South Africans In South Africa

While South Africa does have three former world motocross champions, in Greg Albertyn, Grant Langston and Tyla Rattray, it is the current crop of South African riders, who will make this coming weekends Grand Prix in Johannesburg a very special one.

Camden Mc Lellan in MX2 and Calvin Vlaanderen in MXGP will be the stars of the show when the Terra Topia MX Track opens for the countries first Grand Prix in nearly 20 years. Both riders are capable of putting on a show for their countrymen, with Mc Lellan more than capable of sending his home crowd into a frenzy.

For Mc Lellan, who is still in contention for the MX2 championship and placed fourth in the MX2 points race and just two points off third place, he is more than excited to head home and race in front of family and friends. The sport needs some help in South Africa and a home Grand Prix, with a possible GP victory from Mc Lellan, would sure do that.

“It’s a pretty surreal feeling,” Mc Lellan said. “I think my family as well as myself are super excited to have a GP back home. For all my friends and family to be able to come and watch me. I think they’re just as excited as I am and I can’t wait to hopefully have a great home GP, race in front of all my friends, give the South African fans something that they haven’t experienced in a long time. I think we’re a country that likes and supports motorsports, but we haven’t had the privilege of a major championship coming home for a very long time, so I think it’s going to be pretty spectacular for all the South Africans and my friends and family especially.”

For Vlaanderen, who will take his factory Ducati back to South Africa for the Grand Prix, it is more about being involved, as his chances of taking victory, in the always tough MXGP class are slim at best. Ranked 11^th in the world at the moment, the South African born Dutchman will be showing national pride for his country of birth, you can be sure of that.

“I’m very excited,” Vlaanderen said. “It’s obviously quite far from the rest of the GP’s so it limits the South African fans to come and watch. Occasionally there are some South African fans which is awesome to see but being in South Africa will definitely be good for the home fans. It’s about a 16 hours’ drive (laughs), South Africa is huge. I’m from Cape Town which is completely south of the country. They will have to catch a flight which is 2.5 hours.”

No doubt, a bunch of wild-card riders will be racing, as South Africa does have a solid national championship and motocross clubs sprinkled around the country. There is no doubt, the new circuit, which was improved for the South African Grand Prix will see many fans arrive, to watch their first home GP since 2008.