Cape Town’s ‘Boksie’ crowned spin king

Chadwin “Boksie” Hadjie, 23, from Eerste River, impressed the crowd and the judges to claim his first Red Bull Shay’iMoto title, at Century City at the weekend.

It was a case of third time lucky for Hadjie as he had given it a go on two previous occasions.

However, luck had nothing to do with it on Saturday, as Hadjie executed a series of awe-inspiring high risk technical manoeuvres with pin-point precision.

Following its hiatus in 2023, the event, recognised as the pinnacle of organised spinning events in the country, returned in 2024 and was hosted in Cape Town for the very first time.

The specially created venue in the car park of Canal Walk was sold out and saw a record-breaking 3 300 people fill the grandstands. The Mother City motorsport faithful were not disappointed and witnessed some amazing feats of car-handling and driving theatre through the specially designed course.

The country’s top 16 drivers gathered on Friday March 15 for qualifying rounds which saw the field whittled down to the top eight.

These eight battled it out, all showing exceptional car control, technical skills, and flair.

In the end, Boksie left the four judges, Vernon “Veejaro” Hendricks, Jeff James, Magesh Ndaba and Shahiem Bell, and the audience - who as a collective acted as the fifth judge using specially-coloured LED wristbands to vote - on the edge of their seats as he outclassed the two-time defending champ, Samkeliso “Sam Sam” Thubane with some amazing feats in the final battle.

“This is the most amazing feeling,” said Hadjie, who finished runner-up in 2021. “I’ve been fighting hard over the past few years and finally the win has come,” he said.

“When we started the qualifying rounds on Friday, I more or less knew exactly what the people wanted,” he said.