Killarney – National Track Day (June 2016)

So yesterday I stumbled across an unusually underrated event at Killarney, thanks to my friend Lorenzo Lakay. He sent me a photo of a beautiful wide arched racing build BMW E28, early on a Saturday morning a rare sight in Cape Town, South Africa. I had intended on sleeping in but I thought it was a great opportunity to shoot some different content for my portfolio, so as tired as I was I missioned through to see what Killarny had in store.

On my arrival into Killarney Gardens, I got that usual anxiety/adrenalin pump sensation that all race track visitors are too familiar with. That moment when you standing at the robots before race track entrance (Killarny Race track in this instance) and right next to you is one of three cars; a modified car (usually a hot hatch or luxury performance vehicle) with a sweet exhaust note, an expensive exotic car piloted by either the owners son or middle age man looking to spice up his life and lastly an over enthusiastic kid that just fitted a filter. On this occasion it happened to be a 2015 Jaguar XK with one excited middle aged guy. I happened to be driving my Golf Mk6 Edition 35 with some love making that 2 litre K04 turbo’d motor push out roughly 240kw. Needless to say, the entrance was almost more exciting than experiencing the 996 Porsche GTRS and the other Sports GTs ripping apart the asphalt.

On arrival, my good friend hooked me up with some complimentary tickets and unfortunately by the time I got there the E28 had already left. However, there were a handful of other tasteful race cars on display and prepping for their time out on the reversed direction race track. I was really shocked at the turnout of the spectators for this event, with only probably less than 100 spectators which honestly looked like all friends and families of the racing crew. My surprise was partly because of the amount of variety and quality builds that were present on the day. But at the same time I myself would not have been there if it had not been for the message from my friend. On the plus side, all the owners of the race cars and workshops were way more friendly and inviting than I ever would’ve expected! My expectations are partly due to the fact that I know how much adrenalin and money is on the line on the day so you just do not expect the guys looking to socialise or share some stories behind their builds, fortunately for me I was wrong.

This leads to why this is unusually underrated for me, because firstly its at Killarney (Cape Towns Only race track) and secondly the amount of passionate and friendly race car owners participating. From pit crews to the owners of the Japanese Imported MX5s, to the workshops of the Sports GT cars they were all so overly welcoming and talkative that it really warmed me up to this event! So much so that I decided to do this little post about the day. Something that I used to do quite often but of late I have stopped doing mostly because the lack of creativity, unity and camaraderie that I have experienced in the South African Automotive scene. This event brought that feeling that I had when I was kid, that feeling of pure passion and love for motorsport! Something I wish many others could have experienced, because guys are way to stuck up with trying to be the best in the car scene and completely looking past the fact that; The automotive culture is supposed to be a huge community uniting like minded enthusiasts through the nation and if not the world! But in South Africa we left with those that want to be “the best” are actually a weak links that break the chain that could lead to building the ultimate automotive community!

Thank you for taking the time to read the post! Feel free to comment and give constructive feed back in the comments down below!

Photos and Words: Tauriq Ajam Visuals