept his nose clean with his Honda masters by also riding a couple of Honda GP two-strokes he borrowed from other tourists, headed by Doug Ibberson’s delectable RS500 triple in period Rothmans colours, the same motorcycle that Swiss rider Niggi Schmassmann won the German 500cc title on in the mid-‘80s.  “That’s a really, really sweet bike – I could get used to riding that!” enthused Steve at Killarney as he climbed off the triple and on to the 1992 RS250 twin that the boss of Honda South Africa, Yoshiaki Nakamura, had been riding with panache a week earlier at Zwartkops. A former 125/250GP Japanese Championship rider and GP wild card, Naka-san was enthralled at the chance to take a ride down memory lane this way. “This motorcycle is very similar to my racing machine back then,” he said. “I never thought I could ride such a bike again, so I am very happy British riders came to South Africa!” Call it a reward for getting Honda behind the National NSF100 Junior series, which has brought many youngsters from the 79.5% of the population of South Africa that’s black, into bike racing….

That’s a feature you couldn’t help but notice attending the three TT Revival meetings, how especially in Cape Town there were a growing number of black faces in the pits. I lived briefly in South Africa back in the early ‘70s, before returning to the UK after apartheid started to be enforced in Cape Town, where I lived – a brutal, inhumane system I wanted no part of. Back then, car and even bike racetracks were an all-white enclave, but as living standards improve and disposable income becomes available, the allure of two-wheeled bike sport is stretching deeper into the native community – and Honda South Africa’s starter series for affordable NSF100 minibikes promoted by Nakamura is a key ingredient in this.

The way the TT Revival trip is organised gives you a great chance to explore this wonderful but remarkably little-known country – everyone talks about Cape Town and the Garden Route, or the Kruger National Park, but few, say, are aware of the austere beauty of the Klein Karoo which parallels the well-trodden tourist route to Capies, or the dramatic scenery of the Wild Coast running north from East London through what used to be the Transkei, one of the putative African homelands invented by the apartheid government, and consequently an area that until recently was starved of investment. Even staying north of Jo’burg for the Zwartkops round was an experience, housed as we all were in the sprawling, scenic Hartbeespoort Resort owned by Bike SA magazine proprietor Simon Fourie, whose decades as the lone media voice of motorcycling in EssAy were duly rewarded when his magazine boomed post-Mandela’s release. That’s how he could afford to buy this spread-out selection of log cabins accessible only by crossing an incredibly scenic dam, and passing through a grand, ornate archway to do so. Mind you, doing so in a typical Gauteng (Jo’burg province) rainstorm of biblical proportions wasn’t much fun – though we were in a 4WD car, unlike Simon and his partner Sharon getting drenched on their KTM Adventure! Still, it was just as well they had an off-roader, since the water was so deep and strong it dislodged rocks and other debris made invisible by the torrent that they had to ride over in the roadway….!

Post-Zwartkops the tour group headed south through the Kimberley to the Indian Ocean coast and the Plettenburg Bay resort area, then after a couple of days of beach R&R headed west via the Garden Route to Cape Town. Clive Strugnell books accommodation for everyone in comfortable but affordable B&Bs, each with the ubiquitous swimming pool, just to be sure of having rooms and to lower the price, but there’s no requirement to stick together – you can do your own thing between the events, even flying between the circuits, which is surprisingly affordable, since internal airfares in SA are quite low. Indeed, with a reasonable exchange rate and no real sign of prices being raised yet as they surely will be for the World Cup period, the three-week trip seemed good value for money. Common consensus was that you had change from GBP2,000 per person for the three weeks, including airfares from the UK, all meals and accommodation, car hire and fuel, and a good bit of spending money, too – oh, and three weekends of riding all included, as well! Only the cost of shipping the bike was extra….

After the Killarney round there were two days to explore Cape Town just 20mins away, before a bit of a mad rush to get the other side of Port Elizabeth in one day by sunset, to stay in the Kudu Range Game Lodge on the edge of the Addo Elephant Park – a vast 160,000-hectare big five reserve which is a state-run sanctuary housing more than 450 elephants – the world’s largest concentration of them. Driving through there next morning for 2½hrs. with a ranger as guide was an unforgettable experience even for those who’ve visited game parks before – Addo is special, as well as very, very BIG! Phil Read hitched a ride with Stella and me for the next segment, as we drove east towards East London, stopping for an African lunch in Grahamstown, a delightful colonial-era town that houses Rhodes University. Curried warthog turned out to be unexpectedly delicious, though I’m not sure if our local butcher has it on the hook…! Listening to Phil recounting many of his experiences down the years in half a century of road racing while I drove, made me wish I’d had my voice recorder switched on.

Clive excelled himself with our East London B&B, the dramatically situated White House in the suburb of Gonubie (www.thewhitehousebandb.co.za ) standing on a headland over the Indian Ocean. East London is a hidden secret that even most South Africans have never visited, a prosperous town thanks to the Mercedes-Benz car factory which makes RHD cars for Britain, Australasia, India and Japan, as well as SA. In many ways East London (originally it was just called London, but the part on the east side of the Buffalo River prospered, while the west bank declined, so – you guessed it!) is the face of the new South Africa, with an affluent African population and much reduced poverty, even in the small clapboard houses and corrugated metal townships. But the whole area is magnificently scenic, as confirmed by a morning flight up the coast in the helicopter furnished by the local tourist board to convey TT winners Messrs. Read, Grant and Redman to the circuit – can’t have them sitting in traffic, poor dears….!

“We started this out in 2007 as a bunch of like-minded mates just getting together to tag on to the David Piper series to have a few nice rides,” says Mick Grant. “But each year since then it’s got bigger and bigger, not only in terms of the number of people and bikes we bring out, but the spectators that show up to watch us, too. This year they had record crowds in both Zwartkops and Cape Town, and both the organisers were very, very pleased, because they had nothing like the same number of cars as a year ago, and the bikes held the meetings up financially. Pieter du Toit, who’s the owner of Zwartkops, and is a real straight shooter as well as a fan of ours without whom none of this would happen, made the Sunday a bikes-only day which paid off big time for him. Each year we have people sign up for next year’s do before they’ve finished this one, so we must be doing something right!” I’ll say – I’m one of them….

What Grant and Strugnell are planning to do is to actually try for the first time to attract more people for 2011 in an effort to persuade the organisers to host bike-only meetings – still with the same three circuits and dates, but with the chance for people from other European countries to take part, perhaps even with Safmarine arranging to take a container from Genoa, say, or Marseille, or Barcelona. But with the core of the participants still likely to be British for the conceivable future, the aim is to expand the UK group still further, by working with organisers to arrange a series of 500cc Historic races – not a championship, but standalone events at each track. That’s because although there are suitable such bikes in South Africa, Ian Groat is not typical of their owners, who mostly just prefer to ride at their local race circuit, meaning a championship series wouldn’t be viable. The more modern multi-cylinder bikes would still have the same amount of track time as now for parades and the catch-all race series – so if you’re interested in joining the ultimate winter riding holiday, step right up, please. If you’d like to spend three weeks or even just two (by doing a Plater and giving East London a miss – although trust me, you’ll wish you hadn’t!) riding your ‘interesting’ bike in a fascinating country with a great climate and hospitable people, sharing the experience with star riders of yesterday and today, contact Mick Grant at MICK10GRANT@aol.com . Oh – and bring lots of Factor 30 sun lotion….

This entry was postedon Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Events, IHRO News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.