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Dr. Dawie Gouws 1927 - 2011
14 Jul 2011
Famous Porsche racer Dawie Gouws passed away last Sunday. Mario Lupini pays tribute to a South African racing legend
The sad passing of Dr Dawie Gouws sounds another knell for the generation of drivers who competed in the golden period of South African motor racing between the late 1950s and mid ’70s. Mild mannered and a gentleman to the core, Dawie was, however, an iron-willed driver on the racetrack.
After witnessing his first race at the old Grand Central Circuit in 1958, he decided that motor racing had to become part of his life. He and a dear friend, orthopaedic surgeon Tielman Roos, purchased a Porsche 356 Speedster to race. Tragically Roos died two weeks before their first race, but Dawie continued to compete in the car from then on.
Success soon followed, with Dawie finishing 2nd in class in the second 9-Hour race at the Grand Central Circuit, co-driving with the late and hard-charging future South African champion John Love. I remember it well because it was my second big race and I also finished 2nd in my class.
He soon moved on to more powerful machinery and won the ’60 and ’61 9-Hour races in the ex-Frazer-Jones Porsche RS together with Love and Neville Austin respectively, as well as taking two 6-Hour victories at Pietermaritzburg’s Roy Hesketh Circuit.
The Porsche RS was followed by Hermann Muller’s 1963 European Hillclimb Championship-winning Porsche RS61, which he managed to import into South Africa as spares, obviating a large import surcharge. The car proved hugely successful, with Dawie garnering the ’63 South African Sports Car Championship.
Selling his RS61, Dawie continued his racing career in the rapid Elva sports racing car, purchased without an engine and gearbox, into which he then fitted his spare RS61 engine. He maintained it was the fastest car he’d ever driven.
Dawie was blessed with a charming sense of humour. During an interview in 2007 I asked, “How about some of your more memorable moments?”.
He offered several, and one in particular stuck in my mind.
With his usual smile he asked, “Do you remember Sarel van der Merwe senior’s ungainly Mitter-DKW?”
I nodded approvingly.
“Well, Tony Kotze, who had spent some agonising moments trying to lap him in his Lotus, came storming up to a group of us, including Sarel senior and Sarel junior. Pointing at the former he yelled, ‘You bloody stupid so-and-so, I’ll donder your kop off. And you, you stupid asshole,’ he continued, pointing at me, ‘you sprayed oil all over the track.’”
Leaning forward Dawie chuckled wryly, “You know what we did? We surrounded him threateningly, to which he quickly answered, ‘Wait, wait boys. Let’s have a couple of beers instead’. And all was forgiven!”
On departing that day the octogenarian ex-champion said, “You know what? We were gods back then, racing on those dangerous and narrow tracks without driver safety considerations and no run-offs.”
Yes Dawie, in a way, you were a god of the racetracks.
- Mario Lupini
Please bare with me.