Call to regulate spinning

Team Spinworld knows how to wow a crowd. 

SPORTS Minister Fikile Mbalula last week broke the mould by tweeting his support for spinning. He admitted to sister paper Beeld that he has attended many such events, several of them illegal, and called for the events to be “supported and regulated”.

Mbalula said he recognises that spinning has become the preferred automotive sport for black youth in South Africa and that these fans will go spinning and drifting with or without official sanction, which is why he wants regulations to make the sport safer.

Reece Williams in his GTR-powered BMW is
a favourite at driftkhana events. 

To prevent this bit of sanity from our Sport Minister from being buried in red tape, I want to place his directive on the shoulders of KZN’s municipalities, who owe it to their citizens and infrastructure to corral the enthusiasm at venues with the least risk.

Venues the main problem

A government policy for safer spinning needs to start with venues that put a solid barrier between the fans and the cars. The best way for the Sport Department to achieve this is to just sanction municipalities around South Africa to dedicate a wide enough section of parking to host spinning events as well as drag racing — and then to back off.

The municipality, in turn, must just delegate a paramedic crew to park on one end of the track to cover medical emergencies, and a metro police officer on the other to ensure no drunk driving, and then also back off, so that the town’s entrepreneurs can arrange the show. KZN already has a lot of expertise in this matter, with three spinning and drifting venues that set the standard in safety for the rest of South Africa.

The first is the purpose-built Mpelankani Stadium in Msinga, the second is Dezzi’s Raceway outside Port Shepstone, and the third is the Mkondeni Fresh Produce Market in Pietermaritzburg, where the Sidewayz Club hosts spinning events between the high walls of the loading docks, which give fans a bird’s-eye view of the action. Very few other events can boast such safety measures.

This ain’t drag racing, boet

Spinning should not be confused with drag racing, which is a pastime for good mechanics who cannot be bothered with all that steering stuff.

Spinning, drifting — and the relatively new combination, driftkhana — are all about precision control of powerful cars held in a fast, lateral slide. While not yet at the level of Tokyo Drift, local spinning has over the past five years grown rapidly into a high-stakes game, with all the trimmings that once made F1 great.

Drivers who want to impress in a spinning or drifting event need a lot of talent with the spanners; a modicum of stupid fearlessness behind the wheel; and stacks of cash to literally send up in smoke.

Combine these three elements behind the wheel of a souped-up eighties Beemer on slick tyres in the narrow spaces between the loading docks of the Mkondeni market, or the purpose-built Mpelankani Stadium at Msinga, and you have all the makings of a wildly popular show.

It is all about showmanship

Drivers who compete in a spinning event get points for being spectacular. The judges award the points both for precision control and the audience’s reaction to stunts.

This means that drivers constantly push the boundaries of what is considered possible. The rules may require someone to be inside the car to hit the kill switch, but do not stipulate which body part, or for that someone has to be the driver. Which is why you have crews diving in and out of windows of spinning cars, drivers dancing on bonnets, or an attractive passenger doing the simplest but most dangerous stunt — standing in the centre of several cars as they make doughnuts, aiming to touch the bonnets at all times.

As Mbalula has recognised, these shows will go on, but unless some rules are laid down, people will get hurt, again.

Mbalula said he recognises that spinning has become the preferred automotive sport for black youth in South Africa and that these fans will go spinning and dritting with or without official sanction, which is why he wants regulations to make the sport safer.

To prevent this bit of sanity from our sports minister from being buried in red tape, I want to place his directive on the shoulders of KZN’s municipalities, who owe it to their citizens and infrastructure to corral the enthusiasm at venues with the least risk.