In a country which often crushes the dreams of its youth, it is heartening and uplifting to read our story on Monday about the touching encounter between motorcycling star Brad Binder and 14-year-old up-and-coming racer Oratile (Ora) Phiri.
Binder has brought honour to his home country, South Africa, through his triumphs in the MotoGP series in its various formats across the world.
And when he was asked to help make Ora’s dream come true of meeting his global MotoGP hero, the humble Binder agreed at once.
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As someone like Ora, who cut his teeth in motor racing at a young age, Binder is always willing to “pay it forward” by encouraging youngsters to follow in his tyre smoke.
The meeting between the two, facilitated by Checkers Sixty60 at Redstar Raceway in Delmas, was a total surprise to Ora, as was the invitation from Binder to go lay down a few laps, which the duo duly did.
While one might call the whole thing a great publicity stunt for Checkers and Binder, we would like to think the racer and the company were going above and beyond to serve their country in creating a great, positive sports story amid the national gloom.
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