Gavin Walton of Springs is strongly favoured to score a seventh win in the iTOO VVC DJ (Durban-Johannesburg) Rally for classic motorcycles when he takes the start of the 2025 event in Hillcrest, outside Durban, on 14 March. Not only has he won this prestigious event in 2009, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2024, but he also put up a phenomenal performance in the recent Pre-DJ Rally, scoring a total of only 52 seconds error at 11 control points. Mike Venables was second with 106 penalty points.
This year’s event, which commemorates the road race held between Durban and Johannesburg from 1913-1936, is the 53rd of these regularity rallies, which began in 1970 and have been held annually except for 1974 (fuel restrictions) and 2021 (Covid). In keeping with the historic nature of this event, the competing motorcycles must have been made before 1936.
Clerk of the Course Gwyneth Cronje has received entries from riders of 76 motorcycles and two sidecar combinations for the 2025 DJ Rally. “We are delighted at the support because we know how costs have risen, which ruled out many of the previous competitors who came from the Western Cape,” commented Gwyneth, whose late husband, Pierre, had been both an enthusiastic DJ competitor and Clerk of the Course.
The field this year includes nine first-timers – Lloyd Weber from Zimbabwe, Robert Cantwell, Candice Truda, Helen Nicolau, Brian Bontekoning, Michael Buchan (the youngest rider at the age of 21), Justin Langley, Jason le Roux, and Claude Oberholzer. The oldest rider is Neville Smith, aged 89.
There are also five woman riders this year – Helen Nicolau, Tamarin Skead, Candice Truda, Benita Palmer, and Bev Jacobs – while Camilla Hyson will be the passenger in Hans Coertse’s 1921 Harley-Davidson sidecar combination. The other sidecar entrant is Brian Lange, who will have Patrick Dacey as the sidecar passenger in his 1928 AJS Big Twin combination.
Martin Davies, a former DJ winner, is Route Director this year, and he says he has tried to stick close to the R103 road route that was used for the race more than 100 years ago.
From the start at 06:00 on Friday, the route takes competitors to refuels in Pietermaritzburg and Mooi River and a lunch stop in Estcourt before an overnight stop in Newcastle. The restart is at 07:00, with the route taking the riders over the Majuba and Laingsnek passes to Volksrust for a refuel. The next refuel is in Standerton, and then there is a lunch stop and final refuel in Balfour. The first competitor is expected to arrive finish at the finish at the Benoni Northerns Sports Club at 14:00.
This year, there are only three previous DJ winners in the field, which is fewer than in recent years. Besides Gavin Walton, there is Mike Ward (1936 Velocette) and Adrian Hollis (1935 Sunbeam Lion sidecar combination). Ward won in 2004 and 2023, while Hollis took first place in 2000.
Gavin Walton has a long and distinguished history in the DJ Rally, beginning in 2005 when he was invited to ride Hugh Hollard’s 1929 Ariel. The DJ bug bit, and he soon bought a 1936 Model 9 side valve 500 cc AJS, which he continues to ride to this day.
He won his first DJ in 2009, and then tragedy struck in 2013 when he was involved in a nasty accident on the way home from that year’s Pre-DJ Rally. He had 11 fractures in his leg and could not ride for a year. He repaired the AJS and rode the 2014 event with a crutch strapped to the motorcycle. He still managed to finish as runner-up.
Gavin Walton had his only DNF (did not finish) in 2015, and then won again in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and last year.
Another enthusiastic DJ Rally competitor is Jaycee van Rooyen, who comes from a motorcycle racing background. His grandfather on his mother’s side was Boet Fereira, a South African champion in the late 1940s and early ’50s riding Norton’s and Velocette, while Jaycee’s dad, Jack, enjoyed speedway racing and later got involved with classic motorcycles and cars.
Jaycee began his involvement in the DJ in 2014 when he rode the 1936 350 cc Ariel Red Hunter his father had ridden in previous DJ Rallies. Jaycee and the Ariel completed eight out of the last 10 DJs, but this year, he has loaned that motorcycle to his friend, Jason le Roux, and will ride a 1929 500 cc Sunbeam.
Another regular DJ competitor who rides a motorcycle previously ridden by his father is Mark Palmer, who uses the 1936 350 cc Royal Enfield his father, Geoff, rode to win the first DJ Commemorative Regularity Rally in 1970. Mark has ridden it in the last four DJ Rallies, with his best placing being 16th in 2023.
The 2025 DJ Rally is organised by a group of people from several Gauteng motorcycle clubs on behalf of the Vintage and Veteran Club of South Africa.
