Youngsters' dream to race in World GP comes true.

One of the world's leading GP motorcycle teams, Antena 3 Yamaha D'Antin, has offered a 17-year old South African motorcycle rider, Jonathan van Vuuren, a ride at the World Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phakisa Freeway from 20-22 April 2001.

At exactly 12:30 on Sunday 22 April, Van Vuuren will line up on the grid alongside the 30 best of the best in the world of motorcycle racing for the ride of his life.

At the age of 14, Van Vuuren, a matric pupil at Gymnasium High School in Welkom, became the youngest ever 250cc road racer in South Africa. Only 2 years later he became the Phakisa Sports Bike champion. The Phakisa Sports Bike class consists of a standard 250cc machine with a maximum of 60hp allowed and Van Vuuren holds the lap record for his class in a time of 1m50sec on a standard 250cc NSR MC21. A 250cc motorcycle has anything between 100 and 105hp. Van Vuuren has been showing great form lately by winning four MSS 250 cc races at Phakisa Freeway and Kyalami recently.

From a local club champion to a world class competitor, Van Vuuren will find him in the midst of big names like Dajiro Katoh and Emilio Alzamora (Axo Honda Gresini), Marco Melandri and Tetsuya Harada (Ms Aprilia Racing), Roberto Locatelli and Franco Battiaini (Eurobet Team Battaini), Anthony West (TBA), Jeremy Williams (Umoto), Klaus Nohles (Aprilia Gery) and Alexander Hofmann (Racing Factory).

Van Vuuren will be riding on the D'Antin's Yamaha TZ 250 M, and as such will have full team support and spares available at the Grand Prix. He will share the pits with other D'Antin riders like the Spaniards David De Gea and Lucas Oliver Bulto (250 cc), and the Japanese, Norick Abe (500 cc).

Team support comes at a price and for this Van Vuuren and his father, Andy, had to work really hard to get a sponsor. A Johannesburg-based outsourcing company, called Privest, who believes in the right skills, in the right place at the right time, secured Jonathan's ride.

Van Vuuren's dream to ride in the GP was fuelled when Bobby Hartslief, Chief Executive Officer of Phakisa Major Sport Events, promised the winner of the 2000 Phakisa Sport Bike championship a ride in the 2001 MotoGP at Phakisa.

This will also be the first time in the history of the Free State that a local rider competes in the World Motorcycle Grand Prix. The Free Staters, especially school kids, will surely rally behind their only idol in the pinnacle of motorcycle racing in the world.

This unassuming, slightly-shy matric pupil, says: "No words can describe my joy. The sponsors was God-sent. I receive so much support from the other Phakisa Sports Bikes riders, my family and without any of them I would never have been able to race among the best riders in the world. My main aim is to just qualify for the race and be on the starting grid at 12:30 on Sunday, 22 April - which I will definitely do."