Ignore prophets of doom
SA MOTORSPORT: PESSIMISTS SAY THE ADRENALINE GAME IS DYING, DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT
Drivers descend on Midvaal to race just for the love of it.
There is a cycle in local motorsport – repeated every year – that gives this writer confidence for the future of the Adrenaline Game, as we know it. Starting at the beginning of every November, a veritable army of pessimists will have you believe that South African motorsport is poised on the edge of a cliff, waiting to plunge into extinction.
They will point at the country’s perilous economy, plus the fact that ordinary people can no longer afford to attend outdoors sporting events that do not involve cricket bats, footballs or rugby players.
They will bitterly criticise the people in charge of local motorsport, saying they have no vision and will drop the ball, while allienating competitors, circuit owners and spectators alike.
They will also tell you that the country has too many or too few circuit racing disciplines, that competitors will dwindle in spectacular numbers, that all the race circuits in the country must soon close down, that the sport no longer has identifiable heroes and that racing no longer enjoys media coverage, which means that sponsors have no reason to get involved.
Listening to them, this writer often fears that I will no longer have motorsport to cover, raising the appalling possibility of having to find a real job.
Then, at the end of January every year, things begin to happen.
The annual international Passion for Speed extravaganza at Zwartkops starts proceedings in style, with a hugely oversubscribed entry of 340 historic cars and motorcycles.
This year, despite pouring rain in the morning, a huge crowd attended.
Next weekend, the 2018 Inland Championship will kick off at the Midvaal circuit near Meyerton.
Every year, the pessimists say that regional racing will die, since there are few series sponsors, with competitors having to meet rising racing costs out of their own pockets after being robbed by the ever greedier government taxman.
We are happy to report that the pessimists were, as in previous years, wrong.
More than 200 competitors will take to the Midvaal tarmac on Saturday, tackling 22 races in 11 separate categories.
There will be a huge variety of cars, ranging from seriously fast BMWs, via Superhatches and Volkswagen Challenge cars, to owner-built Super Saloons, Modified Production Cars, historic saloons, single-seaters and Inex Legend vehicles.
All of them will be privately owned, most of them home-prepared and many teams will consist of just the driver and two or three friends.
Not one of the competitors will be paid a cent to be there.
They do it for the love of the Adrenaline Game.
They will spend all of their spare money and time to procure and prepare a race car, enter it for race meetings, tow it to race circuits, work on the car there and tow it back home afterwards.
All in exchange for that magical thing called Seat Time – the awesome, stomach-churning, adrenaline spouting mere minutes involved in actual racing.
And while people love Seat Time, this cruel, crazy, beautiful thing called Motorsport will survive.
Not everybody can get to do it, so the rest of us love to watch.
The watchers include organisers, scrutineers, marshals, officials, timekeepers and, may I add, a small media contingent.
The people who make all of the above happen, do so because they do not know any better.
Thank heavens they do not.