NOTHER rainy day in Cape Town, 2009. But what made it special was that I was suddenly transported back to 1984… A horde of Golf 1s battled for position through Killarney’s Hoal’s Hoek (apologies, Wesbank), door handles clashing and mirrors flying. And the names. Sarel van der Merwe, Geoff Mortimer, Andre van der Watt, Terry Moss, Chris Aberdein, Glyn Hall, Guy Hodgson, Michele Lupini…plus a few more “modern” but no less significant ones, such as Giniel de Villiers, Pierre Arries and Enzo Kuun. Not to forget journos Pierre Steyn and CAR’s own Sudhir Matai, both learning about real tin-top racing. See Sudhir’s blog and a gallery on CARtoday.com.
Apart from roll cages, the field for this “time trip”was made up of completely standard VW Citi Rox 1,6i models, yet the racing was amongst the best at the September Killarney Wesbank Super Series meeting. As Volkswagen motorsport boss Van der Watt commented, perhaps there was a message in that… Volkswagen’s Citi Celebrity Challenge series, which kicked off in the Cape during September, will resonate with thousands of enthusiasts who, like me, remember the glory days of South African saloon car racing. And what a wonderful way to bid farewell to the Citi Golf, which has just gone out of production after a quarter of a century, coincidentally just as Volkswagen Motorsport celebrates the 25th anniversary of its official entry into South African competition (although I well remember the Audi Quattros sweeping all before them in 1983 rallies, and Sarel winning the 1983 Group 1 title in a Golf 1 GTi).
The exploits of Golf 1 models (pre- and post Citi Golf) are a powerful part of local motoring’s memory bank. And so is the Citi, which, in its “red, yellow, blue” initial iteration created a new youthful car-buying cult. The Celebrity Challenge is a great tribute to a company that, along with Toyota, Delta and BMW, has contributed so much to racing on the southern tip of Africa over the years. Nowadays, VW’s involvement is stronger than ever, through rallying, production cars and particularly the formative one-make series such as Engen Polo Cup and the “big gun” Formula VW single-seater category, a formula that is an ideal training ground for future international single-seater and Le Mans stars. The fruits of it are already showing, with last year’s Formula VW champion Gavin Cronje taking joint first place in this season’s international Formula Le Mans Cup Championship, and other young stars such as Wesleigh Orr and Cristiano Morgado taking up support driver roles for South Africa’s A1 Grand Prix team.
Bravo, Volkswagen!
