List of Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit fatalities

This is a list of fatal accidents to competitors, officials and public at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit during the South African Grand Prix and other national and international motor-sport events.

List of fatal accidents involving competitors

No.	Competitor	Date of incident	Location of incident on track	Vehicle type	Race	Incident description
1 [Note 1]	Zunia Leibavicius [2]	13 Sep 1965 [3]	The Kink	Lotus 11	Kyalami Club races	Leibavicius suffered extensive burns during a sports-car club race after being doused with fluid from a leaking fuel cap. He stopped the car but fire marshals were to slow in coming to his assistance. He was badly burned and died the next day in a Johannesburg hospital. [2]
2	Paul Richards [4]	28 May 1966	Jukskei Sweep	Porsche 550 Spyder	1966 South African Sports Car Championship round no. 6	Richards was driving a famous Porsche 550 Spyder and stalled at the start. [Note 2] Once he got started he was at the back of the field and lost control of the Porsche at the Jukskei Sweep. He crashed into a pole, killing him on impact. [4]
3	Douglas Norton	15 April 1972	First Esses bend	Honda 350	Club production motorcycle races	On first lap of the race, he was hit by a fellow competitor as they entered the first of the Esses, causing him to lose control of his Honda 350cc motorcycle. He hit the earth bank on the inside of the track and was killed instantly.
4	Brian Ferreira [5]	3 Sep 1972	Crowthorne Corner	Mini Cooper S	1972 RDM 9 Hour race Practice	During practice for the race, Ferreira spun his Mini Cooper S when he hit a sudden downpour. The car hit the Armco in Crowthorn Corner after which Ferreira got out of the car and was then hit by a fellow competitor caught by the same downpour. He died from his injuries later that night.
5	Peter Revson [6]	22 March 1974	Barbecue Bend	Shadow DN3 - Cosworth	Testing Session prior to 1974 South African Grand Prix	Revson lost control of his car on the approach to Barbecue Bend and crashed into the barriers at around 220 kilometres per hour (140 mph). The Shadow caught fire on impact and was totally destroyed, with Revson being unable to exit the car. Graham Hill, Eddie Keizan, Emerson Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme stopped their cars and vainly tried to retrieve Revson from the burning wreckage. It was reported that a possible cause of the crash was the left front titanium suspension upright having collapsed. [7]
6	Tom Pryce [8]	5 March 1977 [9]	Pit-Straight/Crowthorne Bend	Shadow DN8 - Cosworth	1977 South African Grand Prix	The Shadow DN8 of Renzo Zorzi had stopped opposite on the main straight and was on fire. Two marshals ran across the track with fire extinguishers to put out the fire. Pryce was slipstreaming Hans Joachim Stuck down the straight to a crest opposite the pit area and on cresting the hill, Stuck saw the fire marshals and had adequate time avoid them while Pryce was unable to do so. Pryce hit the one marshal, flailing him into the air and killing him instantly. The 18.2 kilograms (40 lb) fire extinguisher carried by the marshal struck Pryce on his helmet, killing him upon impact as well. [9]
7	Johan Boshoff [10]	11 June 1977	Jukskei Sweep	Yamaha 0W31	Practice for 1977 Republic Trophy Races	Boshoff crashed his works Yamaha during early morning practice. He was rushed to hospital with a badly broken leg as his worst injury but was later impacted by an embolism that affected his heart. He died six days later in hospital. [10]
8	Keith Petersen [11]	10 Oct 1982	Leeukop	Ducati Pantah 500cc	Superbike Race	On a wet day, Petersen lost control of his bike while attempting to avoid a collapsed rider. He crashed at Leeukop bend after colliding with another rider. Petersen was awarded the South African Championship title posthumously.
9	John Martin Sneesby [12]	28 Jan 1984	Barbecue Bend [12]	Honda 750 [12]	Production motorcycle race	Sneesby died after crashing into a guardrail in Barbeque Bend. Jan Dirksen was killed in a separate race on the same day. [12]
10	Jan Dirksen [13]	28 Jan 1984	Esses		Production motorcycles race	Injured in crash during same race as John Sneesby above. Unknown if he died in the crash or afterwards. [14]
11	Mark Welthagen [15]	25 May 1990	Arwa Corner	Yamaha FZR 750	Practice for Yellow Pages Challenge of 26 May 1990	Welthagen lost control of his bike entering the corner and hit the inside curb before crashing into straw bales on the outside of the track. Welthagen was flown to Johannesburg General Hospital and died several hours after being admitted. [15]
12	George Jeroudis [16]	29 Aug 1992	Total Corner (end of pit straight)	Kawasaki ZX	1992 Kyalami Spring Meeting Superbike Race [16]	Jeroudis' bike left the circuit on lap two of the race going into Total Corner at an estimated speed of 260 kilometres per hour (160 mph) and crashed into a concrete retaining wall. [16]
13	Brett MacLeod [17]	28 March 1999	Gestetner Corner	Suzuki 600	1999 FIM World Supersport Championship race	MacLeod was leading the race when his bike stalled and then restarted as he came out of the final chicane. MacLeod fell into the path of an oncoming rider, who couldn't avoid impact. MacLeod was rushed to hospital, where he died shortly after admission. [17]
14	Warren Banfield [18]	9 February 2013	Start line [19]	Kawasaki ZX10	Festival of Speed Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit: Zwartkops Brunch Run Challenge	48-year-old bike rider Warren Banfield was killed in a pile-up at the open of the day's second Brunch Run Challenge. Banfield was hit by a number of other bikes. Six other riders were also injured, one of them in critical condition. [20]
15	Marco Pugi [20] [21]	9 February 2013	Mineshaft [20]	Suzuki GSXR 1000	Festival of Speed Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit: Thunderbike Series	Pugi touched wheels with another competitor at high speeds, resulting in both riders crashing. He was taken to a hospital in Sunninghill, Gauteng, where he died the following morning. [20]

List of fatal accidents involving officials

No.	Official	Role	Date of incident	Race	Location of incident on track	Vehicle involved	Driver involved	Incident description
1	Frederick Jansen van Vuuren [22]	Marshal	5 March 1977 [23]	1977 South African Grand Prix	Pit-Straight [22]	Shadow DN8	Tom Pryce	van Vuuren was a junior fire marshal in the pit lane. While crossing the track with another marshal to extinguish a fire that had engulfed Renzo Zorzi's vehicle, he was struck by Tom Pryce, who was unable to see van Vuuren. The impact killed van Vuuren instantly, while his fire extinguisher smashed into Pryce, killing him as well. [22]

List of fatal accidents involving spectators

No.	Person	Date of incident	Race	Location of incident on track	Vehicle involved	Driver involved	Incident description
1	Name unknown	8 November 1969 [24]	1969 Nine Hours of Kyalami	Clubhouse Corner	Porsche 908/02 [24]	Willi Kauhsen [25]	About 21h30 spectator climbed the safety fence and ran onto the track in the dark, where they were subsequently fatally struck by Kauhsen's 908. [24] [Note 3]

Notes and references

Notes

1. Many records show that the first fatality was Peter Engelbrecht in 1963 in the Esses driving a Porsche 550 Spyder. This in incorrect, as Engelbrecht was indeed involved in a serious accident in 1963, but survived. He died of natural causes on 15 March 1976. ^[1]
2. Porsche only built 90 RS 550 Spyders between 1952 and 1956. South African named Ian Fraser-Jones bought one of these cars and brought to South Africa where he raced it for a while. It was then sold to Dr. Dawie Gous who was also an amateur racing driver. Gous won the 1961 Kyalami 9 Hours race as overall winner with John Love and as Class B winner and third overall in the 1962 Kayalami 9 Hours race, partnered with Al Klesse. In 1963 Gous sold, what was then a famous South African racing car, to sports car driver Peter Engelbrecht, who Gous partnered in the 1963 Kyalami 9 Hours race. During the race Engelbrecht lost control of the car in the Esses due to stuck throttle and the car hit an embankment and burst into flames. The car was very badly damaged by fire and Engelbrecht was seriously injured. Three years later, the car was bought and restored by Paul Richards.
3. The car was badly damaged in the accident and was forced to withdraw from competition with Kauhsen-Schultze classified in eighth place overall. Kauhsen and Schultze's Porsche 908/02 did not race again in the series.

References

1. "Pieter Engelbrecht". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
2. "Zunia Leibavicius". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
3. "La Bérézina a 21 ans Bonne visite". Rétrospective (1965). 4 March 2025. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
4. "Paul Richards". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
5. https://www.classicscars.com/wspr/results/spring/spring1972.html
6. The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who p316-317 by Steve Small (1994) Guinness Publishing Ltd ISBN   0-85112-702-9
7. "Peter Revson". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
8. The Guinness Complete Grand Prix Who's Who p305 by Steve Small (1994) Guinness Publishing Ltd ISBN   0-85112-702-9
9. "Tom Pryce". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
10. "Johan Boshoff". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
11. "Keith Petersen". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
12. "John Sneesby". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
13. https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/view?coll=ddd&identifier=ddd:010641179:mpeg21:p006
14. http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=9864
15. "Mark Welthagen". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
16. "George Jeroudis". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
17. "Brett MacLeod". Motorsport Memorial. 4 March 2025. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
18. https://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ms&n=11281
19. Staff reporter (11 February 2013). "Bike racer dies in Kyalami crash". IOL.co.za. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
20. {{cite web|author = |date = |title = Warren Banfield|url = http://motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ms&n=11281 |website = Motorsport Memorial|location = |publisher = |access-date = 7 March 2025}
21. http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ms&n=11282
22. "Frederick Jansen van Vuuren". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
23. The Chequered Flag - 100 Years of Motor Racing p293-296 by Ivan Rendall (1995) Media Eye Ltd Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN   0-297-83220-4
24. "Unknown spectator". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
25. https://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/photo/Willi-Kauhsen-D.html