Race Articles

Tempe, Bloemfontein - 12 to 14 June 2003

By Harry Antel

Thanks to Alan Taylor, renown South African aviation historian, the full results and exclusions of the 1937, 1938 and 1939 Governor-General's Cup have now been published on this site.

Alan has also written a short biography on Roy Coull, the winner of the first Race. This book, titled OF MOTHS AND MARAUDERS, is available on the internet.

It was interesting to note that the pilots that did not do well in the 1937 Race were unhappy with the handicap system. Looks like nothing has changed in 70 odd years.

Neels van Deventer and Solly Pretorius, flying a Cessna 172D, are the winners of the 2009 Suzuki President’s Trophy Air Race, one of the premier events on the South African aviation calendar.

The Gauteng-based duo pipped the Cessna 182P of Fabian Cairns and Wade Gomes to the post after a closely contested battle that saw adverse conditions and strict handicaps put many of the fancied crews out of contention. Third place went to the Lancair 360 of Dave Mandel and Rod Crichton.

For Van Deventer and Pretorius, who fly out of the Kitty Hawk airfield near Pretoria, it was a dream debut in what is generally considered the toughest air race on the calendar.

Vliegkoors, The Meercat and PTAR 2008

A Participant's Story of the Race - by George Brink

As usual vliegkoors ran high leading up to the 2008 Presidents Trophy Air Race to be held at Witbank from 28 to 30 May 2008. Doctors orders were, 1 dose of PTAR and the vliegkoors should subside for another year. Our entry was in, in Jan literally minutes after entries opened, but Murphy would play a huge role in this year’s annual PTAR pilgrimage…