Durban bikers gets tourist-candy circuit

Hudson Kennaugh, one of many internatioal
riders from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

THE cancellation of the international leg of super bike racing at Phakisa in the Free State will not affect this month’s Super GP in Durban.

The South African round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, provisionally scheduled to be held at Phakisa Freeway in the Free State on October 19, will now no longer form part of the 2014 series but could be included in the 2015 calendar, possibly as early as March.

But the organisers GAS Sports assured Wheels its all systems go for the national championship motorcycle races in Durban on August 24.

This SuperGP at the old Durban International Airportwill be round five of the new-look South African national motorcycle championships, the Monster Energy SuperGP Champions Trophy.

The round was originally scheduled for Nelson Mandela Bay SuperGP in Port Elizabeth on July 27, but postponed.

GAS Sports, the managers and promoters of the Monster Energy Super GP Champions Trophy, 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.

Stephen Watson of GAS Sports said 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.

World class circuit on old landing strip

KDG Logistics and former multiple national Superbike champion Russell Wood has created a world class circuit from scratch at the old Durban International Airport.

Gas Sports say the track provides a safe motor racing venue right in the heart of Durban, creating 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 of GAS Sports.  

KZN riders' hall of fame

WORLD champions Kork Ballington (250 and 350 GP in 1978 and 1979) and Jon Ekerold (350 GP in 1980) are KZN’s best riders, followed byWood (12 South African 250 and Superbike titles between 1985 and 2003), and 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.