Castrol, the global lubrication specialist with a long and proud heritage in motor sport, will continue with its support for the annual Passion for Speed international classic car and motorcycle race meeting, which take place at the Zwartkops circuit, west of Pretoria. This year it will be staged on January 29-30.

This will be the 10th of these very successful classic motor racing festivals that started with David Piper bringing a number of overseas-based cars and drivers to South Africa in 2002.

Castrol will sponsor two car races and co-sponsor the motorcycle events with Honda, including the International Day of the Champion on Sunday, January 30.

Twenty-five cars and 22 racing motorcycles are expected from overseas for this prestigious race meeting, as well as many drivers and riders which will make these two days of racing to remember as they "bring back the past."

Castrol Edge will sponsor the World Sports Car Challenge for Post 1974 cars, which consist of a 10-lap race and then end the programme with a 45-minute race, while the Castrol Edge International Sports Racing Prototypes will have two 12-lap races.

The field for the Sports Car Challenge will include numerous Porsches, a Cobra, Ford GT40, Marcos Ford with a wooden chassis, Datsun 240Z, MGAs and MGBs as well as a bevy of Lotus 7s.

The International Sports Prototype entry includes a multitude of Porsches, Chevrons and V8 Lola T70s as well as a Chevrolet Camaro.

In addition, Castrol will sponsor two six-lap demonstrations by the classic motorcycles on the Saturday and co-sponsor the Day of the Champion for classic racing motorcycles on the Sunday with Honda.

The Day of the Champion will form part of the Tourist Trophy (TT) Legends series which will be contested in East London (January 22), Zwartkops (January 30) and Cape Town (February 5-6). Famous British rider Mick Grant has signied up a better and bigger party of riders and motorcycles from Europe than ever before.

Alan Walker is bringing a 500 cc MV Agusta and there will be a host of Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki Grand Prix racing machines.

Riders will include eight-time world champion Phil Read, who is still sprightly in his seventies, and the best female competitor to race in the famous TT races on the Isle of Man, Maria Costello.

The National Historic Motorcycle Museum in Deneysville, run by John Boswell, will field a number of Ian Groat's immaculate, classic British motorcycles – Norton, AJS and Matchless – and a four-cylinder 250cc Honda, which make up Team Incomplete. The machines will be ridden by Jim Redman, Peter Labuschagne, Sir Alan Cathcart, Jimmie Guthrie and Ian Groat himself.

Local champions of the past that will be in action, including Keith Zeeman, Kevin Hellyer, Les van Breda and Dave Petersen.

"We are delighted to once again be a major sponsor at this very popular historic racing event," said Castrol SA's public relations and sponsorship manager, Charlette Roetz.

"Our company has a long and proud history in motor sport, both locally and internationally and we are pleased to be part of this annual event that brings together ever more impressive racing cars and motorcycles from the Golden Age of Motoring in the 1960's and '70's together with big crowds of enthusiasts."