01/09/2026
Home grown
Border Motorsport - East London Grand Prix Circuit
Jody Scheckter, the East London-born racer who became Africa’s first Formula 1 world champion in 1979 with Ferrari, clocked up ten Grand Prix wins, three poles and 33 podiums across a career that took him from McLaren and Tyrrell to Wolf and the famous six-wheeled P34. After hanging up his helmet at the end of 1980 he turned his attention to business, founding Fi****ms Training Systems in 1984. The firm specialised in high-tech simulators used by military, police and security outfits, and by the early 1990s its turnover had already sailed past the £100 million mark.
In July 1996 Scheckter sold his stake for roughly $151 million about R665 million at the time. Adjusted purely for inflation that figure climbs to R3.33 billion in today’s money, though a straight currency conversion would put it closer to R2.4 billion. The family then settled in the UK, where he poured part of the proceeds into the 2 500-acre Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire, aiming to produce organic food on what became the country’s largest buffalo dairy herd. The farm never turned a profit, and now in his mid-seventies Scheckter is offering the whole estate for £58 million, or individual lots from £8 million. Some will see the original security company exit as a textbook example of timing the market, while others may wonder whether the later farming venture simply proved how hard it is to turn passion projects into reliable businesses.
