South Africans believe in sport. Whether they are painting the town yellow and black for the derby, or wearing their green and gold with pride in support of the Boks, it's almost a religion.
One of the codes that might not get as much recognition is motosport, which is growing in the country.
The Kayalami Grand Prix in Midrand will play host to a nine-hour long race on Friday, 8 December.
Traditionally the Kayalami nine-hour endurance race sees racers from overseas take to the circuit, but this particular series will involve South African talents being the focal point.
We speak to Mihlali Letlaka, the operations manager for Inter Africa Motorsport who has been involved in motorsport for five years through her dad.
“I manage the financial part of his racing entity,” the 25-year-old from the Eastern Cape says.
“This is the first of the south African endurance series. This is a series that comes from Europe with drivers from there usually but this one is primarily South African racers, cars and car owners. People can expect to see a lot more cars than what are usually in the Kayalami nine hour.
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“Expect South African vibes in terms of music and the hospitality and a general good time. We are allowing people and individuals to bring in their own braais and have it feel like a family day. Nothing says South Africa more than a braai with good friends.”
This is to be an endurance race so each car will have three drivers. The team of three determines their own driving sequence, “one hour or two hours or whatever. They draw up their own strategies to see how long the team and the car can endure over the nine hours.”
Mihlali says the aim of this kind of race is to show the whole infrastructure that goes into making a car from the mechanics, pit crews to the drivers.
“Having a race car operating for nine hours is not an easy thing,” she passionately adds.
“I would say if you are not interested in cars there is a whole lifestyle element that comes with motorsport. We don’t see it a lot in South Africa, but we do overseas.”
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You need only watch the Formula One when they visit the iconic street track in Monaco to witness the style that fans adopt for the day, dressing to the nines and engaging with the lavish surrounds. This is after all one of the more expensive sporting codes there is and so high society and those of a stylish ilk tend to gravitate to it.
Locally, Mihlali thinks there a few things that can be done to encourage more people of colour to either support motorsports or find a way to get involved in the business of it as there is an array of opportunities to be explored.
“There are so many elements of motorsport that are not highlighted as there is a whole other aspect to making those cars move around the track. I think more people of colour can get involved in mechanics or manufacturing. When I say manufacturing there are clothes, shoes, painting the car, the Perspex used for the windows.”
Mihlali also thinks it could do wonders to bolster the engineering sector in the country through youth programs aimed at developing talents to find roles in the world of motorsport.
It is, however, a sport that is riddled with challenges in the country.
“There is a lack of support, and I don’t if this comes from a lack of visibility or publicity outside the financial part of it. Motorsport is an extremely expensive sport and due to our demographics and income, I don’t think it is a sport that is invested in and that’s because there aren’t returns on investments here.”
She acknowledges the contributions of the more street approaches of drifting and spinning but says that the rest of the world doesn’t view that as motorsports in the traditional sense, but she believes it’s mainly about educating ourselves as to what motorsport encompasses.
“We are one of the few countries that has good weather all year round and an amazing circuit at Kayalami.”
She says it could entice the Formula One which it actually did in 1993 with plans to reinstate this leg in 2024 being reportedly abandoned.
