Young petrolheads hoping to become professional mechanics or break into other motor-related fields have a shot at doing just that thanks to a bursary set up by a Brackenfell non-profit company.
YQ 4 Hope’s bursary will enable two deserving students to study at Northlink College.
Motorsport events will be one of the main sources of funding for the bursary, and the Witzenberg Motorklub will be donating a portion of its race entry fees to the initiative, according to the club’s Abdul Sayed, who is also one of YQ 4 Hope’s directors.
Northlink spokesman Thozamile Mvuvu said the bursary would encourage young people to take up engineering studies.
“The college will endeavour to ensure that the students awarded the bursary make the best of the opportunity,” he said.
ANC member of the provincial legislature Khalid Sayed visited YQ 4 Hope on Wednesday and said that public-private partnerships in the service of education should be encouraged.
There was a lot of enthusiasm in the city for informal motor racing, especially on the Cape Flats, but the sport was also often associated with crime and illegal drag racing, he said.
“Nevertheless, it’s a hobby for many. Young men and women, who have been creating their racing cars legally, got together and found that motorsport in the city is very much untransformed and white-dominated.
“More than that, it’s one of the few sports where the sector doesn’t really plough back, doesn’t do much for development, unlike cricket, soccer and rugby,” Mr Sayed said.