The Kyalami 9 Hour last
took place in 1982 as part of the FIA World Sportscar Championship and was won by Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass. After a 37-year hiatus the race is back! Situated on the outskirts of Johannesburg, Kyalami is famed for being the home of the South African Grand Prix with the last F1 race taking place there in 1993. Now completely refurbished, Kyalami boasts an FIA Grade 2, 4.522km race track.
Three Aston Martins see out the ICGTC in Kyalami
Monday, November 18, 2019
The fifth and final round of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge takes place this weekend from the Kyalami race track in South Africa with three examples of the new Aston Martin Racing V98 Vantage GT3 making their way down for Sunday's nine hour spectatcular.
The #188 Garage 59 Pro-Am entry of Alex West, Chris Goodwin and Come Ledogar make their way southwards for this weekend event having worked hard to recover their racing situation by the end of the last round at Suzuka where weather conditions had heavily impacted upon the grids preparations to finally claim a P2 finish in class by the close of that events ten hours of racing.
Joining them at the season's finale are also two examples from Swiss based R-Motorsport fleet featuring AMR's with three of the teams mainstream Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup drivers teaming up with two lesser experienced GT drivers and well as a GT debutant.
Having raced together in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series sees Marvin Kirchhofer reunite with Ricky Collard in the #62 car and they are joined this time by fellow team World Challenge racer and Silver Cup runner up Hugo de Sadeleer.
In the sister #76 car, drivers Maxime Martin and Jake Dennis are joined by Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year nominee and F3 racer Enaam Ahmed for what is thought to be his first racing experience within a top flight GT car following his appraisal laps for the BRDC Award around Silverstone in one of Garage 59's AMR Vantage GT3's last month.
Track action starts this Thursday with up to four hours of Private testing ahead of a further ninety minutes of night testing to see out the day. Friday sees both Pre Qualifying and Qualifying ahead of of the rolling start for the 9 hour race beginning at 13:00hrs local.
Qualifying and the race itself will all be streamed live via the IGTC social media channels.
Photo credits - Blancpain / Garage 59 / R-Motorsport
Last time out in the Intercontinental GT Challenge at Suzuka in Japan, Garage 59 took second place in the Pro-Am class. The #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will run in the Pro-Am class again at Kyalami in the hands of Alexander West, Chris Goodwin and Côme Ledogar.
“The Kyalami 9 Hour is a great opportunity to race at a real classic international track,” said Goodwin. “Although the circuit itself has been modernised, reprofiled and even changed direction since the old days, it still retains its character with unusual corners and a massive elevation change. It will be a long race in the expected hot and maybe damp conditions and I’m sure the pace will be equally hot too.
“Racing in Pro-Am with Côme and Alex again, we certainly hope to go one better than our second place in the previous IGTC race at Suzuka,” he continued. “It is also the last race of the season in which Alex and I have raced three different Aston Martins in three Championships with podiums or wins in each. I hope we can finish what has been a great season on a high.”
