Adrenaline, smoke, wailing tyres, dangerous moves and sheer ballsy entertainment. That’s a good start to describing the South African phenomenon that is spinning.
To the uneducated, or uninitiated, spinning looks like some nutcase who has lost control of his BMW, somehow got the accelerator jammed and himself ejected from the car. But that would be far from the truth.
Actually, what’s going on here is the driver has purposefully ‘jumped’, exited the car to stand on the roof or hang perilously out the window, while he or she describes hell-for-leather donuts on the tyre-stained pitch. All for the rush, y’know, and to entertain the crowds.
A Spinner has a crowd personality, he is a star and keeps up the stunts on and banter off the pitch. That’s why, when the SA spinners converged on Mossel Bay for the Diaz Festival last weekend for a big meet, the koppe looked on.
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Bobby Nitro spoke to Wannie Sixtnine, 38, of Kimberley after the event. Wannie, a legend in his own right, has been in the game for 15 years and is one of the founders of Ride2Slide, a registered company that assists spinners to get ahead in the game. As a national agency, Ride2Slide promotes spinning, represents spinners and gets them organised to go to events and more.
Wannie says: “Mossel Bay is a big event, and with Renzo Quickfall the Ride2Slide representative in Mossel Bay, we used the opportunity to scout for talent for the Western Province Spinning team, which will be announced on Friday.”
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Wannie is captain of the Northern Cape team and rides the classic spinning car, a BMW c325iS, known as a gusheshe in the streets of Soweto, where many say spinning was invented with the hijacking of these cars. Many others, of course, say it came from the Cape, with the Fords of the early ’90s. That debate, however, is the rightful subject of another time.
Kimberley has long been a hub for spinning, what with the guys there, with the help of Otto Graven of Monstermob Track, having organised legally sanctioned events and a dedicated pitch.
Bobby spoke also to Renzo Quickfall, who says: “It was just amazing to see so many people from all over descend on Mossel Bay for what is likely the biggest event of its type in SA. They brought the whole family, stayed for an extended weekend.
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“Also, I’m seeing spinning go to a new level, where guys are really taking pride in their vehicles, making sure they are mechanically viable, with professional signage and lekker spray jobs.”
Renzo, who brings a V6 Cortina to the game, says that he didn’t drive at the festival as he was “making sure everybody else was having a good time”.
The event, which is held twice a year and sanctioned by the municipality, is drawing attention from a major sponsor, and Renzo has hopes they will now get involved.