Everyone has been under the impression that all the A1GP Team Drivers had no experience of the Kyalami circuit and were starting out from an even learning curve — but it seems not!

Jeroen Bleekemolen the A1Team Netherlands race winner took the opportunity to race here last year in a Shelby CanAm sportscar race.

“I was invited to do the Shelby CanAm race here last November by Bertil Hoffman, a Dutch racer based in Cape Town,” Bleekemolen told the official A1GP website. “As I wanted to learn the track in preparation for this weekend, I jumped at the chance.

“There was a great atmosphere with the open garages and all the teams helping each other out. I got on well, too, taking pole position. But I have a funny story about what followed.

“I came in to have the car weighed in the scrutineering bay and was told that it was 5kg underweight. I didn’t want to lose pole position, so said ‘this cannot be as it was the correct weight earlier’, and the guy told me to go to the back of the queue and he’d weigh me again later.

“No-one was looking so I hopped out, found some stones and put them into the top of my racesuit, but then it looked as though I had big breasts, so I shoved them in the car, down by the pedals.

“When the car was weighed again it was 8kg over the weight limit, but the scrutineer wasn’t happy and checked the car, finding the stones.

“He got angry and called the organisers, but they just thought that it was funny, and when my car weighed for a third time, without the stones, it was only 1kg under the weight limit and I was allowed to keep the pole postion.

“I led the first but two laps from the end, A1 Team South Africa rookie Wesleigh Orr tried to pass me and we both crashed. I then started eighth for race two and was soon up to second before getting a puncture.

“I loved the track, as it’s really fast, and the Esses are very special and the key is not to go in there too fast, and that took me a few laps of slithering about at the exit to learn. The races are going to be tough as it’s a very physical track to drive, with long, fast corners. There isn’t much run-off in places, though, so that will keep us all focused.

“I think that the atmosphere with the fans will be special too. As my races here were on the Saturday of A1GP’s Chengdu weekend, I went to the Sandton shopping mall to watch the races on a big screen there and was amazed by how many people were talking about A1GP as they walked around.”