Lots of new faces for this historic event.
Keeping the Classic Bike Wheels turning:
The 2026 Durban-Johannesburg Rally for classic motorcycles has an international flavour with visitors from Australia and India riding this two-day regularity trial for the first time. The famous event, which takes place on March 13-14, has a history stretching back to 1913.
By Roger Houghton
The 2026 event starts from the Hillcrest shopping centre, outside Durban at 06:00 on Friday, March 13 and finishes at the Benoni Northerns Sports Club, in Ekurhuleni, the following afternoon.
If you are in the area, go and check them out it is just so cool!
This year’s rally has attracted an entry of 71 competitors, riding 67 solo motorcycles and four sidecar combinations. What is important for the sustainability of a motorsport event that relies on motorcycles that are at least 90 years old is that there are no fewer than 12 first time entrants in the field this year. Most of them are younger than the regular riders, so it brings down the average age significantly.
There are also three women riders in the field: Jacquie Paster, Benita Palmer and Helen Nicolau, who has just returned from an extensive motorcycle riding holiday in New Zealand.
The Australian entrant is Antony Gullick, who will ride a 1913 500 cc Rudge loaned to him by Brandon Jarvis.
The other foreign entry is Adhip Iyer, of India. He will ride a 1934 500 cc Sunbeam loaned to him by Martin Kaiser who finished third overall on the 2025 DJ Rally riding this motorcycle. Iyer is a lawyer, film producer and entrepreneur who is passionate about motorcycles and has ridden them extensively in India, the United States, United Kingdom and Thailand. He says he always wanted to visit South Africa and is delighted that he can ride a scenic DJ Rally route on a vintage motorcycle to make his visit even more special
Kaiser has also loaned his 1929 Sunbeam to another first time rider, Jason le Roux.
Kaiser has taken a break this year from competing in the DJ and has joined the organising team to see how that side of the famous rally functions. He is assistant clerk of the course to Leo Middelberg, a former DJ Rally winner, who has taken up the role of Clerk of the Course for the second time, having previously held this position in 2023
A new milestone for this event will be set when three generations of the Otto family set off from Hillcrest. Father Andre Snr with ride a 1930 700 cc BSA with a sidecar, in which his grandchildren, Jaundre and Xander will each spend a day helping their grandfather stay on route and on time while Andre Jnr will ride a 1934 500 cc BSA.
Gavin Walton, of Springs, will be aiming for his eighth DJ Rally win when he sets out from this start of this year’s event, having won in 2009, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2025. He will again be astride his trusty 1936 500 cc AJS. Other former winners in the 2026 DJ Rally are Mike Ward, who will ride a 1935 500 cc Velocette, and Alan Cunningham, who is also on a Velocette, a 1936 model.
This year’s event, which commemorates the road race between Durban and Johannesburg, held each year from 1913-1936, except for the period between 1915 and 1918 when the First World War raged. This 2026 DJ Rally is the 54th of these commemorative 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 the event the competing motorcycles must have been made before 1937.
Major sponsors of this year’s DJ Rally are Motul Classic Oil and Paysure Insurance Brokers.
The extract below, taken from the 1927 programme, captures the atmosphere, excitement and interest in the race since its inception fifteen years earlier.
“The romance of half a hundred speedmen pounding hot engines over the rugged 400 miles separating the coast from South Africa’s greatest metropolis has gripped the imagination of sportsmen all the world over. The Durban-Johannesburg motorcycle race has come to rank as one of the Empire’s classic events; local enthusiasts go mad over it, the race is “splashed” in the South African press and the English periodicals wax enthusiastic. The race was born in 1913 when Captain HN Lloyd organised it and the winner is awarded the famous Schlesinger Vase, a silver trophy costing 125 pounds.”
