South African ready to rally

Monday, 28 March 2011 14:00

There’s not been a South African Rally Championship season more exciting than this years.

Making this year’s Championship all the more thrilling, the fact that over 17 S2000 cars will take to the start line in KwaZulu-Natal this weekend to tackle the sugarcane field stages along the South Coast. With a host of former champions in these S2000 machines, and a bevy of former and defending Class champions added to the entry list, rally fans are in a fantastic spectacle this weekend.

KwaZulu-Natal’s rally stages are regarded as of the best in South Africa, and having attended numerous events in this region, I can attest to that. The slippery roads, lined by the sugarcane fields, also give this tight and twisty event a high rate of attrition. After a little over four months break from rallying, teams and crews will need to reign in their enthusiam over the first few competitive kilometres if they are to reach the final finish on Satuday afternoon unscathed by the long arms of the sugarcane fields and slippery off-camber corners.

Without a steering wheel turned in anger this season, HANDBRAKES & HAIRPINS is hesitant to put its (last) money on a winner here this weekend. The formidable factory teams from Volkswagen and Toyota will need to be ever more conscious of the threat from the Ford privateers in the top flight Class S2000. This is echoed in Class S1600 (formerly A6) too.

Entering the rally scene with a storng driver line-up is the Sasol Rally Team (featured in last week’s issue, #174). Mark Cronje and Jon Williams, and their Ford Fiesta S2000s, will be a force to be reckoned with, as will the re-invigorated Conrad Rautenbach (who signed IRC champion co-driver Nicolas Klinger) to his campaign.

Factory drivers Jan Habig, Enzo Kuun, Hergen Fekken (all three in BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S2000s), Johnny Gemmell and Leeroy Poulter (Castrol Toyota Auris S2000s) will most certainly be gunning for victory. And we have only covered half of the S2000 entrants!

Lower Classes, but by no means lesser competitors, will see the debut season of the new S1600 Class. Watch out for these 11 rockets as they rip through the stages.

The Total Tour Natal Rally, the first of eight in the Championship, will be a closely fought affair. Place your bets now, rally fans! By Evan Rothman

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