We are less than 24 hours away from the start of Killarney’s first-time attack challenge event, the Killarney Speed Festival. The Speed Festival will happen from the 23rd to the 24th of April and will consist of 80 quick-footed participants.
Tickets are on sale at the gate or on Computicket. Adults will pay R80, scholars aged 16 and under will pay R20, while children under 12 enter for free. Western Province Motorsport Club members can enter for free upon providing their membership cards.
The Killarney Speed Festival is the first-ever time attack event hosted at the track and is certainly a very special occasion. There will be multiple classes to accommodate all types of cars and motorbikes. Racers will engage in solo runs in an anti-clockwise direction starting 150 meters away from the Malmesbury Sweep. Saturday (the 23rd) will be hosting the practice runs and qualifying runs. Sunday (the 24th) will be the final runs for the qualifiers and the final runs in each class. Following the class finals, each winner of each class will engage in a shootout.
Its simple, if you want to win you just have to be the quickest.
Killarney encourages spectators to come and enjoy the races. Spectators are also able to park alongside the course and set up their gazebos. Capetonians hear me now… skottelbraais are allowed!
Making his Killarney debut this weekend will be Dawie Joubert in his Wild Rosa Lotari. The handcrafted Lotus-Esque car has been specially built for time attack events and sports some impressive aero elements such as the gigantic rear wing and equally large front splitter. Joubert’s white and blue Lotus lookalike is powered by a Ferrari 488 GTB 3.9L V8 engine.
The 488 GTB engine comes from the factory with a turbocharger that aids the Italian V8 to produce roughly 492kW. While there isn’t much information on what’s been done to the engine although it is likely far from its stock state.
Joubert’s car has been tuned for cornering and acceleration rather than pure straight-line speed as a result of Killarney’s rather less than 400 metre straight. The Killarney coursed has been likened to the Simola Hillclimb route because of the similar length. The record for Simola is a sub-40 second time. One wonders if we’ll see a low 30-second run throughout this weekend.