The addition of Kyalami, which will see the revival of the event’s iconic nine-hour format, would result in the IGTC season expand to five rounds in currently being made up of the Bathurst 12 hours in Australia, the Spa 24 hours in Belgium, the 10 hours of Suzuka in Japan and the California 8 hours held at Laguna Seca in the United States.
Organised by Stephane Ratel, whose resume of events also includes the highly popular Blancpain GT Sprint and Endurance series’, as well as the British GT Championship, the European GT4 Series and the North American Pirelli World Series, the Kyalami 9 Hours will run to GT3 regulations and mark the return of international endurance racing since the opener of the now defunct International Sports Racing Series in 2000.
“I was with an old friend who is from South Africa and I told him I would love to go to Kyalami, and he said, 'you can call Toby Venter, the owner of the track. I went to see him and the circuit is superb - it would be sad to have such a tool and no international event,” Ratel was quoted by Britain’s Autosport as saying.
The nine hour, first raced in 1961, last formed part of the World Sportscar Championship in 1982 with victory on that occasion going to the all-conquering Rothmans Porsche 956 driven by Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass. Subsequent events in 1983 and 1984 reverted to a 1 000km format, while the 1986, 1987 and 1988 rounds carried non-championship status and ran over 500km.
Previous nine hour winner includes four-time victors Ickx and Mass, David Piper, Reinhold Joest, the late Stefan Bellof and Bob Wollek, Richard Attwood, Henri Pescarolo and South Africa’s own Jody Scheckter, Tony Maggs and Gary Formato, who won that last outing in 2000 sharing a Ford-powered, Kremer entered Lola with Germany’s Ralf Kelleners.
