Live to race
Motorsport is a funny thing. Once it gets into your blood, it’s hard to shake off. I have been around motorsport most of my life, having been born into a family of certified petrolheads. My grandfather, father, and uncles all raced in some form or another, so we were never far from a racetrack.
My earliest memories of the unmistakable smell of burnt metal and race fuel go back to the early 1980s when my father and uncle competed in drag racing at Killarney Raceway in Cape Town. This was when the drag strip ran the other way from Malmesbury toward Cape Town Corner. My grandfather was the Clerk of the Course for Killarney, so the whole family turned out for race weekends.
Racing Memories
The memories forged at the time would go on to cement my love of motor racing, even as we moved around the country following my father's job. I have many happy memories of attending racing events with my father at Zwartkops when the circuit still ran past the drive-in screen, watching masters like Mike Briggs, Deon Joubert, Nic de Waal, Tony Viana, and Oom Sarel battle it out in South Africa’s premier classes.
Sadly, my father would not see me graduate into driving, passing away in 1996 before I got my driver’s license. All I could think about once I got my driver's was how I could get out on track and make him proud. After I got my first car and immediately started modifying it so that I could race, be it informal drags or parking lot gymkhanas, I quickly discovered that motorsport, no matter the formula, would be expensive, and I needed money.
My first love
Hard lessons
My first job led to my first “sponsorship”, wherein I got discounted Yokohama A509 tyres for my Mk1 Golf that I tracked in the GTi Club challenge circa 1998 and 1999. The reality of tracking your daily drive hit home when one of my pistons decided to exit stage left out of the block during the GTi jamboree at Killarney in 1999, stranding me and giving me a massive reality check on the costs that motorsport can extract. Lesson learnt – Don’t race your daily! The reality that I could not afford to race anymore hit home, and I decided the best course of action would be to hang up the helmet until funds could be secured.
Brothers in arms
Those plans would be put on the back burner but not forgotten, as before I knew it, I found myself married and expecting a kid. In an instant, 10 years had gone by, and I was a chubby middle-aged man with a family to support and a racing habit that would not go away.
Scratching that itch
I had to get my motorsport fix, and once again, through Chad, I found myself behind a camera at the racetrack, taking pictures of drift cars. This would set me on a path I could never have imagined.
I levelled up to MSA-accredited media, and soon, I was no longer behind the camera as I was picked up as a Judge of Fact on the national drift championship. In a strange twist of fate, my love of motorsports and dedication to the craft of capturing wowing images and supplying written race reports for MSA led to me joining AutoTrader as a motoring journalist.
It's a living
I was catapulted into a world of driving cars for a living, filming, photographing, and travelling worldwide. Every now and again, I was able to enjoy various forms of motorsport, from the Dakar in South America to 86 Clubman racing at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi. I was living the dream, being close to my passion for cars and racing, but I always just wished I could drive a racecar again one day.
Motorcycle outlet
I got my speed fix by taking over the AutoTrader Bikes channel, where I tackled my second love, motorcycles. Bikes have been as much of a part of my life as motor racing. I rode my first bike at Killarney when I was 6 under the tutelage of my grandfather, doing pretty well until I rode straight into the giant bluegum tree outside the clubhouse. I love bikes and the serenity inside the helmet; you need to focus and pay attention to stay alive. Riding bikes was one thing, but driving a racecar, like my heroes, was still a dream that would have to wait for one day.
Lemons Racing
That day would come, once again, at Chad's hands, when he decided that our friend group was building a cheap race car to enter the 24 Hours of Lemons. I initially helped build the car for the race and got swept up in the excitement. The next season, I was asked to drive. This was it—my chance to get behind the wheel again!
I will never forget that first race. Three-hour stints in a 40-year-old car that we built in a shed with cobbled-together parts, Racing against 72 other cars…. in the dark… the deep end couldn’t have been any deeper.
The happy ending is that we finished the 24 hour, completing an arduous task that few people or racers will experience. Toyota Gazoo Racing had been our partner in getting to the race, allowing us to fulfil our dreams of racing, and I was ecstatic. I had branded myself a proper racing driver, suit and all. If this were where the story ended, I would have been happy, we had a race car, we had a race to enter and we could go and hammer the car out on track and follow the recipe of Build, Race, Repeat. Little did I know that this small accomplishment would lead to another life-changing event.
A dream realised
I immediately began putting together a battle plan with the help of Sean Nurse and Chad Luckhoff, beginning an exercise training routine that would work on my endurance and strength and the mental game that comes with premier-class racing. If I was going to do this, I would do it properly. Simulator training was next, getting to know the tracks we would be racing and getting a feel for the speeds we would be enduring.
This past week has been an absolute whirlwind of emotions as we received our gear, met the cars, and got out on track for the first time. Our first race is next week at Killarney Raceway in Cape Town, where my love of motorsports began. I cannot wait to go out there and make my dad and grandfather proud because I know they’re watching with approval.
Please follow my social media for behind-the-scenes photos, race reports, and action on the track. I hope to see you at the track closest to you; come say hi!
Instagram - GRdriver_17, lawrenceminnie
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