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Who was Marius Joubert Bester? Marius was always the man in the background, the person nobody saw or cared to take note of, but without him your event failed as without exception when Marius Bester committed to anything he never backed out!


Marius and Leatitia Bester were founder members of the West Coast affiliation of the Witzenberg Motorklub, formed part of the small nucleas of roughly ten teams that would see the Witzenberg Motorklub dominate the Pop’s Robert Interclub Championship for 12 consecutive years in anything from the family Toyota Corolla Sprinter 1600 to the Mazda Capella which he shared with Michiel “Boetie” Visser on Western Province Rallies.


In 1999 the Witzenberg Motorklub Gymkhana Championship started with the 1st Subaru Tygerberg Club Mykonos Gymkhana and Marius became the “sound” of WBMK Gymkhana events with his Unicom Services Team and then he would share Commentary duties with the likes of Pieter “Swannie” Swanepoel and Neel Rabe. There were the occasional appearances of the Unicom Services Toyota Caddy 1.3 complete with ladder mounted on the roof!


SAAF qualified in Telecommunication he would start Silhouette Disco in Vredenburg before progressing into Unicom Services Vredenburg. His love for motorsport continued and the Silhouette Gymkhana in Abbattoir Street was quite a success. Up until his untimely passing Marius provided the PA system for the West Coast Oval Track and he was a popular member of the Commentary team.


Marius lived for his family and was extremely proud of his daughters Maryke and Dané and in Leatitia he had rock solid support through the many ups and downs that life threw at them.


Motorsport lost a pillar and we lost a great friend when he closed his eyes for the final time on 21 December 2025 at the young age of just 61.


We will miss you Marius!

Published by: Patrick Vermaak

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