After Dakar, racing fans are pumped for more daredevil action and
few races provide as much spectacular and TV-friendly action as Stadium Super
Trucks. This American invention has spread to Australia and does for automotive
racing what steeplechase races do for horses and hurdles for human runners. The
races Down Under will this year see the third-placed Dakar rider, Toby Price,
compete against the more experienced bakkie jumpers in this closed-circuit
mayhem of long jumps and barely controlled landings. Find more on http://stadiumsupertrucks.com.
Championship calendar. In 2013 the WRC dropped the 1000 km trial from its
calendar, but it has not stopped the biennial rally from attracting the world’s
most mentally unbalanced drivers from competing in Africa’s roughest rally.
The event runs through Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, covering 5,000
kilometres in ten days. Night stops are at exotic and famous hotels and lodges.
Last year, Stig Blomqvist and Stéphane Prévot of the Race4Health won in a
Porsche 911. Entries for the next race in November 2017 are already open. Find
more eastafricansafarirally.com.
The Roof of Africa in Lesotho likes to bill itself as the mother of all enduros,
but it is a doddle compared to the annual one-day Erzberg Rodeo in Austria. The
race is only 40 km long, but simply eats the 1 500 top Trail, MotoX and Enduro
riders who vie from over 30 nations to enter. Only 500 drivers qualify to line
up at the bottom of the open-cast mine, and of these, fewer than 10 make it to
the top of the 35-degree climbs and down again via forest trails over boulders.
As in the Roof of Africa, fans may help fallen riders at any time, but miss a
control point and you are out, as was the case with England’s Graham Jarvis, who
led only to be disqualified in last year’s race (inset). More on the race on
redbullsignatureseries.com
Trike drifting is a cheap form of wheeled racing that started in New Zealand but
was quickly adopted wherever cash-strapped racers lived near steep hills. All
that is needed is the front of a BMX bicycle, half a chair, a few pipes and a
set of rear wheels, over which are hammered a short section of PVC piping to
make things extra slippery. This DIY racing now takes place from Inanda in KZN
to Vermont in the U.S., where the third annual Burke Mountain Sliders will take
place later this year. While the purists stick to gravity, more trikes now have
electric motors or lawnmower engines to power drift at parking lots and shopping
malls. Find out more on DriftTrikesSA on Facebook. Seen here are trike drifters
in Taiwan.
