Harare — ONE of the country's biggest motor racing events, the 2010 AutoX, will roar into life at the home of local motorsport Donnybrook next Saturday.

The event will feature most of the country's top motor rally drivers and it will officially mark the start of the 2010 Zimbabwe motor racing season.

Big Chitima, the vice-chairman of the local rally committee and one of the event's organisers, said yesterday that all is now set for this big motor racing day at Donnybrook. He said next Saturday's event would be an all-day occasion in which they would use Donnybrook's three-way track.

"The AutoX is our season-opener and we will be using the three-way track which accommodates three vehicles at the same time and so far we have got 12 entries.

"And among the country's top rallying drivers who would be competing at this event will the reigning African champion Jamie Whyte, Craig Green, Chase Attwell, Sherwin Evans and myself," Chitima said.

Apart from the motor rally cars, Chitima said they have also lined up a number of motor racing activities that include motor bike racing, go karts for young drivers, car drifting and motocross.

"We are also going to have model aircraft display, sky divers and jumping castles for the kids. Local reggae artist Mic Inity has also expressed an interest to come and perform for the fans at this event.

"So, this is going to be a fun-filled event in which we expect hundreds of local motor racing enthusiasts to attend. In fact, last year's event attracted about 2 000 spectators and we are expecting to double that number at this year's competition," Chitima said.

But it is action in the main AutoX races that is expected to set the scene on fire during next Saturday's big event. AutoX is basically a short rallying section that is more spectator-friendly than the normal motor rallying event.

"The event is not a direct racing competition but it provides spectacular racing scenes for the spectators than the normal motor rallying competition. So, there will be no winner as such but it's going to be a fun-filled day for all the motor racing enthusiasts," said Chitima who added that local motor racing followers, who own pick-up cars, were also invited to take part in next Saturday's event.

"This event gives an opportunity to motor racing funs who have pick-ups to come and race as long as the car has an anti-roll bar and seat belts."