The 2025 Passion for Speed – International Invitation

Greetings everyone,

May 2025 be a great year of motor racing for the Legends – past and present.

Zwartkops Raceway – 31^st January & 1^st February 2025

Red Star Raceway 7^th & 8^th February 2025

GENERAL ISSUES

1. HTP – Every car competing will have to comply with MSA National Regulations. This means that every vehicle needs to be registered and have a National Historic Technical Passport (HTP). The car and driver must be present when the HTP is issued. For the Zwartkops and Red Star event, the issuing of HTPs will be done at Zwartkops on Thursday and Friday 30th and 31st of January 2025. Our technical consultant is John Ten Doeschate. This should not be a problem for Legend competitors as most of our cars have been registered since 2024.

The HTPs need to be signed off by the technical consultants. Only for “new” cars will an inspection be required. Please remember that there is an HTP form to be completed. Cars that do not comply could be included in these two events, but will not be eligible for championship points and will compete by Invitation only. The Legends Committee will assist each on merit.

Note: there is no cost for the HTP application and registration.

2. Club Membership – We do require that every competitor in the Legends Series be a member of the Legends of the 9 Hour Club. We are a group of like-minded people and need to be grouped collectively to communicate, be creative and work together. Historic Racing has over the past 28 years evolved into a major series which is readily identifiable by the motoring public. “There is public interest.” The cars have value and, in many ways, are still relatively affordable to race at regional and national levels. Internationally the series operates on a completely different platform.

The cost of membership is nominal at R850 per member.

3. Passion for Speed – This will be our 24th Passion for Speed event at Zwartkops. In the initial years, David Piper and Mike Knight, who were the founders of the International Sports Racing Club in the late 1980s, raced here with us, as historic events were limited. The famous and iconic cars were just lying around not racing, and were still relatively cheap. E.g. a GTO Ferrari (Piper/ Sutcliffe) was sold for R50 000. It was in a delicate state. The car was restored and raced for R1.4 million. Today the car is worth between 15 and 20 million STG and resides in a museum, certainly not being raced. This is the story of most of these iconic racing cars. Furthermore, when raced, many were outclassed by the new highly developed AC/Shelby Cobras. World promoters have jumped on the “Historic” bandwagon, which is making it virtually impossible to get them to our S.A shores – aggravated by governments with totally unreasonable carne regulations and costs.  YET we carry on and are very fortunate to still have our annual International by Invitation Passion for Speed. LET’S MAKE THE MOST OF IT!

3. We Hail Our South African Ingenuity and Skill – South Africans have always been resilient and adaptive. There is no way that we could ever envisage having an international/ national historic series without the icon/ heritage cars of the past – can you imagine no Lolas, Chevrons, Shelbys, RSR Porsches, Escorts, Lotus, Porsche 917s right down to the Minis, Austin A35’s, Austin Healey Sprite… We have them thanks to Super Performance, Bailey Cars, DAW (single seaters), all highly skilled mechanical engineers. We HAIL and thank them!
4. Drivers’ Briefing – We will have Drivers’ Briefing on Friday just before qualifying. It is very important that everyone attends
5. Let’s Celebrate – After qualifying on Friday 31^st January at 17h30 – 18h00 we will get together to welcome our international guests, renew acquaintances and share something to eat and some liquid refreshments.
6. Most Important – All Legend Series on the day will be rolling starts with double yellow flags in turn one and two. The marshals have been requested to keep the racing going as long as conditions permit – double yellows for cars in sand traps etc. will be kept to a minimum. We must avoid red flags, which are very disruptive. We have no idea what the weather will be like, which is a further risk to us all and may result in program changes.
7. The 45-minute SA Tourist Trophy – Rules
   1. One/ Two drivers permitted
   2. All refuelling in the pre-race paddock
   3. One compulsory pitstop for 3 minutes starting from pit entrance to pit exit
   4. Maximum pit speed is 40kph
   5. Pit crew to wear fireproof overalls during refuelling
   6. No driver changes or compulsory pit stops permitted during the first 15 minutes of the race
   7. All pitstops to be completed 10 minutes before the end of the race

 

PENALTIES:

• Pitstop infringement – three minutes
• Lap time below 70 seconds – drive through penalty per lap of infringement. (However, special dispensation will be considered by the legend committee and the COC where there is a marginal breakout. Consistently breaking out will force the drive through penalty per lap infringed).

9. Little Giants – Observe lap time per national regulations
10. U2 and Class ZB Legends Production Cars – We have no idea what the final entries will be as there are cars which still need engine, or gearbox rebuilds and may not be ready due to problems with obtaining spares. Therefore, the U2 class will be incorporated with the Legends Production Cars or with Little Giants.
11. The Classic Saloon Series – This relatively new series will be eligible to compete in the South African Tourist Trophy, subject to adhering to our rules and regulations. This will be a special class but must observe a cutoff time of 76 seconds. See SA TT regulations above.
12. Tyres/ Legends Minimum Weight – The Legends Saloons, Le Mans/ Sebring TT, Pursuit and Little Giants must all compete on Semi-Slicks. Where tyres are completely unavailable – full slicks will be permitted subject to grooving. The minimum weight is set at 1230kg for the Legends V8 saloons. ISP/ Trans-AM is an open series – full racing slicks are permitted.
13. INDEX OF PERFORMANCE AWARDS – Each category in the Legends Series will have an Index of Performance award for the day. Please note this is not per class but overall for the competitor which has excelled. The timekeepers will calculate the Index of Performance.
14. RED STAR RACEWAY – It is the primary focus of the Passion for Speed to incorporate as many categories of participative racers as possible. For 2025 we believe the most practical way is to concentrate the event in the north. Killarney and Kyalami are beyond our budgets for the moment. It seems the right way to go, except we cannot accommodate everyone on the same day. The best way is by rotation. Some categories will not be at Zwartkops at the end of the month. In 2026 there will be a rotation. Category growth is very important for the Passion for Speed and our respective Series. We need to support each group to motivate maximum support for our respective events.

15. Television, live streaming, Ignition, YouTube at Zwartkops And Red Star – Both events will have live streaming coverage. This must be promoted to all concerned. The Passion for Speed deserves great coverage and support from sponsors and the public. WE ARE UNIQUE, DIFFERENT AND BETTER!
16. Schultz Swanepoel – Schultz our Chief Marshal and mostly Clerk of the Course is retiring. A special award will be made to him on Friday evening.
17. Trophy award ceremonies – Will be done after the racing on both Saturdays. Please stay and join the celebrations.

See you at Zwartkops and Red Star!

Peter Du Toit

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