Deciding Day For Kyalami's Future

The auction of the iconic Kyalami racetrack will be held today in Johannesburg. A minimum price of R200 million has been set for the famed circuit.

"If a developer buys it, obviously it will change the nature of Kyalami quite considerably, because there will probably no longer be a track," said Lance Chalwin-Mitton of the High Street Auction Company.

Some prospective buyers were however looking at the possibility of keeping the track while developing around it, he said. The fast 4.26 kilometre circuit hosted Formula One races from 1967 to 1985, when it was axed from the world championship due to a sports boycott against the former racist apartheid regime.

Local hero and former world champion Jody Scheckter won the South African Grand Prix there in 1975. Formula One was revived at Kyalami in 1992 and 1993 in the wake of the release from prison of liberation icon Nelson Mandela, but the bankruptcy of a sponsor put an end to the programme. Frenchman Alain Prost was the last winner at Kyalami in 1993.

The circuit hosted its last international competition in May 2010 with the sixth race of the World Superbike Championship. It is now being sold because of the liquidation of the company which owned the property.

"It won't be sold under 200 (million), but we are pretty confident it will exceed the reserve price," Chalwin-Mitton said.

-AFP/Ignition Live Reporter