16-07-2025
The chronicles of a rookie racing driver — Part Six
It's race time again this weekend. On Saturday, the 2025 Extreme Tour powered by Coca-Cola comes to the Prince George Grand Prix circuit in East London.
The venue is a semi-permanent circuit and incorporates sections of public roads which are closed when racing and practice sessions are under way. It has a rich history, opening in 1934 as a 24.461km track that ran on streets through different areas.
It hosted South African Formula One Grands Prix seven times between 1934 and 1966 and in its current state it's a more manageable 3.9km stretch of tarmac with nine turns. The legendary racing driver John Love's 1:24.300 record time still stands, but some of my fellow racers in the GR Yaris Media Challenge admit to being nervous wrecks entering East London.
It's not the allure of racing competitively where legends such as Jack Brabham have flourished, but facing the most famous section of the track — the peerless Potters Pass curve and the even faster Rifle bend sweep.
We'll approach it flat out, with our little GR torpedoes expected to do be doing in the region of 150km/h as we position to enter Potters.
If you think Turn 1 is vicious, then Turn 3 (Cocobana) is an eye opener that requires full braking from an estimated 230km/h top speed.
