The race car champion affectionately known as the Prince of the Eastern Cape visits Grahamstown almost every weekend.
The race car champion affectionately known as the Prince of the Eastern Cape visits Grahamstown almost every weekend.
Batshobonke "Tschops" Sipuka may live in Port Elizabeth, but he regularly comes to the recently re-opened Engen garage on Beaufort Street.
He isn't here to fill up his Engen Extreme Perimoss Racing Team car, however.
Sipuka is the managing director of the Engen service station and has been involved in the business since July last year.
Grocott's Mail caught up with the man who was the first black driver to win the Engen VW Cup South African championship (in 2002 and 2003) and heard about his recipe for success and hopes for the future.
From the rural Transkei town of Qumbu, Sipuka has branched out to break racing records, own a clothing line and still somehow stay grounded and based in the Eastern Cape.
"The clothing line is just a structure to assist charities and under-privileged communities," he explained, "and it has not really got the attention it deserves but I do believe it will one day be able to support a substantial number of activities."
He says the road to success in his line of work has its ups and downs like any other.
"It has its own fair share of challenges just like any other space in life, and one has to keep improving and soldiering on," he said.
"It’s imperative to be grounded and besides, I come from a very humble background with galvanised family and Christian values."
According to Sipuka, life is a continuous cycle of challenges and for what it’s worth it will continue to be like that.
"But what we should strive for is to overcome some of those obstacles because every day we wake up God gives us a chance to improve our yesterday. We therefore have to improve what we have because it is what we have."
Sipuka says people should have more self confidence and acknowledge what blessings they do have in order to propel themselves forward in life.
"We ought to pray more for our country," he added.
So what's around the bend for Sipuka? "Perhaps racing the 24 hours of Le Mans [ an endurance race in France] representing South Africa on the international platform."
