topgearpast | deelish

The weekend of the 15-16th June saw the Top Gear Festival return to the streets of Durban one more time. Perfect timing of course in that it coincided with Fathers Day, so families happily joined their dads at one of the busiest and most exciting events to hit Durban’s shores.

Deelish of course joined the fray, but this time we were a part of the event. We entered our car in the GT Supercup race and boy oh boy… was this serious fun!

GT Supercup was founded in 2007 by speed enthusiast Afzal Moosa , owner of Soviet Security , as a way for guys to get together to race their cars under supervised conditions on various South African race tracks. GT Supercup has grown both in stature and number to the extent that no less than 30 “Supercars” were entered in the Top Gear event. Most members of GT SuperCup are local business owners like Rajen Pillay of Intech Instruments, Fred de Kock of Hendok, Mo Mia of ToysRUs, Sun Moodley of Bigfoot Express Freight, Lee Archary of Motorshow , Graham du Toit of Dreamahead and VitalMed and many others.

With the big guns of Sun Moodley ( Bigfoot Express Freight) entering 3 original Cup Cars, Attorney Manogh Maharaj in a 2004 Porsche 996 GT3 RS and the only lady driver amongst all the guys, Tania du Toit in a 2002 GT3 Cup Car, this was set to be a cracker of a weekend. Afzal was entered in a 1982 Porsche Carrera 911 and of course our Deelish/Toys R Us Porsche 996 GT3 Mark 1, was right up there.

After 11 years as a racing group, this was the first time that GT Supercup had raced at home - in Durban. In 2011 they traveled to Germany, France, Belgium and the UK, racing on such tracks as Brands Hatch, Spa Francorchamps and the Nurburgring. In 2012 they were off again to Italy where they sampled the Monza and Imola tracks – yet they have never had the opportunity to race in their home town. It was excitement all round for the drivers, and nerves and adrenalin not withstanding….the Top Gear crowd was about to experience sheer driving delight by local motorsport enthusiasts.

The Bigfoot Express Freight team was a sight to behold, the pit crew were seasoned campaigners and the precision with which they carried out their tasks bears testament to a professional racing outfit. Sun Moodley, travels around the world with his team and is an entrant in the European Cup Car series. The pits were alive with the sounds of music and entertainment by East Coast Radio DJ, Dave Guselli. The pit girls were vibrant in the colours of Bigfoot and added glamour to the occasion.

There were colorful characters who had entered to have a blast and entertain the crowds like Gary Sharrat from WheelCrafters , in his old school pimped up BMW, who drove like a demon and was a sheer delight to watch until the car decided that enough was enough. Serious drivers and ardent motors sports enthusiasts make up the GT SuperCup and they delivered in spectacular style to the Durban crowds at TopGear.

Our lady driver, Tania had her pit crew on standby (her husband Graham) to make sure she had the right tyres on and a good supply of racing fuel on hand.

Our Deelish Life n Style/Toys R Us car didn’t do too badly. We started 24th and finished 10th after a crazy spin on one of the corners - boy was it exhilarating. And of course we were the only car sporting bright pink wheels!

GT Supercup has gained respect in Durban as a professional driving outfit and as their numbers continue to grow we expect to see much more driving entertainment from the enthusiastic drivers…Look out for them at Swartkops in Johannesburg, Phakisa in Welkom as well as Killarney in Cape Town…but wherever there is a track day , locally or even internationally, GT Supercup will be there.

The big winners on the day were

GT1

1. Manogh Maharaj (Maharaj Attorneys)

2. Andrew Culbert (Vodacom)

3. Eccard Swanepoel ( Big Six Construction)

GT2

1. Dale Penney (BodyRite)

2. Lee Archary (Motorshow)

3. Jeeva Moodley (High Octane Tuning)

GT3

1. Jay Naidoo (Trubrick)

2. Duncan Dos Reis (Mojo Nightclub)