Did you know that Sarel van der Merwe hated Sir Stirling Moss for most of his career? Or that Minota van Bergen was awarded her Springbok colours when she was still a Canadian citizen… and that Graham Duxbury was never presented with his national colours, even though he had won national championships and the Daytona 24 hours?

These are the kind of precious gems of information that come to light when you spend an afternoon with a group of motorsport legends, as I was fortunate to do on December 16.

The Legends association arranged a get-together for some of our local heroes at the Franschhoek Motor Museum, where we were able to see some priceless additions to Johann Rupert’s collection and were given some advance information on a fabulous TT and Concours weekend planned at the venue over the weekend of 27 to 28 February.

The new cars are mouth-watering: a brace of Ferraris, including a few 250 GTs, a Lusso and a couple of 275 GTBs, a clutch of racing Maseratis, topped by a 250F, an ex-Moss Jaguar D-Type… the list goes on. But it was the Legends who stole the show with their memories of superhuman feats and funny incidents from bygone days.

Sarel’s dislike for Moss stemmed from the great Brit’s disdainful attitude when he asked him for his autograph at an early-’60s South African GP. Leaning nonchalantly against the pit wall, Stirling seemed to be having an idle moment when a young Supervan approached him. But he informed the youngster in no uncertain terms that he was too busy.

Stung by the rebuff, Van der Merwe bore him a grudge for many years. And, he says, the incident had another effect: “No matter what I was doing, if somebody asked me for my autograph I always signed. Sometimes I really had better things to do, but I always signed…”

I must say I can relate to the Stirling Moss story as I, too, was seemingly ignored as a youngster when I thrust my programme and pen towards him. I have to say, though, that at the time Moss – who remained my hero right up to the day his career ended in that untimely crash at Goodwood – was sitting in his Porsche with the victor’s laurel wreath around his neck, so he most definitely would have had a lot on his mind. I mentioned this to him during an interview many years later and he was disarmingly apologetic.

Sarel, however, extracted his revenge at an IMSA series race where Sir Stirling was the master of ceremonies. Having put his car on pole, Supervan was interviewed by the MC, who then produced a book, which he asked him to sign. Van der Merwe’s response was cutting. “I’m sorry, but I’m too busy,” he responded. As Moss turned to walk away, Supervan called him back. “Let me tell you why I’ve just said that…” And he gave the stunned Stirling chapter and verse on the matter!

Whenever they are together, Graham Duxbury and Van der Merwe exchange friendly banter about who is the better driver. But one thing they do agree on is that Graham was robbed of his Springbok colours. Dux only found out after his retirement from the sport why he was never honoured in this way. Back in the early ’60s, when Kyalami was first laid out, his dad was a member of SAMRAC and helped lay out the track. But, when most of the committee members decided to go for a wider road width for which there simply wasn’t enough money in the kitty, the elder Duxbury resigned. Seems that put young Graham out of favour with the wheels within wheels that ran motorsport in those days…

Minota van Bergen, who became a national champion navigating her famous husband, Ewold, in South African rallies, had another interesting story about Springbok colours: she was awarded hers while still a Canadian citizen. She finally took out South African citizenship in 1993, many years after retiring from the sport.

Ewold’s earlier co-driver Mike Hooper remembered how French film crews were shooting the movie A man and a woman while the South African pair were competing in the Monte Carlo Rally. It rang a bell for me, because I distinctly remember a cry of “Vrystaat!” on the soundtrack of that movie as the cars in the Monaco stating group set off. “That was Evert van Niekerk,” both Mike and Minota confirmed. Can’t wait to get a video to confirm that memory…

But, to get back to Sarel and Dux: both are adamant that four-time world champion Alain Prost was the greatest driver of all time. Why? Because he was blindingly quick yet almost never took chances.

But, says Sarel, Stefan Bellof was probably the fastest racing driver ever. He recalled how he was, briefly, even quicker than Bellof during practice for a sportscar event at Monza. He was driving a Kremer Porsche with a young George Fouché, and had set a time about a second off the pace of the works cars driven by the likes of Bellof and Ludwig. Then George, though slower than Sarel, mentioned that he was taking the two Lesmos flat. An incredulous Van der Merwe gritted his teeth and tried, promptly going a second quicker than the works machines. What he hadn’t realised was that George had actually been taking the wrong line into the complex, and had been going through flat, certainly, but more slowly!

Anyway, it worked for Sarel, and soon the other Porsche drivers were at his pit to find out what he was doing. Somewhat naively, he told them he was flat through the Lesmos. Disbelievingly, they all went out to watch as Sarel went through. Then, of course, they all tried it themselves, and were promptly a second quicker than Van once more. A great story from a more gentlemanly era: can you imagine rivals sharing that kind of information today?

Can’t wait for another afternoon like that!

 

Original article from Car