Hello Lawrie,
I've just been through you archive pics and see that you were in South Africa in '75.  So sorry I did'nt meet you but anyway I was out of it by then.
Just a few lines on the strip, it was built and financed in 1968 by a guy called Lukie Botha and Jimmy Chapman with me in a supervision post, on a farm belonging to a Mr Hymie Nomis, he was a sleeping partner landlord except his wife handled the purse strings and after every meeting we had to go and pay them a couple of hundred rand depending on the gate take which was'nt a lot but they were first in line as landlords and she printed the gate tickets so were compelled to take the books and show her.  The strip was known as "Rainbow Drag Strip" because the Nomis' had a pleasure resort next door called Rainbow Pleasure Resort which was quite popular, they had horse riding and all sorts of activities for weekends so it was easier for people to find it.  We formed a club called "The Drag Racing Club of South Africa which organised and ran the meetings, it was headed by two guys called Rob VerMooten the chairman, and Keith Dyer the president, later on came our stalwart hard-working Jimmy Haddiaris who was with us at Santa Pod.  The end of the original strip, which was 1/2 mile, long ended against their stables and at the time we never had sand traps, yes it happened, some guy could'nt stop and ended up in the stables so we were instructed to move the start back a few hundred yards and put a long sand trap at the end, or stop racing, these things really work hey?,as I was to find out, on one run my chute did'nt open I was shovelling sand out of the engine and every where you could imagine.  The super stock Chevy in your photo's was I'm sure Willie Hepburn, he still races V8 super cars here today at 70.  I hope I did'nt bore you but I get very nostalgic when I see write ups in your archives or wherever about drag racing in S.A.it brings back some lovely memories and thanks for it.
Best Regards

Arthur Christy

Arthur has kindly scanned some newspaper cuttings showing him in action in Hawaian III at Rainbow Drag Strip in the Transvaal.  Click on the images to get a bigger version.

Click here to return to Lawrie Gatehouse's page 9