All set for Breedon Everard Three-Hour Endurance Race

Leonora Young, a spokesperson for the Bulawayo Motoring Club the hosts of the event, yesterday said they were looking forward to a good event.

She said they were hopeful that there would be a good turnout of participants in all categories. The main event of the day will be the three-hour challenge where the driver who does most laps within the 180-minute limit is declared a winner.

Last year’s contest was hair-raising with two cars stealing the limelight — a South African BMW and a Subaru.

“We have received confirmations from drivers from Botswana and South Africa. They are arriving through Beitbridge and Plumtree tomorrow,” said Young.

It will be the 43rd year that the event is being held having started in 1969 as part of the prestigious Springbok Series. This was a number of endurance races starting with the Kyalami Nine-Hour and followed by three 3-Hour races in Cape Town (Killarney), Lourenco Marques (Maputo), Pietermaritzburg (Roy Hesketh) and Bulawayo.

With the big V8 sports cars no longer eligible for the World Championship, the top class was now for 2-litre cars, mainly Lola and Chevron, the series saw the cream of drivers from Europe and the region taking part. Well-known names like Dave Charlton, Basil van Rooyen, Paddy Driver and a man who became South Africa’s only Formula One World Champion, Jody Scheckter, all competed in the series at one time or another resulting in it gaining a reputation of legendary proportions.

On that particular December afternoon, the first Bulawayo race, the cars that were revving their engines in anticipation of the chequered flag included the iconic Lola Chevys of John Love and Mike de Udy, the Ford GT40 of Malcolm Guthrie and the Mirage Ford of Mike Hailwood, alongside an impressive line-up of local and South African driving enthusiasts.

Since then it has become a habit to have an international flavour with drivers from Botswana and South Africa frequenting Bulawayo.

Now, over 40 years later, the event is still going strong and, in fact, this year’s Endurance Race, planned for 1 December and riding high on a wave of publicity and hype from the last two highly-successful editions held at the circuit, is expected to be the biggest yet.

The event is now sponsored by Toyota and Castrol and will this year, for the first time in many years, include a One-Hour Motor Bike Endurance Race which, recently, has merely been a demonstration.

“There is a lot of interest in this year’s Three-Hour Endurance, and we are gearing up for a really fantastic day’s racing,” said Young.

“So far we’re looking at around 40 drivers and 20 riders, coming from Bulawayo, Harare, South Africa and Botswana.”

Top contenders from the last two years — including the 2010 winning car of Eric Heard driving with Richard Robinson in their Lotus Super 7, radically modified with a Yamaha R1 motor bike engine, as well as last year’s winner, Darren Winterboer, driving a BMW330i, and Stuart Young, who have been making a strong appearance in the National Main Circuit Races — will be vying for their spot on the podium.

In addition, ex-Harare driver, Anthony Brandt, is travelling from the UK to drive with a Harare driver (Kevin Steenkamp) in a Ford Sierra XR4i 2.8 V6, built specifically for the Three-Hour race while Ian Howden will be driving his championship-winning Subaru, sharing the race with legendary driver, Gary Kirk, five times winner of the Three Hour and several national championships.

Also adding interest, John Amm, a veteran driver, well known in his day, will be coming from Cape Town to race in a Lotus 23 replica and will be sharing the drive with Eric Salamon, another ex-Bulawayan, while Tony and Rory Sharp will be back again from South Africa racing an Alfa Guilletta 2.0…the team won the Engen driver of the day last year for their skillful driving.

Julian van Vuuren will be entering in his Honda, which is part of the street car series, as will Jimmy Zevgolis in his VW Golf. Both have been working hard to get a streetcar series going, putting ordinary cars — and drivers — on the track. The BMC hopes to run a club championship of streetcar racing next year. On the one hour bike side will be legendary driver, Shaun Whyte, who has won several Zimbabwe championships and is well known on the South African Circuit. He has also been instrumental in getting motorcycle racing up and running again in Zimbabwe with the start of the Megelli 250 cc series.

Several riders from that series will be competing in the one hour race, including Peter Whyte Jnr and Snr, as well as veteran rider, Dave Mouat, from Bulawayo.

Also from Bulawayo, in the Superbike class, will be well-known Bulawayo racing personality, Fuzzy Walker, on a Kawasaki 1000, as well as Ian Gutherless, also from Bulawayo, on a Suzuki Tl100s.

The full programme of events is as follows:

Friday 30 November, 12.30pm:

Meet at the City Hall for parade through town and onward to the track

Saturday 1 December

Gates open 8.00am

Drivers Briefing 8.30am

Timed Practice Bikes 9am to 10am

Timed Practice Cars 10am to 11am

Sprint Race Bikes, all classes 11.15am 5 laps

Heat One

Colourworld Sprint Race Cars, all classes 11.35am 6 laps

Heat One