Move over ouens, in a cloud of smoke and burning rubber, here come the Spinderellas.
Meet the Western Cape’s all-women spin team, (and Bobby will say it again because it sounds so kwaai) the Spinderellas, who are set to rock the Cape and the country with their tyre-ripping shenanigans.
Without further ado, the seven women making up the team are Ashiya Fakir, Natassja Farmer, Faheema Baker, Fatima Hess, Rene Hendricks, Nazeema van Schalkwyk and Tina Russouw, the team’s captain.
They were the highlight at the Ocean View Spinners (OVS) exhibition last weekend, and with women in the organising crew, the event couldn’t have run better. In fact - and this is important considering the state of spin in the Cape and the ongoing battles around recognition - the event was sanctioned by Motorsport South Africa (MSA) and MSA officials were in attendance.
This event was also a means to market the newly-selected female team of spinners representing the Western Cape, to get geared up to compete against the rest of the country’s women drivers in an interprovincial battle of sorts.
Bobby Nitro spoke to Fatima Hess of the Spinderellas. She says: “I helped organise (event), in that I pushed through all the necessary paperwork, while OVS, which is the only Cape spin club affiliated with the MSA, ran the operations. The highlight of the day for me was getting my E30 out on the pitch, doing my thing, and then hearing the more than 1 000 people there sing happy birthday to me. Spending the day with the people of Ocean View - I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday.”
Fatima highlights the fact that this event was staged as a fundraiser for Kleinberg Primary School. Even before the day, the crew fixed and painted the dilapidated toilets at the school, and more money has been raised for the school to use.
Bobby also chatted to MSA’s Clerk of the Course, Phil Herholdt, who says: “It was an awesome day, and there were no incidents. There was an MSA permit issued, plus the police, traffic and health and safety were on board, and we did safety checks with all the 32 cars that arrived.”
Usually, putting in the barriers is an issue, because concrete blocks are just too expensive.
Phil says: “We bound tyre stacks together with netting and made a seven-metre gap between them and spectators, and that fulfils safety criteria.”
Spinner Ashiya Fakir says: “It was well organised and safety was tip-top. It’s a thing for spinners to learn to abide by the rules, such as no tyre bounce, but at the end of the day it’s for our safety and the spectators. Spinning can be dangerous.”
On a lighter note, she adds: “This event was a fundraiser for the school and it was Fatima Hess’s birthday, so we had a party.”
The spinning itself was nothing short of exhilarating, with performances demonstrating precision driving at its best. Shahiem Bell of TPDZ says: “We got to see drivers, young and old, male and female, strut their stuff on the square pitch, throwing their machines, slaying rubber, from corner to corner. The discipline of drivers - adhering to rules was at an all-time high. People in the crowds truly appreciated spinning being back in Ocean View after such a long time.
“The special part of the event was that its aim was to bring some positivity to an area that is currently stricken by gang violence and ruthless killings. The sense is that these kinds of motorsport events are becoming the medium used across the Cape Flats to counter and alleviate the poison in our communities, and we ask all to support them. People feel safe at spin events.”
This kind of event, sanctioned by the MSA, with strict safety, fundraising and done in conjunction with the City, is what we need to get spinning in the limelight, and make that much-needed, dedicated pitch a reality in the Cape.
The Spinderellas are geared up for the logistics and finances to get to Joburg for an all-women spin event on Women’s Day. Catch OVS at Killarney this Saturday.