Killarney Motor Racing Circuit

Killarney Motor Racing Circuit
also: Killarney Race Track

Address: Western Province Motor Club Killarney Race Track no 6 Potsdam Road Table View 7439
Milnerton , Cape Town , Western Cape , South Africa
Route type:	permanent race track
Operator:	Western Province Motor Club
Architect:	Edgar Hoal
Opening:	1951
Formula 1 venue :	1960-1975 (South African F1)
Grand Prix track
Circuit
Route data
Important events:	South African Formula 1 Championship , Springbok Series
Route length:	3.267  km (2.03  mi )
1/4 mile
Drag racing track
Route data
Route length:	0.402  km (0.25  mi )
www.wpmc.co.za

Coordinates: 33 ° 49 ′ 25.4 ″  S , 18 ° 31 ′ 44.7 ″  E

The Killarney Motor Racing Circuit is a motorsport race track opened in 1951 in Cape Town, South Africa, in the Western Cape Province . It is located in the Milnerton district . The 3.267 km track is now part of the Killarney Motor Racing Complex .

history

Entrance "Chicane" with a view of Table Mountain and Lion's Head

The first sprint races were held in 1949 on Potsdam Road, the road connecting Cape Town and Malmesbury . In September 1951 the first races started on the first permanent circuit right next to the main road . The 1.06 km long route consisted of a quasi triangular route with a connected passage ending in a hairpin bend.

Just one year later, the route was extended by an arc to 1.85 km. In 1954, the route was expanded to include the "Cape Town Corner" that still exists today, to now 2.69 km, the route was still anti-clockwise.

The route operator decided in 1960 to expand Killarney to the international FIA standards, the route was extended once more to the 3.267 km still in use today and from now on traveled in a clockwise direction . The first race on the new “Grand Prix” track started on November 26, 1960.

On 17 December 1960, the first time was in Killarney as part of the 1 Championship Formula South African of Cape Grand Prix held. This was part of the "South African Temporada". The teams of the Formula 1 World Championship could also take part here; they were set automatically and, unlike the South African competitors, did not have to qualify for participation in the races. At the beginning of the 1960s, many British Formula 1 teams in particular contested these races as test races. However, some of them had a distant attitude towards the circuit. For example, Stirling Moss and Joakim Bonnier , winners and runner-up in the first Formula 1 race on the Killarney Circuit, were of the opinion that the track was too slow, too narrow and did not have long enough straights that the cars would barely reach their top speed.

Development since 2000

In 2005, after the takeover of Dunlop, the Dunlop Bridge was demolished; the bridge had stood at the end of the start-and-finish straight for 45 years. In 2008 an additional new pit system was built, this time on the left in the direction of travel. The Killarney Motor Racing Complex today consists of the former Grand Prix track, a 1/4 mile drag racing track , a karting facility and a motocross track .

literature

Ken Stewart, Norman Reich: Sun On The Grid. Grand Prix and Endurance Racing in Southern Africa . Bookmark Publishing 1967. ISBN 1-870519-49-3 .

swell

• Killarney Motor Racing Complex - History , accessed November 1, 2012.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Killarney celebrates its Golden Jubilee ( memento from March 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), www.historicalmedia.co.za, accessed on November 1, 2012.
2. ↑ Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars 1945-65, p. 328.
3. ↑ See Grand Prix at the Cape. Presentation of the South African Formula 1 scene on the website www.forix.com (accessed on September 25, 2012).
4. ^ Stewart, Reich: Sun On The Grid, p. 47.