ILLEGAL drag racing that left three people dead in Pretoria just more than a week ago has prompted the Tshwane municipality to engage with Motorsport South Africa in a possible move to legalise the fast-growing sport.

After a consultative meeting with Motorsport South Africa head Francois Pretorius yesterday, Tshwane mayor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said drag racing was growing in the city and "the only way to deal with it was to establish a designated area for the sport".

He said they were looking at designating a road for this purpose at regulated intervals. Alternatively, the city might donate a piece of land and put up proper infrastructure for drag racing as a long-term solution.

Ramokgopa said besides preventing tragedies, formalising the sport had the potential of being an economic spin-off for the municipality.

"We have realised that people love drag racing and felt it was important to engage Motorsport South Africa for expertise and guidance on how best to deal with the problem," he said.

The mayor said they would engage with all stakeholders because the danger of enforcing the law and not coming up with alternatives was that "these guys would just go underground and it would be difficult to police".

Officials from the city's transport, road, safety and economic development departments, led by Motorsport South Africa, have been assembled to explore ways to formalise drag racing.

The team is expected to report back in two weeks.

"We are including economic development because this is a precious opportunity for us to turn what is, in fact, a challenge into an economic spin-off," Ramokgopa added.