Cape Town spinning fans finally got a slice of the Red Bull Shay’ iMoto action, when the 2024 national championship event hit the Mother City on Saturday, March 16.
Performing in front of a home crowd of almost 4,000 fans at a specially created venue in Canal Walk, Chadwin ‘Boksie’ Hadjie emerged as the latest star of this fascinating motorsport genre.
The Capetonian finished runner up in the 2021 event and this year’s finale saw him defeat two-time defending champion Samkeliso ‘Sam Sam’ Thubane.
You can watch some of the action in the video below.
Click here to watch some of the action on video
“This is the most amazing feeling,” Boksie said after the win. “I’ve been fighting hard over the past few years and finally the win has come.”
Friday’s qualifying round whittled the country’s top 16 drivers down to just eight finalists, who battled it out on Saturday with their unique combination of car control, technical skills and overall flair.
While there were four official judges, the crowds acted as a fifth judge, collectively voting with especially-coloured LED wristbands.
Boksie was particularly smitten with the Cape Town crowd:
“As soon as the car came out all I could see were blue lights — they were amazing. Thank you!”
His victory was not without mishaps. The first day, for instance, saw him grapple with a broken steering rack, which the team fixed but it also meant no test runs prior to the top eight shootout. Then on Saturday some of his wheel studs broke, which thankfully the pit crew were also able to fix in time.
Transforming SA’s motorsport landscape
The art of spinning was born in Soweto, where it was created as a ritual to honour fallen gangsters during the Apartheid era.
The sport features a wild mix of drifting and personal expression, which also includes locking the car into a spin and then getting out of it to perform moves on the bodywork. And there’s no shortage of tyre smoke!
Of course the E30-shape BMW 325i is still the car of choice for Mzansi’s spinning stars.
"In pure, simplistic classification terms, Spinning is the art of controlling chaos while creating entertainment, just like theatre, while drifting is a motorsport governed by a strict set of rules and formats," says Vic Pardal, Sportive Director of Red Bull Shay' iMoto.
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