About 50 years ago a group of enthusiasts under the leadership of Dave Clapham, got together to discuss a way forward to participate in motor racing. Interestingly enough, there were a wide variety of cars that had taken part within various Series. What then developed was Castrol Clubmans. The original form of racing was strictly based on a handicap formula. (Slowest car start 1st and the fastest car starts last) The competitors would start off at timed intervals determined by the lap times set in practice. In theory if the competitors had done their job properly, all the cars would then have finished at the same time. Fortunately, there were many factors that prevented this, but there were also some exciting finishes. In the early days it was not unusual to see 60 cars or more lined up on the old Kyalami grid at the start of a race.

Moving forward the first real format change came about due to the size of the Clubmans grid at the original Zwartkops Drive-In track. Because of this all the cars could not be accommodated at the same time. This led to the cars being split into three groups known as Group A, B and C which was based on lap times. This led to the fastest and slowest competitors of Group B being moved up and down as well as the slowest of Group A and fastest of Group C also being moved.

Something had to change and this was the introduction of capacity classes. By doing this the category had abandoned the handicap single file starting system and had introduced standing start sprint races. Around this time the first of the series name changes came about and was called Castrol Super Saloons. When Castrol decided, after about 35 years of supporting the series, their marketing was going to be moved to different forms of sport. The series was without a series sponsor and the name was changed to Le Mans Legends and Thundercars.

Needless to say the name was shortened and called Thundercars and the series ran as such for a few years up to the end of 2005. At a members “noggin” (a term used to describe the social gathering after each event the competitors meet to discuss previous and forthcoming events) a suggestion was made that Thundercars did not really describe the wide variety of cars competing in the series. It was then decided that the series be called Super Saloons and would be introduced in 2006. This saw an increase in the membership and competitors from various other categories started joining the series. One thing that has remained is the Association is and will always remain the Clubmans Racing Association.

Then we went downwards again, in 2008 we had 12 cars on the grid at Midvaal. Towards the end of the year, a meeting was held at Kyalami Marshals club, and it was decided to split those 12 cars into 2 groups (HOW INSANE IS THAT) But at the 1st race in 2009 we had 36 cars!! 12 MPC’s (Modified production Cars, which included a Bakkie class), and 24 Super Saloons. Thereafter we ran strong for a couple of years.