For many of us, knowledge of the Kyalami 9 Hour has come through second-hand information passed on to us by our parents or grandparents. But all that has now changed, with the famed event returning to the track this past weekend. When photographer Douglas Abbot mentioned he’d be there, we pulled out a shoebox full of images from the 1960 and ʼ70s and briefed him to shoot images in the same way; the idea was to show us where the race took place and what the vibe was like rather than just taking a whole lot of the usual closely cropped images of cars. We told him to hop on his bicycle and ride around the track, snapping images from behind the fences and sneaking some behind-the-scenes pit shots. “Just pretend you are your dad and you’d bunked school to see the action and record it with a point-and-shoot camera.” He did so – although in digital format – and explored Kyalami through the practice days and into the rain-soaked race night.