It’s all systems go for the return of national championship motorcycle racing to Durban for more than half a century on August 24. The KwaZulu-Natal SuperGP will be round five of the new-look South African national motorcycle championships, the Monster Energy SuperGP Champions Trophy, following the postponement of the previously scheduled Nelson Mandela Bay SuperGP in Port Elizabeth on July 27.
After months of work on this initiative, GAS Sports, the managers and promoters of the Monster Energy Super GP Champions Trophy, have confirmed that they have leased a portion of the old Durban International Airport, in a partnership with KDG Logistics and former multiple national Superbike champion Russell Wood, to run the planned KwaZulu-Natal SuperGP.
“We are delighted to be bringing national championship motorcycle racing back to KwaZulu-Natal, which has a proud history in the sport and boasts several national and world champions,” said Stephen Watson, Executive Director of GAS Sports. The list is led by world champions Kork Ballington (250 and 350 GP in 1978 and 1979) and Jon Ekerold (350 GP in 1980).
Wood (12 South African 250 and Superbike titles between 1985 and 2003), now a prominent and successful local businessman, heads a distinguished list of KZN national champions that also includes Kork Ballington, Rodney Gray, Alan North, Dave Estment, Shane Norval, Gary Burgess, Mike Moore, Sandy Wilson, Johnny Gwillam, Rory Nesbitt, Dave Emond, Peter Ekerold, Mike Fogg, Richard Borain, Peter Aitken, Tommy Johns, the Woolley twins Dave and Keith, the Bristol brothers, Warren and Danny, Trevor Crookes and Hudson Kennaugh, who also won the British Super Stock Championship last year.
The last time KZN’s legion of motorsport fans were treated to two-wheel racing at this level was in a round of the 1988 national championship on a street circuit that included sections of NMR Avenue.
“We have been working closely with Russell on this event and we are very excited about this whole project. It is a daunting venture as we literally have to create a circuit from scratch with all the infrastructure and facilities that you normally find at an established circuit. Russell completed a few laps of the provisional marked-out circuit and the smile on his face afterwards said it all,” added Watson.
“The old Durban International Airport offers us an incredibly opportunity to create a safe motor racing venue right in the heart of one of the country’s major cities and a world-renowned tourist destination. We have designed a 2,4-kilometre anti-clockwise layout that will feature 11 turns, including a hairpin turn one at the end of the pit straight (the old DIA South runway) and a chicane with pit entrance to end the lap”, said Anthony Lauter, GAS Sports Executive Director.
“We are literally breaking new ground here, creating some motor racing history and providing a long awaited and much overdue motor racing venue in Durban”, said Wood.
KwaZulu-Natal’s audit outcome highlights