The Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit is situated in Midrand between Johannesburg and Pretoria, 2 major South-African cities. The race-track was constructed in 1961 and established itself as the premier motorsport facility in Southern Africa. In winter months, many European competitors considered Kyalami a welcome alternative due to the pleasant summer climate. One of the best known races on the Kyalami circuit is the 9 Hour Endurance race In 1967, Kyalami became part of the Formula 1 World Championship.

For many motorsports enthusiast, the history of the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit is rather unknown. But that era now comes to an end. After reading ’60 Years of Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit’, you’ll have no more excuse to say you didn’t know. The author, Dennis Klopper, attended his first Kyalami race meeting in 1969 and has been at every race meeting held at the track ever since. Over the years, he collected memories, thousands of pictures, and wrote down stories in dozens of scrapbooks. And all that is the best base to tell the story of ’60 years of Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit’.

The book has not the usual concept of telling the history in a complete chronological way. The history is written down in 5 separate sections. The first section of the book covers the early years of the circuit, and learns the reader about theborigin and history and the people involved in the creation of the circuit and the evolution of the layout of it.

The 2nd section tells us all about about 60 years of motorsport, both local and international, at Kyalami. The story begins in November 1961 and ends with the 2021 Kyalami 9 Hour. Each year, the motorsport activities at Kyalami are summarised, and accompanied by period pictures, and of course the results of the major international races at the track. To make it complete, each year has a listing of the various South African circuit racing champions.

The 3rd section details all the races held at Kyalami from 1961 until 2021. For many of them, a cover of the program booklet is shown, which kind of makes it as a catalog for collectors of race programs. With just about 20 pages, this section is one of the smallest of the book

In the 4rd section of ’60 Years of Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit’, over 1000 pictures of legendary photographers, both South-African and international, give the reader a pictorial impression of the history of motorsport at Kyalami. The pictures cover various themes and different race-series active in the period of 1961 – 2021. Dennis Klopper made sure to add captions to the pictures, so that you know the date, race, car and drivers on the picture. Just that on its own gives the book an incredible value, and makes it a wealthy ressource of motorsport knowledge.

For the 5th and last section of the book, Dennis Klopper used his huge network of contacts. He asked over 200 persons to give some thoughts and tell some personal memories about Kyalami. Race drivers, officials, journalists and photographers, fans, stewards or sponsor. They all have to tell something and they all played a role in the 60 years of the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit. Even World Champions and Grand Prix Winners such as Jody Scheckter, Sir Jackie Stewart and Alain Prost were happy to help the author and contributed.

In 2014, Toby Venter rescued Kyalami and redeveloped the track. They invested a vast amount to bring the track back to live, and to make it into a circuit capale to host modern race series. Of course Dennis Klopper did not forget about him, and paid tribute to the man without whom there would not have been ’60 Years of Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit’.

Conclusion

Our conclusion is plain and simple. This is an awesome book, that is a must-have for any motorsports fan. You’ll learn a whole lot of it, and in case you’re not into reading, you might as well use is as a coffee-table book and enjoy over 1500 pictures, the vast majority never published before.

Book details

Author and Publisher – Denis Klopper / SA Motorsport Memories
Editor – Roger Houghton
Graphic Design and Layout – Chris Dawson – Cinnamon Graphix
Foreword – Toby Venter
Research, Archive and Administarion – Antoinette Marais
Book Format – 300mm x 300mm / 500 pages / Over 1 500 rare colour and black and white images mostly from local South African Photpgraphers.

The Large Format Book is available in a Hard Cover Standard Edition.
A Limited Collector’s Edition are numbered and signed, packed in a wooden presentation box and come with a set od six numbered prints.

Available through Chapter’s Motoring Book – https://www.chaters.co.uk/
For limited Collector’s Edition contact Paul Stroud – paul@chaters.co.uk

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.