Like any true professional, he isn’t punctual — he is there way before we are scheduled to meet at Toyota’s head office outside Sandton. He instantly recognises me, proffers a firm handshake and we make our way to his Toyota RunX RSi for the drive to a nearby coffee shop.
Phillip Kekana fires up his pride and joy and we’re on our way. His driving is brisk but smooth, and he flips through the gears quickly, constantly peering into the rear-view mirror, keeping an eye on road conditions and watching out for possible hazards.
Later, as we’re waiting for the coffee to arrive, Kekana speaks of his determination as a young man to become a racing driver.
“I studied a little after matric, and did a course on bricklaying and a little civil engineering, but soon found that I had another aspiration and that was to race. Problem was, I had never driven a car before, so I got clever. I joined my brother, who had an undertaking business, and began the slow process of learning to drive,” he relates.
Initially, Kekana was only allowed to move the hearses around the premises and had yet to venture on to public roads. His chance came when he had to stand in for a driver who fell ill. His trip from Alexandra to Soweto was uneventful, but Kekana realised that a driver’s licence was paramount if he was going to live his dream.
He finally got his licence in 1989, at the age of 24. He began driving taxis to earn extra money and attended advanced driving school. Money soon became a stumbling block, so plan B was instituted, and Kekana set about trying to get the late Aggrey Klaaste, then-editor of the Sowetan, to assist.
Trying to arrange a meeting with Klaaste proved impossible, so Kekana found out where he lived and arrived on his doorstep to explain his dilemma.
Klaaste wasn’t entirely impressed with the smiling face that greeted him that day, but Kekana wasn’t going to let the ball drop at this crucial stage, and eventually persuaded the editor to assist.
Klaaste had arranged a test session through Sasol’s sponsorship manager, Pano Nicolopoulos, and Kekana found himself in the passenger seat on a test drive with multiple champion Ben Morgenrood.
He also discovered that being a passenger didn’t suit his stomach, and made a hasty exit from Morgenrood’s Ford Laser when it finally stopped in the pits a few laps later.
Morgenrood decided that things might go smoother if Kekana did the hard work himself, and after a few laps tutoring the Diepkloof resident and showing him the race lines, sent him out on his own.
Kekana didn’t even get remotely close to the lap record that day, but got his times down sufficiently enough to impress the West Rand businessman, even after numerous spins. Morgenrood gave Sasol the lowdown and Kekana was given the gap he needed.
He enrolled at Speed International to learn the finer arts of racing, after which he found himself behind the wheel of a Ford Laser, with backing from Sasol, and in race overalls and a helmet donated by Morgenrood.
Racing and rallying legend Sarel van der Merwe got in on the act, too, and provided Kekana with race craft and advice on which he could launch his professional career.
“My first race wasn’t the greatest,” Kekana explained, “and I was mixing it with the much slower class E cars in my class D Laser, which proved to be rather embarrassing. But I improved as we went on, and slowly started to get the feel for things. I did a lot of work on the car myself those days, which taught me a lot about race set-up,” he enthuses.
Kekana swapped his Ford for a Hyundai two years later, and after the same period, swapped again, ending up in a Toyota Tazz, a brand to which he has remained loyal for the past five years.
“Toyota has been absolutely superb in supporting me and giving me the right tools,” he acknowledges.
“Thanks to their efforts and support, I managed to get my first win at Killarney in Cape Town in 1999, and broke the lap record to boot that day,” he brags.
In 2002 Kekana achieved his goal and became the second of two black national motor-racing champions by winning class D of the Production Car Championship. He was pipped to the post by Tschops Sipuka in the Polo Cup series, after race organisers changed the programme that day —which saw Sipuka win the title literally minutes ahead of Kekana.
When he isn’t racing at one of the national circuits, Kekana keeps his reflexes sharp by instructing at Driving Dynamics, an advanced driving school run by former multiple champion Grant McLeery and fellow class B competitor Clint Weston.
Kekana says that he and Weston have a healthy relationship on and off the track. “Clinton is certainly quick and always gives me a good run for my money. But he is a clean, hard-race driver who never gives an inch and even if I beat him squarely on race day, he still greets me with respect and warmth come work on Monday,” says Kekana.
Kekana enjoys high-revving cars, hence his choice of a Toyota RunX RSi, the same vehicle in which he competes on the race track. “That car is incredible and it seems like the revs will never stop climbing when you drive it. Like any race car, it has to be driven on the limit to achieve results and I doubt other cars will withstand the punishment I dish out to my RunX on race days.”
Motorsport has given Kekana an incredible amount of personal satisfaction and growth, and he is determined to put something back into it.
He is livid that the government, in both the past and present, has done so little to assist drivers in establishing themselves in the higher echelons of the sport.
“Drivers such as Gary Formato, Etienne van der Linde and Grant Orbell have buckets of talent and used huge amounts of their own money when they tried to establish themselves overseas. A little bit of help from Parliament would have gone a long way, I believe, and it is sad that their careers never really took off,” he reflects.
Kekana has a solution, though, which is not only attainable but close to his heart. “There are many youngsters out there in the townships who have no access or channels to even try their hand at the sport.
“Establishing a kart circuit in Soweto or Alexandra would be a great start and we’d soon find all those hidden talents. The government is quite happy to spend millions on promoting soccer, for instance — why can’t they do the same with motorsport?” he reasons.
Knowing this young racer’s determination, though, he’ll get that one right, too.