With two privateers heading the points standings after the first two rounds of the South African rally championship, this weekend’s HMC Hencom Autobody Rally in the Witbank and Bronkhorstspruit areas of Mpumalanga will see a serious onslaught by the factory teams from Toyota and Volkswagen.
Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach currently tops the drivers’ championship standings after the first two rounds in a Super 2000 G-Fuel Ford Fiesta after winning the opening round with French co-driver Nicolas Klinger and finishing third in the recent Sasol Rally a month ago. But it was the dominant manner in which the two factory S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris cars of Leeroy Poulter and Johnny Gemmell took the top two places in the Lowveld that will have the former World Junior Rally Championship contender needing to bring his A game to the contest. A 10th place for Gemmell and a non-finish for Poulter in the opening event see the Toyota drivers in third and seventh overall in the championship.
Second in the drivers’ championship after two steady if unspectacular performances to date is Team Total’s Jean-Pierre Damseaux in a well-worn Toyota RunX. Thanks to the fact that Rautenbach’s co-driver does not have a South African competition license, Damseaux’s co-driver Carolyn Swan finds herself in the lead of this championship.
Rautenbach and Damseaux can also expect stiff competition from the four factory BP Volkswagen Polos in the hands of former national champions Hergen Fekken and Jan Habig, defending champion Enzo Kuun and 2009 Dakar Rally champion Giniel de Villiers, competing in his third rally for the Uitenhage-based manufacturer. Fekken’s co-driver Pierre Arries is second in the co-drivers’ championship and is followed by Gemmell’s Scottish co-driver Drew Sturrock.
The VW’s didn’t feature well in the final results of the Sasol Rally, with Fekken and co-driver Pierre Arries the only ones to make the top 10, but the fact of the matter is that Jan Habig and Robert Paisley were leading eventual winner Poulter and team-mate Gemmell when they were eliminated by a spectacular roll on the 12th of the 17 special stages. It was the six-times national champion’s first major crash in 14 years and, like a wounded buffalo, he will not be a person to be trifled with this weekend.
The well-supported Super 2000 class for four-wheel drive two-litre cars is again expected to deliver top quality gravel road racing with all the high-speed action that the fans have come to expect. Also in the 18-car field in the premier class are three more very competitive Ford Fiestas. Two Sasol-backed cars are in the hands of Mark Cronje and Jon Williams, with Cronje setting the pace in both events held so far, but only managing a best result of fifth on the Sasol Rally to date. Charl Wilken has made a conservative start to the season in the Basil Read/bizhub Fiesta and will be looking to improve his eighth place in the championship.
Other S2000 privateers to look out for this weekend include Damseaux’s team-mate Mohammed Moosa in a Toyota RunX, Nicholas Ryan and Japie van Niekerk in VW Polos and the Partech Peugeot 207’s of Hein Lategan and Visser du Plessis, with the Peugeots still to make their mark in their first season in South African rallying
Early leaders in the junior drivers’ championship (contested by the Super 1600 and Super 1400 classes) are the brother and sister combination of Christoff and Celeste Snyders (S1600 Sabertek VW Polo) after a third and a win to date. They are only four points clear of former champion Craig Trott and Robbie Coetzee (Team Total Toyota RunX) and both can expect a tough challenge from the likes of Ashley Haigh Smith/ Hilton Auffray (React Ford Fiesta), who won the opening round but failed to finish the Sasol Rally, and Tjaart Conradie/Kesevan Naidoo (Silverton Engineering Toyota Auris), second in round one and also non-finishers four weeks ago.
A depleted Super 1400 class looks to be a shoot-out between joint leaders Megan Verlaque and Lirene du Plessis (BP VW Polo) and Henk Lategan/Christo Ackerman (Q8 Oils VW Polo), both of whom have failed to finish one event so far. Hoping to break up the party will be Dolf Coetzee and Jacques Nel in a Toyota Tazz.
The HMC Hencom Autobody Rally starts from the Portuguese Club in Emalahleni (Witbank) at 12:00 on Friday, 13 May and finishes at the same venue on Saturday, 14 May with the first car expected at 15.20.
The event is being organised by the Highveld Motor Club and will consist of 11 special stages covering some 180 kilometres. Friday’s action will consist of three stages in the Witbank area with a total stage distance of around 45 km.
The first car will leave the Portuguese Club in Mandela Street at 07:30 on Saturday to tackle two gravel stages in the Witbank area followed by five more gravel stages in the Bronkhorstspruit area before returning to Witbank for the final stage opposite the Portuguese Club and rally headquarters.
