Zimpapers Logo

Collin Matiza Sports Editor
DONNYBROOK Raceway — the home of local motorsport — will once again come alive this weekend with the staging of the second flat track race meeting of the year.

Flat track racing is for both cars and motorbikes; and it’s a short version of motor rallying on a much short and pre-determined track. It’s spectator friendly and uses the lap system on a dirt surface.

In fact, the sport is being revived after a three-year absence from the local motorsport radar and this Sunday will see most of the country’s top motor racing drivers and motorcycle riders taking part in this exciting event, which comes hot on the heels of the Jialing/TT Motorcycles Grand Prix, which was held at Donnybrook last weekend.

The first flat track race meeting of the year was staged at Donnybrook on April 9, where a large crowd of local motorsport enthusiasts gathered to watch the local “daredevils” in action.

Gary Grainger, the chairman of the Bogwheelers Club, who are now running both the motorcycling sport of motocross and flat track racing in Zimbabwe, expects another good turn out of both competitors and spectators at this Sunday’s event.

“It’s the second flat track racing competition of the year and it’s a combination of bikes and cars. Mostly we hold this event on a Saturday but because of the schools sport, we’ve moved it to Sunday for this particular event, which is held at the oval track at Donnybrook.

“It (flat track racing) has been absent here in Zimbabwe for three years but we, at the Bogwheelers Club, decided to revive it because it’s a nice family fun day out. Racing on Sunday will start at 10am,” Grainger said.

Apart from the top local motor racing drivers that are expected to take part in Sunday’s flat track racing, Grainger said most of the country’s junior and senior motocross riders will also be in attendance as they will use this event to prepare for the next National Championship series at the same venue.

The second National Motocross Championship event of the year is scheduled for May 22 at Donnybrook, where the country’s top junior and senior riders such as the exciting Emmanuel Bako, Jordan Dewdney, Kuda Mhene (Jnr), Daiyaan Manuel, Big “BJ” Chitima (Jnr), Tristan Grainger, Regan Wasmuth, Josh Gobey and Ashley Thixton, will be fighting for the top honours in the different classes they will be competing in.

After competing in the National Championship event on May 22, most of these junior and senior riders will then head Down South to compete in the third round of the 2016 South African National Motocross Championship series at Bloemfontein on May 28.

Meanwhile, the May 22 National Motocross Championship event at Donnybrook will be preceded by the opening round of the 2016 Telecel Drag Racing series at the same venue.

The first round of this year’s four-round Telecel Drag Racing series was initially scheduled for April 24 at Donnybrook but it was cancelled at the last minute after the organisers of this exciting motor racing event — the Sables Dragpro Club — deemed the resurfaced track unsafe for racing at that time.

Temba Mazvimbakupa of the Zimbabwe Motorsport Federation, yesterday told The Herald that the track at Donnybrook “seems to be okay now” and the first round of the 2016 Telecel Drag Racing series will now be staged at the same venue on May 21.

“Several tests have been done on the track and I’m happy to tell the thousands of local drag racing fans, who were disappointed by the last-minute cancellation of the April 24 event, that their favourite sport will now be held on May 21 and it will be on a Saturday, which I think is a good day for this race meeting.

“In fact, most people are not comfortable with attending some of our race meetings on Sundays and I think they will be more than happy with the staging of this first drag racing meeting of the year on a Saturday,” Mazvimbakupa said.

Entry fee for spectators for all motorsport events at Donnybrook has been pegged at $5 per person while children under the age of 12 will get in for free. There will be full bar and catering.