DAVE ABRAHAMS
After a gap of two years due to Covid-19 restrictions, StreetFest 2022 was always going to be one for the books; thousands of spectators filled the stands along the Killarney drag strip and the Joubert Pits a fortnight ago.
Cape Town’s most beautiful customised cars and bakkies hunkered down and showed how low they could go.
Every city with a car culture has Show ‘n Shine displays and every drag strip has a big end-of-season “haal uit en wys” event, while IASCA is recognised as the world authority for Sound-Off event – but only in Cape Town do all these genres come together to celebrate street-car culture each year on the day after Christmas.
Sound addicts stood six deep around the cars in the Sound-Off garage, watching the computer read-outs and applauding every time the reading went over 150 decibels (note: a jet fighter makes approximately 140dB on take-off).
The excitement was most intense on the drag strip, where Hermann Mostert and his Nissan Champ bakkie “Jack Russell” topped the day’s scoresheets with a superb 8.84210 second pass at 196.89km/h, while the top two-wheeler was Reece Robertson’s Suzuki GSX-R1000; he posted a very creditable 8.99183 second run at an electrifying 249.08km/h.
Talha Daniels and his Barramundi-engined Ford Escort “Barrascort” just missed getting into the eights on an admittedly very green strip with a best effort of 9.09784 seconds at 237.04km/h – good enough for second behind Mostert in Class OS and well clear of Scott Wyness’ Volkswagen Caddy bakkie (9.52839 seconds at 240.18km/h)/
Class OA, as always, belonged to Shaun Zurich and his immaculately prepared Honda Civic; his best run of 9.66628 seconds at 239.21km/h was almost two seconds quicker than Saud Bassa’s Toyota Conquest ‘Yster’ (11.33006 seconds at 191.64km/h) and Jason Williams in his VW Golf (11.36224 seconds at 192.93km/h).
Top Gun in Class 6S was Yaseen Ebrahim; he posted a 9.72993 second pass at 234.46km/h in his Nissan GTR R35 to take Class honours (only just!) from Waghied Jappie’s similar GTR (9.78375 seconds at 236.28km/h). Class 4S was almost as close, as Zahier Majiet and his Volkswagen Golf 7R posted a time of 11.01602 seconds at 202.58km/h to beat Royston Prestage’s best effort of 11.13400 seconds and 215.39km/h.
Riyaad Abrahams and his Opel Kadett topped the timesheets in Class 4A, posting 12.86167 seconds at 177.27km/h, while Mu-Een Gamieldien was the only entry in Class SL, recording a very creditable best effort of 13.01362 seconds at 178.68km/h in his Volkswagen Polo TDI.
Competition was tight in the two top motorcycle classes; Robertson had to work hard to stay ahead of consistent competitor Wynand van den Berg, who was only a tenth slower with a best time of 9.10527 seconds at 241.97km/h, with Abbas Brenner also in the frame at 9.53502 seconds and 235.86km/h.
- Dave Abrahams is the public relations officer for Killarney Raceway.
