South African roads have become a lot safer since Sunday night, 17 August, when hundreds of street racers flocked to the first round of the ‘Illegal 2 Legal’ street racing series at the WesBank Raceway to participate in the first of a series of what began as bi-monthly events on their world-class 1, 1 kilometre drag strip. –
– An astounding 6,000 spectators supported the first event, which saw the entrants participate in a total of 527 runs over five hours of racing which ended at 11pm. “Ï can only think of one other event years ago at Black Rock when 608 runs were done over eight hours,” said Herbie Herbst, the drag racing manager of WesBank Raceway. –
– The second event was just as successful again with a crowd in the region of 6,000 speed fans out to enjoy the grudge racing scene and when the timing lights went out the crowd was kept entertained and roaring for me as the street racers threw donut after donut while filling the night air with the smell of burning rubber. –
– “Street racing is the future of motor sport in South Africa, these guys race for the love of speed and nothing else. The more street racers who come in from the streets the greater the likelihood that they will become involved in pukka drag racing and thereby grow the sport,” said Jan Johnson, the President of the MSA Drag Commission.-
– “After months of negotiations, we have secured R20 annual licenses from Motorsport SA (MSA), and combined with a nominal entry of R20 to race on one of the finest strips in the world and a good collaboration with the street racers, We will never completely stop street racing but one more car out on the strip is one less car on the roads of Gauteng,” said Johnson. “To-date we have attracted hundreds of new members to motorsport”, she added. –
– With the massive success of the first two events and the huge interest expressed by both racers and fans it was decided to change the Illegal 2 Legal Series from a bi-weekly event to a weekly event. –
– “Since we started racing at WesBank Raceway we have been made welcome and the racing has just got bigger and better, we have been racing twice a month but our members have requested that we race every weekend so we asked the Raceway and they agreed ,” said Steven L., Gauteng’s street drag master. ” We will now be racing here every Sunday like clockwork from 4pm. With its floodlights and barriers WesBank Raceway is safe for both the drivers and the fans – aside of making our street safer – and that’s just sweet for everyone,” he concluded. –
– The third round of the series and the first of the weekly meetings was held on September 14 and while the chilly evening kept some fans away a crowd of around 3 000 die-hards was on hand to say 181 of the meanest and quickest street cars around do battle over the quarter mile and watched in awe as the donut competition was won in a time of 2.38 seconds by the guys from K-Speed racing. –
– In order to keep the street racing culture around only a few basic rules to race have been enforced with helmets, long pants and shoes required to race while alcohol, drugs and stolen cars are banned. –
– Johnson said that with co-operation between circuits and Illegal Street racing organisations, she hoped that the trend would move country-wide. “Drivers come from as far as Durban, and we have trained the illegal club official marshals to assist with the events as part of our ongoing mission to grow the sport and empower the participants,” she added. –
– Terrific prizes are also on offer every weekend with the distributors of Falken Tyres, Speed Freaks putting up a set of 17inch tyres every weekend as well as suspension kits as prizes for the drivers while for the fans there are t-shirts and key-rings to take home while performance Speed and Sound Magazine are donating the trophies for all the events and have committed to investing R440 000 round in the series. –
– The new street rules accommodate 4, 6 and 8 cylinder cars, bikes and quads. So a Class 6A car is a normally aspirated six cylinder car, while a Class 6C has either nitrous oxide (nos) or turbo or slick tyres, and a Class 6SD has a full house of tricks in drag trip including supercharger and blower motors. –
– Street racing organisations around the country that would like to join forces with the Illegal 2 Legal movement can call the president of the MSA Drag Racing commission, Jan Johnson, on (011) 706-1893/58. –
– Admission to the Illegal 2 Legal street racing will be R30 per car, allowing up to five passengers. –
– Racing gets underway at 4pm and continues to 9pm. Entries from 1pm. –
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