Wicked Wednesday in the Deep SOUF bru
Whosyrmama invites you to see if you’re rough enough to go underground with her in the southern suburbs – she gives good … directions We love people that make UNDERGROUND the NORM – keep representing!!
For cheap entertainment on a Wednesday Night go and watch all walks of life “pull in” at Wesbank Raceway to race their cars – some new Porches some Fiat uno’s souped up …
with NOS (Nitrous Oxide)some “stock standard” that just want to see how well their cars will do.
You just have to go at least once!
See the wheels, see the cut off jeans and pony tails, see the crew, see
the smoke and hear the revs – every Wednesday night at Wesbank Raceway.
R20 per car gets you in – alcohol and food available you can sit on the
grandstand or you can sit at the restaurant and watch the cars speed passed on the 400m drag strip!
Here’s a blurb on the SouthSide Crew – the crew who organize and run the Drag Racing at Wesbank Raceway – it’s really wicked how it came about – take the time to read this:
SouthSide Crew was born under a full moon, on the streets, in the south of Jozi. In the south being respected is a huge thing amongst the youth. Leaders are usually born here out of fear i.e they’re the best fighters & knock most amateur boxers in to the dark alleys of La Rochelle or respect, earned through actions, hype or just plain love. These are usually the people who are looked up to. Cars have always been a way of life for generations come & gone especially in the south.
A nobody unknown can become a SupSuperstarll known if he hooks up a ride that looks sweet or be the fastest on the street. It’s an invisible crown earned & given by the people
themselves. This be no lie. It’s been proven over & over again. U wanna have a laugh, most peoples names are saved in their cellphones according to their rises or what modifications thyey’ve done to their rides eg eg.rco M3, Arief VwTurbo, Alex Turbo, Jose Jedi. I
know this cause these are a few numbers saved on my phone.
So SouthSide Crew came about when, we the youth of the south, harnessed all the elements of the underground & put it together. The revolution of the SMS become our no1 tool. We’d sms a few top racers to join up at a certain location at a certain time. SMS’s would be forwarded & a ripple effect continued. I’d arrive only knowing the location of the street we’d be racing on
& lead our “small army” to the “battleground”!
Wednesday night moonlight shined on us every week as if a spotlight from heaven above. Guys would come in their cars & race for glory. No trophies at the finish line to be won, just the respect of the crowd (if u were blessed maybe the fine honey’s number that was watching you on the sideline) Word spread, soon we had 2000 people at our street meets. We starting rewarding our crew with “colours” (small badges on the rides that would let every1 know that you were part of the underground element that ran the street). Tags were sprayed on the tar to let people know that we raced on that street.
Metro police were always a highlight to our meetings. TheThey wouldme flash their “blouligs”, launch their teargas. They loved to see how people ran to their cars tears flowing down their eyes, lungs burning inside! They thinking they had solved a
“crime”, hell… we’d move on to another one of our streets. Got to give it to them,they tried…
We grew in numbers. Through sweet summers evenings to the bitter cold of winters nights, we raced, every Wednesday night for 5 years. Hip Hop kept us company through huge custom sound installs while tires burned the tar. During this time, Ready D & I become friends.
I hooked him up rides for his promos, he hooked us up a SouthSide Crew soundtrack .As i said before, some people become leaders through fear, we earned it through respect. Word even made to the corporate world, reporters come, shot footage, had interviews. Some burned us to ground slaying us -reckless drivers. Others showed the truth, the passion that drove people to want to be apart of the culture we had created!
Soon others tried to jack our birthright, other crews arose. Tried to run their own show on other nights, but God is great, & the people stayed true to us. We stayed on top of our game. But we paid the penalty for the their misfortunes. Accidents at other illegal drags made newspaper headlines. The Law needed to respond to the public outcry, so they came looking for
us. We ran our streets safe, ain’t no way we wanted any of our friends to get hurt! U be drinking or smoking Ja, you wouldn’t race – Simple! Seat-belts were always on for all racers. But the law need to drop the blame on some one. Soon the streets become too hot, cops be invading all our spots. We needed to regroup… We approached Wesbank raceway, negotiations took
place. We were able to hook up the track for minimal fee to entrants – R.20. Less than a Happy meal -Sweetly! But we still wanted to race street rules!
Motorsport South Africa was less than supportive. We began having our meetings on the track but running street rules. MSA had a breakdown!! Told us we couldn’t continue to run the meetings no more! Here we were cultivating the talent of possible future motorsport stars & these guys were trying shut us down. We hit them back head on with the co-operation
of Peter Lindeberg of Wesbank Raceway. Hell, they couldn’t keep such a huge following down and the didn’t. We won the court hearing and continue racing every Wednesdays night..
..and that our story, our underground culture remixed!
🙂
