How the Van Rensburg family turned Tarlton Raceway into South Africa’s mecca of drag racing

On September 24, 1977, Mick Van Rensburg changed the course of South Africa’s drag racing scene. Not only did he build the first ever drag-specific race track in the country, but he essentially gave South Africans the opportunity to reach for their dreams.

Now just under five decades later, his children Michael van Rensburg, Karen Pretorius and Nico van Rensburg carry on his legacy. A legacy that was thought to be dying off between 2015 and 2022 because of various factors, including money, a dying culture and an inability to fully connect with the new generation. 

Mick passed away in 2020, at a time when the family had to close Tarlton Raceway because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

But together, his three children have managed to navigate through the muck of running such a huge facility and is taking Mick van Rensburg legacy into the new generation. Suzette van Rensberg, their mother, is the only member of the family that does not like drag racing. 

The sport of drag racing is like any expensive hobby, you kind of regret getting into it after you see how expensive it becomes. Hence, only purists and truly passionate drivers (and their wives) last and have a legacy in the sport. 

It’s something that requires every ounce of sacrifice you have in your body and bank account, at least that’s how drivers see it. Many people never see, or are not interested in seeing, behind the curtain and experiencing the life of a drag racing organiser, especially at the level Tarlton does it.  

It is the only facility in the country where you get to see jet cars, top fuel dragsters and 7 second Nissan 1400 bakkies go down the quarter mile. In short, it is the mecca of South African drag racing. 

And the van Rensburg family have been custodians of this holy land for two generations, but it has come with a ton of hard work and sacrifice. Just to give some insight into the cost of hosting an event at Tarlton Raceway - the track bite, which is a substance used to create better traction, costs R100,000. That R100,000 worth of track bite only lasts one event. 

“My dad started building the track in 1974 and the official opening was in 1977. I’m 50 now and have been involved since I was born. Drag racing has basically been my life, it's our family’s life. My father also loved to race. He drove top fuel dragsters on nitro meth way back in the 70’s. 

“My elder sister Karen, and my oldest brother Michael, who actually lives at the track, run Tarlton today. Michael and I had our fair share of racing as well, we both drove really fast cars. I did a 7 second pass when I was 16-years-old with a V8 hemi powered dragster. So yeah, we all had our fun, but now it's mostly hard work,” Nico van Rensburg said. 

“The industry itself has changed a lot over the years and we also were affected by it. I think it goes back as far as 2016, that’s when we actually stopped hosting national events. Also just from a financial perspective, it became extremely expensive. In addition to hosting, we also had a number of cars with dedicated drivers so it was costly. 

“I think the result of a few big sponsors parting ways with us, the Rand/Dollar exchange rate and just a lack of support in general from competitors led us to stop nationals altogether. We had a couple small events up until 2020 when Covid came. It hit us and hit us very hard. Tarlton was closed for three years and when we reopened again in 2023.

“The amount of infrastructure that was looted in those three years was crazy. They stole cables from underground, flood lights were stolen, the controls for the lights were stolen. It cost us a small fortune to provide security in that period, that was a real killer for us,” van Rensburg said. 

But since the reopening, Tarlton has been buzzing to say the least, with thousands of fans and hundreds of drivers. This year alone, there were two regional racing events, which saw entrants from around the country head to the Krugersdorp facility. 

The latest regional event, which was held on May 31, saw just over 8,000 people gather at Tarlton, which includes drivers and fans, a level of support that even shocked the Tarlton family. 

“I must say that we were caught off guard a bit. The last time we had an event as big as the May 31 drags was pre-2016. Even our staff were surprised at the turnout. It’s like a whole new generation of racers and even spectators have come through to racing,” Karen said. 

Nico said the way they approach an event has changed because the “thinking is not the same”.

“I’m 50 now so I think I’m a bit old school but with the new generation, they just think and do things differently. So even with our marketing for events, we had to change it up a bit. I am really grateful that we have been getting such huge support from both the spectators and drivers ever since we reopened,” Nico said.