Kyalami, Racing Circuit

Kyalami sits in hilly country roughly 15 miles north of central Johannesburg and has long been regarded as the home of South African motor racing. The name comes from a parcel of land on the circuit's northern border and means 'my home' in the local Zulu language. Formula One's South African Grand Prix moved here from East London in 1967, and the relaxed venue quickly became a favourite season-opener for teams and drivers. The Grand Prix ran at Kyalami across two stints, with the championship absent for several years amid apartheid-era sporting sanctions before a final race in 1993, after which financial trouble and the arrest of the race promoter on fraud charges ended the circuit's Formula One era. Its original nine-corner layout carried names drawn from local geography and racing lore, including Crowthorne, Barbecue Bend, Sunset, Clubhouse, the Esses and Leeukop. The circuit was bought at auction in 2014 by Porsche South Africa chairman Toby Venter, who funded a major refurbishment that won FIA Grade 2 homologation. The reprofiled Grand Prix Circuit now measures 4.529 kilometres over sixteen turns, with a longer straight feeding into a fresh complex of challenging corners. International motorsport returned in November 2019 with a revived Kyalami 9 Hours for GT3 cars, run as part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. Further upgrades have been pursued with an eye to one day bringing Formula One back to the venue.

Operated by: Toby Venter