Commemorative DJ Run revving up

Entries are open for the 2019 commemorative DJ regularity rally.

The event will celebrate the 106th anniversary of an annual motorcycle road race between Durban and Johannesburg between 1913 and 1936.

The DJ Run, one of the longest running events on the local motorsport calendar and promoted by the Vintage and Veteran Club, is hugely popular and has attracted fields of as many as 130 competitors in the past.

The 2019 event will start from the Colony Shopping Centre in Hillcrest, outside Durban, on Friday, March 15, and finish the next day at the Classic Motorcycle Club premises in Germiston.

The original event in 1913 started in Johannesburg and ended in Durban after three days of flat out racing on rutted, dusty roads. At first it was a scratch race, but later a system of handicapping was introduced.

The last race was run in 1936 after which racing on public roads in South Africa was banned for safety reasons. By then, as the organisers were based mainly in Johannesburg, it was more convenient to start in Durban and finish at the Johannesburg Market. The Commemorative Rally was held for the first time in 1970 taking the form of a time and reliability run. The route still follows the old R103 Johannesburg to Durban route as closely as possible, taking riders to Pietermaritzburg via the Valley of a

Thousand Hills and on Nottingham Road to an overnight stop in Newcastle.

The second day iss a challenging ride over mountain passes to Vrede, through Heidelberg, to

the CMC Clubhouse in Germiston.

The route covers about 310km on day one and then 328km on day two, making up a total of 638km.