Luki Botha

16/1/1930 - 17/10/2006

Record updated 16-Jan-23

Lukas Johannes Botha was born in born in Tswane (formerly Pretoria), Gauteng, South Africa. He made his single-seater debut in 1966 at the end of season Rhodesian Grand Prix, finishing second in his Brabham BT11 behind Bob Anderson's similar car.

Less than three weeks later in January 1967 he made his one and only Grand Prix appearance at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami. Driving his privately entered Brabham BT11-Climax, the engine died at the start and he was already a lap down before he could get it going. He ended up in 8th place in a race of attrition but unfortunately was unclassified as he was 20 laps down on the winning Cooper T81 Maserati of Pedro Rodriquez.

He swapped the Climax with a Repco engine and with increased competitiveness he finished third behind Charlton and Love in the Rand Autumn Trophy at Kyalami.

However, though he showed a fair turn of speed, he made a number of mistakes in the next few races which culminated in another crash in a race at Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, in Mozambique, which killed eight spectators.

Botha escaped personal injury and though most sources say that he never raced again, he did compete in the South African Sports Car Championship in 1968 driving an Elva Porsche. In fact he won the first race since his accident, the Bulawayo 100 on the 5th May. However he did call it quits at the end of the year.

He later worked as an engineer for East London council.



historicracing.com