Team Omega '91

excited to have been chosen to write his story. Hailing from a family of petrol heads, Bruce has long had a passion for racing. Ray van Niekerk, Bruce’s father, was a keen powerboat enthusiast and the South African National Hydroplane Champion in 1976. Bruce spent many hours during his childhood working with his Dad to finetune the boat. This definitely ignited something in him that would stay with him for the course of his life. Ray stopped racing in in the same year and sold the boat. Bruce reminisces fondly of that day, taking the buyer out for a test on the Rynfield Lake in Benoni. His father allowed him onto the boat for the first and last time and a love affair with speed began. The absence of the boat and the taste of the adrenalin left a gap in Bruce’s young life. In 1976, the van Niekerk family was joined in Sunnyridge, Germiston by the Morrison family. Pete Morrison was avidly involved in circuit racing and was campaigning to compete in the Formula Vee category. He was driving a car that had taken him a year to build in a rented garage in Malvern. His sons would later to go on to build an exact replica of this car in tribute to the legendary Pete Morrison. A close bond developed between Pete and Bruce and he quickly became part of the furniture in the Morrison home. Bruce formed life-long bonds with many members of the family, most notably Pete’s sons Jackie and Jody. Bruce still has contact with extended family members all these years later! The approach Bruce has taken in life, both with his own children and to the people he calls family has deep roots in the lessons he learnt from Pete Morrison as well as his own parents. Bruce could often be found peering around the garage door, watching the work being done on Pete’s car. Bruce was invited into the garage to clean the wheels on Pete’s 1976 Formula Vee Cobra and the passion instilled in him by his father was re-ignited. As it would be for most teenage boys with an interest in racing cars, or as Bruce puts it: “Anything that uses petrol, but definitely not the lawnmower!”, this was a dream come true. Pete won the Formula Vee championship in 1976 and decided to make a move to Formula Ford. He couldn’t find a car he liked that he could afford, and the plan was hatched to build a race car for the category. This decision meant that Bruce could add a few more duties to his job description! Along with cleaning wheels, Bruce was now also involved with the new build. He became the garage appie and, while working through school, he was gaining valuable knowledge and experience in the workshop. By 1984, with high school behind him and having secured his first job, Bruce couldn’t resist a look at a kart Pete had seen advertised in the local paper. He and Pete went out to the old Zwartkops raceway to test drive it. Bruce fell in love and the decision was made to purchase it. Payment was made in the form of 6 post-dated cheques. Bruce’s parents had gone away for the weekend and it gave Bruce the perfect opportunity to make sure the transaction was finalized before his folks got wind of his plan. He had just started work at Barclays bank, and was preparing to start his 2-year national service in July, and he had just bought a race car! In his words, “Fantastic! I am now a racer!” Never mind that he didn’t have a drivers license yet. When they came back, there was Bruce’s kart, proudly parked in the garage, on trestles made by Morrison. Bruce adds that he still has the trestles at his home in Hobhouse. Of course, things got a little crazy. Bruce’s mother, Hazel, made it very clear to all involved that she was not happy about this plan. Naturally, she was concerned for Bruce’s safety, and she expressed her dismay loudly. Pete Morrison even earned himself a rather explicit nickname that day! Bruce’s father developed a small twitch to the corner of his mouth that some say could have been a smirk and went inside. Bruce was reasonably successful with his kart. He secured a fifth place finish at the Transvaal championship that year, having secured a few sports passes from the army to go and compete at race days. Not all of his outings were legal though, having gone AWOL from the army to go and spanner for Pete at the international 9-hour endurance race ay Kyalami! Pete was sharing a drive with Trevor van Rooyen in a Class C2 Tiga entered by DAW

Hazel’s fears for Bruce’s safety were not misplaced though. He managed to acquire himself a concussion in his first race and lost a wheel in his second. Incidentally, that particular race at the Edenvale Hyperama was a notable day for Bruce. Before the event, his grandfather purchased a brand new set of red and white racing leathers for him. A testament to the pride he felt about his grandson as a driver. Bruce’s path also crossed with his future wife’s path that day, although neither of them realized it until much later. By 1985, Bruce’s kart was showing its age, but he continued with a limited budget. Bruce recalls finishing 5th again in the Transvaal championship. By this point, Pete was driving a Maurer Formula Atlantic, sponsored by DAW on occasion. This was a very special car - imported from Europe and previously driven by Stefan Bellof, a rising German driver who made it to F1. Stefan Bellof also raced in the World Endurance series and was killed in a major shunt at Spa. Bruce’s father passed away in 1986 and the spark in Bruce dimmed for some years. He was no longer inspired by the sounds and smells of the pits, or by the thrill of the speed. It didn’t last long with Pete pulling Bruce back into his spanner boy responsibilities in 1987. Pete and Uncle Joe, being just as avid as spectators as they were as competitors, took themselves off to the National Championships at Kyalami. While walking around, Uncle Joe spotted a ready-to-race Ford Es**rt and, not being a man to take no for an answer, Uncle Joe bought it. Bruce was once again instated as spanner boy for Morrison Racing at Uncle Joe’s engineering shop! Bruce left his mark on the car by painting the headlight covers red. His reasoning was that it was easier to identify the car coming down the straight and it matched the eyes of most of the team. Bloodshot either because they had been in the workshop all night, or the pub! Kevin Stopford – an old mate of Petes formed a racing team to compete in the Formula GTI category. Pete prepared cars for Kevin as well as two “rent -a– drive” competitors. Bruce was also working for Kevin as a business administrator, so he was actively involved in the day to day operation of the race team as well as being spanner boy at test and race days. The adventures from these days could fill a book on their own, but we won’t go into too many details here to protect the not so innocent! Fast forward to 1990. There had been dramatic downscaling of the race team and things were about to change even more. Pete was involved in a horrific road accident in the team transporter and later passed away from his injuries. Bruce had no interest in competing again after Pete passed away. He sold the kart and continued to work with Kevin until the businesses folded. Bruce then took on a job at the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and moved to the beautiful Eastern Free State, where he would meet his wife and raise an amazing family. Bruce and his wife Andrea were on holiday in Bali in 2019 when they received a call from Jackie Morrison. An old family friend had a Formula Vee for sale and Jackie was very insistent. Bruce, trusting his Morrison brother, bought the car sight unseen, as one does. Upon his return to South Africa, Bruce discovered that Omega needed a bit of TLC, but he could see what Jackie had seen, and approached AJ Kernick to refurbish her. AJ did a fantastic job on her, and Ian Rayner of Rayspeed built the team a monster of a motor. Bruce’s contract in Indonesia came to an end early in 2021 due to Covid and so, even though he had a racecar, she was relegated to the garage. Omega sat there, gathering dust while Bruce looked for new employment opportunities. He put out an advert so sell Omega but did not get any serious offers. In 2022, Bruce went into business with his favorite cousin, Donna. They were out and about, collecting & delivering stock in July, when Bruce received a call from Andre le Roux of the Formula Libre Association, asking if Omega was still on the market. Bruce told him that she was not for sale, and they got chatting about racing in general. Sometime after this, Bruce went to a race at Zwartkops and bumped into Blaine de Mellion. Bruce, naturally willing to help out wherever he can, gave Blaine a hand with his car. They made an arrangement that Bruce was to spanner for him at the next race. It would be the spark that would reignite the desire to race and Bruce began looking for ways to make it happen. His first call was to Andre. Bruce took him up on his offer of collecting Omega in Hobhouse and bringing her up to Joburg. Andre had a trip to Mossel Bay the day after Bruce spoke with him and fetching the car on the way back worked for everyone. With transport sorted, Bruce then called Clinton Baird to make arrangements to park Omega at his girlfriends’ mom’s place. Eurika immediately agreed, and it was game on! Andre put Bruce under pressure to enter for the last race of the season at Red Star. Bruce was hesitant though, being very aware of the financial impact. Donna listened to this and secretly started a 'Go Fund Me Campaign' behind Bruce’s back. The first time Bruce was given any idea of what was going on was when he received a notification from his bank. A very good friend had deposited funds into his account. “Donna & I were again out delivering stock - business is going very well, for which I am grateful! but not well enough yet to support my racing habit - and I mentioned this deposit. Donna packed up laughing and told me what she had done,” said Bruce. Thereafter, the floodgates opened, and between family, friends and sponsors, Bruce had managed to raise enough funding to get back on a racetrack for the first time since 1985. In Bruce’s words, “I am amazed and humbled by the support that I have received and cannot find adequate words to express my gratitude.”

32 years since his last race, Bruce made his racing return in his refurbished car, Omega ‘91, for the final round of the Regional Extreme Challenge at Red Star. After some car trouble early on that meant he missed the qualifiers, Bruce started at the back of the grid. Despite this though, he placed 3rd in his class and the future is looking good!