RACING BACK INTO TIME
A humble newspaper man’s passion and dream drove the start of what became a major attraction in sport, drawing thousands from across the country, writes Glenn Hollands
Remembering the days when Grand Prix found its mark in EL
The Prince George motor-racing circuit in East London will thunder into life this weekend with the throaty roar of Bugatti, Aston Martin, MG, Riley, Maserati and many other classic racing cars.
These much-prized racers earned East London its position as the foremost city in pre-World War 2 South African Grand Prix racing.
That same sound was music to the ears of eccentric Daily Dispatch motoring editor, Edward ‘Brud’ Bishop in 1934 when it finally became clear that his unlikely dream of a Grand Prix race in East London had become a reality.
Bishop had taken his ‘sweetheart’ on a Sunday meander along the newly constructed looped road on the West Bank of East London.
He became fixated with the racing potential of the sweeps and banked curves of the freshly tarred road and insisted on completing five ‘laps’. At this point his frustrated girlfriend bailed out of his car and his life – or so he would have us believe.
Undeterred Bishop returned to the Dispatch newsroom to begin punting the idea of a major motor-race in the then little-known corner of Southern Africa.
Apart from the newly constructed divisional council public road, Bishop had little to work with.
But Bishop could never be described as risk adverse. He cabled news articles to Sammy Davis, a racing driver and the sports editor of Autocar in London and managed to spin the impression that something exciting was about to be staged in East London.
On October 22 1934, he got a startling break. American racer and millionaire Whitney Straight and his brother Michael cabled an offer to compete and bring along British legend Richard Seaman. All they needed was a starting fee of £700.
Bishop and his committee leapt into action and readily struck the deal, ignoring for the moment that they had no idea where the £700 would come from. A frantic funding drive ensued with Bishop personally pounding the streets of East London.
But the flamboyant Dispatch motoring editor was not out of the woods yet. He desperately needed the service of the recently constructed steel four-track bridge over the Buffalo River. The existing wooden version was rickety and would place the anticipated flood of spectators at risk. The only person who could commission the new bridge was the powerful and sinister National Party minister of railways & defence, Oswald Pirow.
Bishop prevailed, and the bridge opened in time for raceday.
The lowly newspaper journalist soon learnt a few tricks. Firstly, pay enough starting money and you could attract the biggest racing names in the world.
A staggering 42,000 people turned out for the first South African Grand Prix in 1934. By the second Grand Prix race in 1936, Bishop and his committee were paying £500 per head for the top eight drivers, including the likes of JP Wimille.
He reflected anxiously, “So we had made our really terrifying gamble … £4,000 laid out before we had put up a pit or a grandstand. It gave us sleepless nights.”
But again, the gamble paid-off and 84,000 spectators, nearly four times the then population of the city, turned out at the circuit.
The second lesson was that if you charmed a few seasoned experts like British racing legend Lord Howe and Italian racer and mechanic Giulio Ramponi to stay on after the race and you could have a constantly improving track and handicapping system.
From 1934 to 1939 Bishop’s vision paid off in spades as huge crowds flocked to East London. Not only did the city establish a strong motor-racing culture, it lapped up the attention and the large tourist spend that came with it.
Bishop did the Daily Dispatch proud, boosted motor-racing in East London and put the city on the international map – but received scant recognition for his effort. Glenn Hollands is the author of Off the Circuit: A South African Town Makes Grand Prix History - How the First Grand Prix Outside Europe was Raced in East London. The book is being released at the SA Historic Grand Prix Festival at the East London Circuit this weekend and costs R280.