There is a stretch of tarmac at Killarney International Raceway in Cape Town that runs from the main gate to a subway, flanked on both sides by old blue gum trees. On a normal weekday, it looks like any other access road at any other sports facility in the country. But the strip of road is the oldest piece of motorsport infrastructure in South Africa and it was built because the Divisional Council bypassed what had been the main road to Malmesbury and a group
of enthusiasts with a vision decided to use the abandoned stretch for something far more interesting than traffic. That was 1947. And what started as a drag strip for sprint events, as they called them back then, eventually became the most storied motor racing venue in the country. The club that kick-started it all was the Mets, short for the Metropolitan Motorcycle and Car Club, formed in 1928. They were predominantly a motorcycle outfit at the start but by the time they got their hands
on the disused stretch of road, they had bigger ambitions. A link was built to connect the strip into a basic circuit. Narrow, shaped roughly like a triangle, with a tight hairpin at one end. Then, in 1952, the Tower Bend and the Big Sweep were added. The circuit had grown to 1.65km and according to one of the great legends of Cape Town motorsport, the chairperson of the Mets at the time, Billy Kay, measured the whole thing himself with a dressmaker’s tape measure.
The circuit kept evolving and a loop was added. The question of where to put the start-finish line sparked fierce debate. In the early years, all races ran anti-clockwise. But the bones of what would become one of Africa’s greatest racetracks were there. In 1959, the club, now joined by the Amateur Automobile Racing Club, negotiated a R40 000 loan from the Cape Divisional Council to build a brand-new circuit to international Formula One standards (what swung the deal was a scale model of the
proposed circuit built by Denis Joubert). In 1959, the Cape was financing a Formula One-spec racetrack. Edgar Hoal designed the circuit and club president C Stanley Damp led the negotiations. The chairperson was Raymond Reider. On 17 December 1960, the inaugural Cape Grand Prix was held at the newly built Killarney. The result was a one-two for Porsche factory drivers Stirling Moss and Jo Bonnier, with Wolfgang “Taffy” von Trips third in a Lotus. Yes, Stirling Moss racing a Porsche works car at Killarney in
Cape Town. Then on 2 January 1962, the second Cape Grand Prix was run as the final event of the Springbok Series. Works Lotus drivers Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor dominated the race until Clark, one of the greatest drivers who lived, uncharacteristically spun in Malmesbury Sweep and handed the win to his teammate. Jo Bonnier was third again, this time in a factory Porsche. These were the golden years. And then, as tends to happen with golden years, the money ran out. The promoters
of both Grand Prix events had overextended themselves. They could not pay the Mets Club what they owed for the hire and preparation of the circuit. The club fell behind on its loan repayments to the Divisional Council. On 30 November 1964, the council cancelled the lease and retained ownership of the land and all improvements. The Mets Club had essentially lost Killarney. What followed was one of the more remarkable chapters in the history of South African sport. A committee was assembled — led
by Adrian Pheiffer and including names like Ted Lanfear, Denis Joubert and Ronnie Hare. They threw an eight-day motor show extravaganza at the Goodwood Showgrounds under the Argus banner. The event raised enough money to repay the debt. It also, incidentally, introduced American-style stock car racing to Cape Town. With the debt cleared, the Mets did something that would have been unthinkable a few years earlier. They buried their individual club identities, brought in the Cape Rally Association, the Kape Kart Klub and the Motor
Sports Marshals Association and formed a unified body — the Western Province Motor Club. Adrian Pheiffer became the first chairperson. From there, the club was run for 36 years, almost without interruption, by Denis Joubert, whose conservative financial philosophy kept the organisation solvent while it steadily grew. Pits were built, garages were added and corporate hospitality areas appeared around the track. The clubhouse got done in stages as funds allowed. The landmark Goodyear Bridge, which was originally a replica of the famous Dunlop Bridge at
Le Mans and for decades one of the defining visual features of the Killarney skyline, went up just before the 1960 Cape Grand Prix and came down decades later as part of a safety overhaul, eventually scrapped and shipped to China. Metre boards now mark where it once stood. Lance Jonas is the chairperson, stepping into the day-to-day executive role after Des Easom’s retirement in April this year. Killarney is now one of only two circuits in South Africa and one of the few in
the world, whose original layout remains unchanged. The width and safety standards are different. But the circuit itself, the one Hoal laid out and Moss raced on in 1960, is there. Let us race forward to February 2027. Killarney International Raceway will host the AG Capital Cape Grand Prix Revival. The headline sponsor is AG Capital and its backing has made possible something that motorsport enthusiasts in the Cape have been dreaming about for years — a full field of early-1960s Grand Prix cars, racing
on the same circuit where Moss and Clark once raced, run by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association. The programme across the weekend is extensive. HGPA F1 cars will race alongside TT Motorcycles, Pre 66 Sportscars, Pre 80 Saloon Cars, with the organisers awaiting confirmation from the legendary Zakspeed outfit on bringing their all-conquering Ford Capris and Escorts — Pre 95 Wesbank Modified Cars, Pre 95 SA Touring Cars and 2 Stroke GP Motorcycles. Friday will be practice and pre-qualifying; Saturday brings Race 1 for
all classes; and Sunday is Race 2, with TT bikes opening the day and the F1 race taking centre stage from around 3.30pm. Complete with a grid walk, interviews, podium, national anthem and champagne. The CEO of RGBC, which imports Moët, will be supplying the podium champagne. The intention is to make it as authentic as possible like 1960. Killarney is the only place in South Africa where you can look at a Grand Prix car from 1961 and know, with certainty, that you are
standing where the originals raced. Buried beneath the blue gum trees along the access road and beneath the circuit, lies the legendary history that started it all. The Cape Grand Prix Revival takes place on 6 and 7 February 2027 at Killarney International Raceway, Cape Town.
Killarney International Raceway, Cape Grand Prix, Mets Club, Western Province Motor Club, Historic Grand Prix Cars Association, AG Capital Cape Grand Prix Revival, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jo Bonnier, Wolfgang von Trips, Denis Joubert, Cape Town motorsport