Friday February 11th, 2000

By Michele Lupini, South Africa

An interesting development in South Africa was the revelation by Kyalami supremo, Selwyn Nathan this week, that should South Africa be awarded a Grand Prix in the future, the race could well alternate between Kyalami and the new Phakisa Freeway in Welkom.

In a local television interview among all the grand prix hype surrounding the F1 testing at Kyalami at present, Nathan announced that he is prepared to take the Grand Prix to the Phakisa Freeway every second year.

Nathan’s AA Racing, which owns Kyalami, holds first refusal for a Grand Prix in SA.

Phakisa is a new government-owned facility near Welkom in the Free State, run by former Kyalami boss and SAGP organiser, Bobby Hartsleif. The so-called Freeway (Free State Raceway) incorporates a state of the art 4.2km "left-right" circuit as well as a 2-mile oval.

At a recent inspection, FIA safety delegate, Charlie Whiting provided Phakisa with a short list of minor changes required in order for the circuit to be licensed to host F1 testing. Phakisa hosted a round of the FIM world 125/250/500 Motorcycle Grand Prix championship after opening last year and will host the opening motorcycle GP again in 2000.

It had been expected that South Africa would return to the F1 fold in the near future after the FIA’s Bernie Ecclestone visited the country, and after a meeting with then SA President, Nelson Mandela, said a race was possible "on or before 2001"

In recent weeks, speculation has grown for a round in 2002, and possibly even 2001, following statements on the need for an African Grand Prix by among others, Eddie Jordan. The momentum picked up further yesterday, when Jaguar Racing announced it had signed 2000 Stewart British F3 star, Tomas Scheckter as a test driver with an option to race F1 in 2001. South African Scheckter is the son of SA’s ex F1 World Champion, Jody, also Ferrari’s last drivers’ champion.

BAR and Williams tested at Kyalami in 1999 and are once again testing at the circuit at present.

Interestingly, there has been some animosity between Kyalami and Phakisa, and Nathan’s rather unexpected statements have urged quite some speculation in local racing circles. Phakisa holds a vital trump card in its government connections, something which would clearly help pave Nathan’s way to achieve his and South Africa’s dream of a regular, modern-era Grand Prix.

Phakisa’s Hartsleif also has a longstanding relationship with the FIA’s Ecclestone stretching back to an association in Kyalami around twenty years ago.

By each sharing a grand prix date on an alternate yearly basis, Kyalami and Phakisa would pool their significant resources to enable an African race to be a far stronger grand prix prospect.

There could be a problem in that Ecclestone usually requires a 5 year contract with a circuit, but there have been exceptions in similar areas before, and a united South African Grand Prix shared between Kyalami and Phakisa would provide an interesting synergy, which could see F1 racing finally return to Africa.