The Nampo 400, a national invitational race for vehicles competing in the 2004 SA Off Road Car Racing Championship will take place in the Bothaville area on February 20 and 21, 2004.
The event will be based at Nampo Park, which hosts the annual Nampo Harvest Day. This is the largest agricultural show in the Southern Hemisphere and provides suppliers the opportunity to showcase and demonstrate their products and services.
Nampo Park is situated 220km from Johannesburg, 40km from Klerksdorp and 20km from Bothaville and provides participants and spectators with top class facilities including food and beverage outlets, ablution blocks, a caravan park, ample secure parking and an opportunity to see the racing up close.
The Nampo 400 will be organised jointly by the MSA Off Road Car Racing Commission and the Verwes Off Road Club and will incorporate a round of the Northern Regions Off Road Championship.
“We regard the region as being commercially important and welcome Grain SA and its members, who own the facility, into the off road racing fold,” said Piet Swanepoel, president of the MSA Off Road Car Racing Commission. “We believe the area is ideally suited to off road racing and with the support of the local farming community we expect to offer competitors a challenging and interesting route.”
“The event will be observed with the view to including it in the 2005 SA Off Road Car Racing Championship and we are expecting a large entry from the national championship competitors who will be able to use the event as a shakedown for the Nissan Dealer 400, the first round of the national championship, which takes place in the Western Cape on March 19 and 20.”
The Nampo 400 is expected to provide an economic boost for the local community.
The event provides the local farmers, whose land will be used for the route, the opportunity to generate funds for the Kleinbroek Farm School by being involved in the catering. They will also, as with the Nampo Harvest Day, which attracts in excess of 60 000 visitors over four days annually, offer inexpensive and enjoyable farm stay accommodation to teams and visitors.
“By hosting such an event at Nampo Park we hope to promote and further utilise this excellent facility, which already hosts various events throughout the year, and in the process create economic opportunities for the local community”, said Johan Loxton, Deputy General Manager Commercial Enterprises of Grain S.A.
The Nampo 400 will include a 60km Prologue on Friday, February 20 with the main event on Saturday, February 21 comprising three laps of a route of approximately 120km.
