Springbok series

Last month we published a short report on the Kyalami 9 Hours and since then the Springbok Series has continued with all the 2-litre sports cars providing some excellent racing in and around South Africa. The field has been bolstered by some local sports cars as well as saloons.

As we close for press there is only one round remaining, on December 29th, and the championship is extremely close with just a single point separating leader, John Love from Rhodesia, who has been driving a Lola T212 sponsored by Team Gunston from Mike Hailwood who has been driving a couple of works Chevron B19s.

One of these cars has been fitted with the new Cosworth racing engine built around the aluminium Chevrolet Vega slant four cylinder block but the engine has been very unreliable in this early stage of its development.

In the second round of the championship, the Cape 3 Hours at Killarney, victory went to Love, co-driving with Helmut Marko, after the Chevron Vega shared by Brian Redman and Hailwood hit trouble and eventually finished second.

The next three races saw an increasing challenge from the Chevron B19-FVC of the Canon Cameras team running in South Africa under Wynn’s sponsorship and with regular driver Ed Swart of Holland partnered by 21-year-old local hope Jody Scheckter. The pair won the Lorenquo Marques 3 Hours in Mozambique from SA’s Keizan/Verway in their Lola after the Chevron-Vega of Hailwood blew up and a similar fate befell Redman’s Chevron-FVC. At Bulawayo Hailwood shared the works Chevron-FVC with Paddy Driver and won, Guy Edwards/Jackie Pretorius were an excellent second ahead of Swart/Scheckter and then at Welkom in the Orange Free State, Swart/Scheckter looked all set for another win when a puncture robbed them of victory in the closing laps and they finished second. The Red Rose Racing Chevron B19 driven by John Hine and S A. Formula One Champion Dave Charlton took the flag.