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| Dunswart
runs its final oval race |
Broadcast
dates : 15th January 2006
21st January 2006 |
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Thirty-five
years ago, Dunswart Raceway was built to accommodate a form
of motor racing that could be described as the stepchild of
the sport in South Africa.
Located in the Mining town belt between Boksburg and Benoni
in the heart of an industrial area, Dunswart epitomizes the
rough, tough, blue-collar school of hard knocks that is oval
track.
It was a sad day at Dunswart in December 2005 when the very
last race was held.
And on hand to take home the memories were some of the
greats of the sport.
Even today there’s an air of menace in the pit area as
these tough guys of motorsport go head-to-head. As Paul
Heymans recalls, in the old days you didn’t pass a
competitor, you put him in the wall.
With the advent of sophisticated sprint cars based on the
American format, the oval boys cleaned up their act in the
‘70s.
There is absolutely no margin for error in oval track
racing.
The straights are so short they barely resemble
straights, and overtaking is extremely difficult because the
driver on the inside line always has the upper hand.
The beauty about oval circuit racing is that it caters for
all budgets. The old banger saloon cars like Ford Escorts
and Datsuns are still cooking.
But they’ve been joined in
the pits by sophisticated space frame saloons with
fiberglass bodies based on Peugeots and Mazdas.
For the Dunswart finale, Citizen motoring editor Andre de
Kock set up yet another of his infamous stunts, involving a
rather skanky-looking pyramid of cars.
Andre is also famous for strapping himself to a jet car, and
is the world’s fastest passenger.
Why does he do these things? He says that for fifty weekends
of the year he watches other guys have all the fun.
So once
in a while it’s his turn to get that warm, fuzzy
feeling that follows an adrenaline rush.
Fortunately for Dunswart fans, the Wesbank track is just a
few kilometers down the road.
There’s a sense of community in oval racing that’s
rarely experienced on the more sophisticated road circuits.
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It’s an affordable night out for the whole family,
something that’s all too rare in this era of high gloss,
over-packaged entertainment. Long may oval racing run.
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