Kyalami, March 4th.
Relieved of its usual status of being the first World Championship event of the year, the South African event nevertheless proved to be a great success. The 26-car field was watched by a record crowd and the race proved to be a succession of exciting battles for the lead which, finally, resulted in victory for Hulme in a Yardley-sponsored McLaren M19A. It was HuIme who was last year robbed of victory in the closing stages due to a rear suspension failure.
As has been the case for several years the race was held at the Kyalami track, mid-way between Johannesburg and Pretoria. The majority of the cars had been flown directly from Argentina and this enabled testing to start early. Both Firestone and Goodyear organised sessions. The lap record stood at 1 min. 20.0 sec. to local champion Dave Charlton so, when Fittipaldi lapped in 1 min. 17.2 sec. and then Stewart in 1 min. 16.4 sec. during the tyre tests, the lines were really humming back to England. By the time official practice commenced on Wednesday, March 1 the great majority of the teams had put in some miles of testing.
