Phakisa Freeway is a motor racing circuit located between Welkom and Odendaalsrus, South Africa. It is one of the few oval speedways outside of the United States and the only one in Africa.
History Phakisa Freeway was built on the same site as the former Goldfields Raceway, which closed in 1997.
The current track opened in 1999. It consists of a road course and a oval course. The road course uses the oval's pit lane as its backstraight and crosses the oval's backstretch on two times.
The oval track is similar to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in its 1997 configuration: 12 degree banking in the turns, nine degrees on the tri-oval and three degrees on the back stretch. It was built to attract American oval racing like NASCAR or IndyCar.
Events From 1999 to 2004, the venue hosted the South African motorcycle Grand Prix of the MotoGP championship.
The Superbike World Championship announced their intention to run at Phakisa Freeway from 2014 onwards. Due to homologation issues the series never raced at the circuit.
Since 2014, Phakisa Freeway has only hosted national events.
The only event held on the oval was the Free State 500 in 2010. The American Speed Association imported NASCAR gen 4 stock cars to South Africa for the race. Various drivers from South Africa, Europe and the US competed – including former NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine.
Lap records As of April 2004, the fastest official race lap records at the Phakisa Freeway are listed as:
CategoryTimeDriverVehicleEvent Phakisa Freeway Grand Prix Circuit (1999–present): MotoGP 1:33.208 Max Biaggi Honda RC211V 2004 South African motorcycle Grand Prix 500cc 1:35.508 Valentino Rossi Honda NSR500 2001 South African motorcycle Grand Prix 250cc 1:35.593 Sebastián Porto Aprilia RSV 250 2004 South African motorcycle Grand Prix 125cc 1:40.711 Roberto Locatelli Aprilia RS125R 2004 South African motorcycle Grand Prix Goldfields Raceway (1970–1997): Formula One 1:23.000 Dave Charlton McLaren M23 1975 Welkom 100 Group 6 1:30.200 John Watson Chevron B19 1971 Die Volksblad 3 Hours Group 5 1:28.000 Gerry Birrell Chevron B23 1972 Goldfields 3 Hours
See also Calder Park Raceway EuroSpeedway Lausitz Rockingham Motor Speedway Twin Ring Motegi
References
External links Map and circuit information at RacingCircuits.info