DHRT takes on the Fix-A-Smash All Tar Rally 2010

Story: Divan de Goede
Pictures: Frank Pey and Eric Josephs

With a successful 2010 FIFA Football World Cup now in the history books, it is once again time to fire up the rally cars for some action. The fifth round of the 2010 Western Cape Regional Rally Championship will be the CCMCC Fix-a-Smash All Tar Rally.

With most of the competitors last seeing action at the React Rally in early May, the rally crews will be relishing the opportunity to drive their cars in anger once more.

The long break gave all the crews enough time to repair their cars’ battle wounds and prepare the vehicles for the remaining three rallies on the calendar.

This break also gave DHRT the opportunity to correct some issues on the car, such as fragile engine mounts and suspension top hats. The Corolla’s standard five-speed gearbox was also rebuilt, only requiring minor attention. It is actually quite astounding the amount of punishment this gearbox can take, doing what it clearly wasn’t intended for. Other than this, our ultra-reliable Toyota Corolla N2 only required a normal service and lowering of the ride height to prepare for the upcoming rally.

The rally will once again be based at the Killarney Motorsport Complex, spreading over the Saturday and Sunday.

The rally will start at 14h00, with the Saturday’s final stages being run during the night. DHRT understands that the night stage will be a very technical stage that should add to the challenge of this rally.

Another feature of the All Tar Rally is that it is not only open to the rally crews, but also allows teams from other categories such as the GTi Challenge, Clubmans and even Motards to compete on the stages. This should add to the drama, and hopefully boost rally’s image at the same time.

DHRT is once again entered into the very competitive Class S3, which will also see the return of Richard Behm in the Mike Nathan Class A6 Toyota Corolla.

The team will also be relaying their stage times and speeds real-time using the SportsTracker program. We will be testing it at the All Tar Rally and the data will, if successful, be relayed to our Facebook Page (DH Rally Team) and Twitter (divanrally). If successful, the team will be using this program on all future rallies.

DHRT would like to thank the following companies for their support: Saldanha Truck and Marine Centre, 4 Wheel Alignment, JD Motorsport and Speedy Vredenburg.