The 2011 South African Rally Championship gets underway this weekend with the Total Tour Natal Rally on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast and all the indications are that it will be a particularly exciting and closely contested season. With at least 12 drivers in four different brands of premier class S2000 four-wheel drive cars capable of winning, the fans are in for a bumper series of eight events in five provinces.
Heading the strong 18-car entry in S2000 are the factory BP Volkswagen Polo Vivos of defending champions Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson, former champions Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries, 2005 and 2007 champion driver Jan Habig and new co-driver Robert Paisley, and new team members Giniel de Villiers and Ralph Pitchford. De Villiers, a former national off road champion and winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally in a Volkswagen Race Touareg, is making his rally debut, while Pitchford returns for a second year after navigating for Habig last year.
The strong BP Volkswagen line-up, with six consecutive championships between them, can expect a serious challenge from the Castrol Toyota factory team, which will be looking to regain the championship they last won in 2004 with the now retired Serge Damseaux.
Carrying Team Castrol Toyota’s hopes are Johnny Gemmell and Scotsman Drew Sturrock (Auris) and Leeroy Poulter and new navigator Elvene Coetzee (Auris). Also in Toyotas are Team Total privateers Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Carolyn Swan (RunX) and Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin (RunX).
The Ford challenge has been boosted to four privateer S2000 Fiestas with the addition of the new Sasol team of Mark Cronje/Robin Houghton and Jon Williams/Cobus Vrey. They will be up against the returning Ford of Zimbabweans Conrad Rautenbach/Peter Marsh (G-Fuel Fiesta) and Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich (Basil Read/Bizhub Fiesta).
Making their debut in South African rallying are two Peugeot 207s, which will be campaigned by the Pirtek team of Hein Lategan/Johan van der Merwe and Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman.
Privateer Volkswagen Polos will be in the hands of Nicholas Ryan/Geoff Tyrer and Japie van Niekerk/Dave Lewkowicz. Sebastiaan Klaassen and Cindi Harding will be in a lone Subaru Impreza, which formerly competed in the now defunct class N4.
This year sees the phasing out of classes A7 and N3 as a result of rising costs and falling entries, while the popular class A6 will become Super1600 and incorporate N3 entries for 2011 only. Class A5 becomes Super1400.
Reigning champion Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin (BP Volkswagen Polo) will do battle in A7 with Rocky Reyneke and Christo Ackerman in another Volkswagen Polo.
Super1600 promises to be a closely-fought battle ground with former champion Craig Trott back with co-driver Robbie Coetzee in a Team Total Toyota RunX, Tjaart Conradie and Kes Naidoo (Silverton Engineering Toyota Auris) and Ashley Haigh-Smith/Hilton Auffray in a brand new Ford Fiesta likely to be strong contenders. Making their debut appearance for Team Total is the all-woman crew of Stefanie Hugo and Angela Shields (Toyota RunX).
Another all-woman crew in the form of Megan Verlaque and Lirene du Plessis will contest Super 1400 in a BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo, with competition coming from Henk Lategan/Pierre Jordaan in another Polo and Ian Young/Herman Groenewald in an Associated Alterations Toyota Yaris.
The 39-car field is completed by seven KwaZulu Natal regional crews competing in class S20.
Organised by the Natal Motorcycle and Car Club, the Total Tour Natal will comprise 14 special stages over a total distance of some 161 km over the two days. The rally will start at 13:30 on Friday, 25 March from the Arbour Crossing Shopping Centre in Amanzimtoti, 30 km south of Durban. The first day will consist of four short South Coast gravel stages followed by a tarmac stage in the Arbour Crossing Shopping Centre car park.
The action gets underway again at 07:00 on Saturday, 26 March with four gravel stages on the South Coast, all of which will be repeated before the day ends with a second run through the Arbour Crossing tarmac stage. The rally is expected to finish at around 16.00 and the podium ceremony and prize giving will take place at 17.30.
– Credit: www.sarallying.co.za