02 Mar DANIE VAN NIEKERK’S DREAM TO COME TRUE THIS YEAR IN GTC

DANIE VAN NIEKERK’S DREAM TO COME TRUE THIS YEAR IN GTC

Capetonian Danie van Niekerk’s lifelong dream has been to race in South African Touring Cars – and after selling all four of his championship-winning race cars to get himself a GTC SupaCup car, his journey began to get onto the grid and realise his dream.

“We still don’t know how we are going to be able to fund the season,” Van Niekerk said, “but you have to start somewhere.”

He is grateful to the sponsors he managed to secure for the opening round of the season, the Extreme Festival powered by the City of Cape Town at Killarney on Saturday 5 March – all from the sale of real estate on his car to raise enough funds to compete in his home race.

The team behind the scenes are a group of friends and family members, including his wife Vicki, who will be driving the team’s marketing.

“The way I know Danie, whatever he does, he puts a hundred percent effort into it,” she said,” and I know that he will be a contender for this year’s championship. We just hope that someone will get on board to back his campaign.”

The Van Niekerk Racing Team also have a few other GTC SupaCup entrants in their stable whom they will be helping with car preparation, headed by Ernest Roos, the race engineer behind Danie’s successful championship campaigns in the Power Series at Killarney. One of the competitors is Scottish driver Paul Luti, who is set to make his GTC debut in the season opener.

“We will be one of the teams with the smallest budget on the grid,” said Danie, “but we’re making up for it with team spirit!”

Van Niekerk started his racing career with his father and two sisters in karting at the age of eight and celebrated 30 years in motorsport at the end of the 2021 season. His circuit racing career has seen him compete in a host of single-seater and saloon car categories, progressing to Class C of the South African Production Car Championship where he won the Rookie title.

The following season saw him debuting a Ford Fiesta ST – the first race car that he’d built himself – in Class B of the series. He won the opening race of the season at his home circuit, which secured him backing from the Ford dealer network for the rest of the season.

With the demise of Class B in the series, Van Niekerk focused his attention on the Western Province Clubmans Championship, for which he built a BMW race car. That’s how he met Luti, who paved the way for Van Niekerk to compete in the British MG Cup for two successful seasons. From this came an opportunity to compete in a 24 Hour race at the Spa Francorschamps circuit in Belgium with Luti and one off Luti’s sponsors, Chris Bray of Finishline UK. It was a victorious outing for the trio despite competing in an underpowered car. Not limiting his racing to tar-only, Van Niekerk also competed in local rally and rallycross events.

Van Niekerk made his GTC SupaCup debut in the sixth round of the 2021 season at Zwartkops Raceway while both he and Luti were scheduled to take part in the season finale at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit. This event was, however, cancelled due to the impact of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the Kyalami 9 Hour main event postponed.

While he is not the only Capetonian to compete in the 2022 GTC SupaCup, Van Niekerk will be one of the local favourites at Killarney.

Issued by Ragdoll Media on behalf of Van Niekerk Racing.