26 Feb Wayne on the Jarman on the D-J

This year’s annual Durban-Johannesburg regularity rally for motorcycles made before 1936 has attracted an entry of more than 100 riders. The event will start at 06H00 on Friday 11 March from the Hillcrest Corner Shopping Mall, outside Durban, and finish at the Benoni Northern Sports Club, Northmead, Benoni the following afternoon after an overnight stop in Newcastle.

The route of 700 km from Durban to the Witwatersrand is similar to that followed when this event was a road race on public roads between 1913 and 1936. The big drawcards for DJ Rally spectators this year – as it was in 2020 – will be the participation of the Binder brothers, Brad and Darryn, who are both riding in the world championship MotoGP this year. They will ride with their father, Trevor, a keen classic motorcyclist and regular on the DJ Rally. He will ride his favourite 1925 600 cc Indian, while Brad will be mounted on a 1935 500cc Sunbeam and Darryn on a 1936 500cc Ariel. There are only three women on the entry list this year, being Stephanie Meyer, who will ride a 1932 250cc Royal Enfield, Bev Jacobs, a regular entrant, on a 1935 250cc Triumph, and Annel Hertog, who has entered a 1934 500cc Norton.

And adding to the occasion, Wayne Harley will be on the run riding FMM’s 1926 AJS that was converted from a G3 to G6 specification by Cranley Jarman, who then drove the bike to win the last pukka D-J Run in 1936 at an average speed of 90,37 km/h. Wayne is busy preparing the bike and a report of his adventure will be in next month’s newsletter.

“We are delighted with the good response we have had from competitors, making this one of the biggest fields in recent years, which is a fitting tribute to the 50-year history of the D-J Rally,” commented Clerk of the Course Hylton Allison.