In the South African language of Sesotho, or Southern Sotho, Phakisa means hurry up or to get moving.

It's a most appropriate name for a race track, and for two young American racers, Marc Davis and Tiff Daniels, a word they won't soon forget.

Daniels and Davis

“

It was hard to get work done sometimes; it was kind of like we were movie stars.

”

-- TIFF DANIELS

During NASCAR's offseason, both Davis and Daniels, among several other American drivers, were invited by ASA Racing and officials in South Africa to compete in the country's first stock-car race on an oval at Phakisa Freeway Circuit located southwest of Johannesburg.

Or Jo-berg, as Daniels calls it.

In the span of just seven days, the racers were submerged in the local culture, subjected to the weak points of the area's transportation systems and survived their first safari. As if that wasn't enough for the itinerary, they learned some very interesting ways to run a race.

Recalling the stories of her trip, it's hard for Daniels to find a place to begin.

"So much, so many things happened. I mean the travel was pretty disastrous. We broke down on the side of the road a lot. The first night we stayed in a Cheetah reserve with wild animals everywhere. We liked to tip the bus drivers to race each other on back roads. That was exciting. But race day was not without incident or entertainment either," said Daniels, an engineer at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and driver who campaigned one of the Marc Davis Racing entries in the 207-lap event.

A 1.5-mile track, Phakisa Freeway Circuit, a fairly new multipurpose facility used primarily for road-course racing, is reminiscent of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, although Phakisa was lacking one main safety implementation.

Daniels said the at-track experience was like walking into a Sprint cup garage; however, one noticeable difference to the D-shaped oval was the lack of a continuous inside wall.

"The track was in good shape, but there was only a partial inside wall and it had pretty dangerous breaks so we made an inside wall with Jersey Barriers. It was the best we had, not exactly safe wall technology, but it was safer. We also used our container ships," she said.

Container ships, like the ones you would see on a cargo vessel, were used to transport both Marc Davis Racing stock cars, along with a limited amount of tools, to South Africa. (Continued)