Rumbling through the foothills surrounding Nelspruit the South African Rally Championship wound its way to the township of Daantje outside kaNyamazane. With grey clouds laden with rain and daylight fast sinking below the horizon, the thundering cars brought all to a standstill. School children, teenagers and adults alike lined the penultimate stage of the 2011 SASOL Rally for famous kaNyamazane Stage (SS16) on Saturday 15 April. What were the rally crews doing lined up and waiting to attack a 940m-long stage in the heart of Daantje?
Of the three national events that have taken place thus far in 2011, the SASOL Rally proved the best organised in this journalist’s opinion. At this stage, with its safety barriers, advertising banners, marshals, spectators, media and team members, it struck me at the complexity and nature of this particular stage. This speed test, looking on the spectator guide, seemed out of place, but standing roadside the reasoning for its inclusion became very clear.
After a gruelling fifteen previous stages, the biggest smiling rally fans in South Africa besieged the remaining SASOL Rally competitors as they waited for their start time for the tarmac stage.
This is down to two aspects I could assess that are as intertwined as any schoolyard tongue-twister: 1) SASOL incorporated this stage into their event to bring the sport of rallying to a greater audience and to further uplift the immediate community through CSI projects; and, 2) Nelspruit and surrounds exude a car culture reaching levels of obsession I’ve not experienced anywhere else in South Africa.
“The people were very happy; they were thrilled, and it’s exciting,” said Michael Sherman, a resident of the area and a United States Peace Corp volunteer, when speaking of his first rally experience. “Cars are fun, and rallying is especially so. Its great the organisers brought the event here. It is another big event in the area; this event is a big deal here.”
Motorsport South Africa’s (MSA) CEO Francois Pretorius commented on the relevance of the kaNyamazane Stage: “This is the best way to do it: the youth need to be exposed to this sport and to motorsport in general. We need to take it the greater South African nation, and rallying is the perfect way to achieve this.”
It is all very well to bring the sport to wider audiences, but it needs to pique their interest, and on this Pretorius added: “This sport is sexy, and we need the youth to see that. Through exposure we want to get the petrol into their veins, to give them a “petrol injection,” to grow motorsport in the next generation. This stage creates that link.”
Sherman is in a unique position to comment on the impact of the event, as he is truly an outsider looking in. Working for the United States Peace Corp as a volunteer teacher in South Africa for the past eleven months, it was Sherman’s first SASOL Rally experience and his first rally in fact.
“Its great to see the gap between people and the organisers close when you see that stage,” added Sherman. “It seemed natural for the organisers to stage the course here, as the people’s interest in the event is great.”
There’s no better voice than Sherman’s. The rally action has caught his imagination (and you can read about it on his blog at: http://pcsa.michaelwsherman.com/), and he will most definitely attend more rallies. On a community level, an insider shall we say, who better to offer insight into this area than a teaching volunteer specially placed in kaNyamazane to uplift the local community? The United States Peace Corp this year celebrates their 50th anniversary, boasts a 7,000-strong force of volunteers in 70 countries of which there are 150 in South Africa. Sherman is teaching Science, Maths and offers I.T. support to the school he is assigned to, and leads various community projects set up by the United States Peace Corp.
Education is the common denominator SASOL, MSA and Sherman all share. It is at the core of SASOL’s drive to facilitate the inclusion of this particular stage into their event. “It was key for SASOL to expose as many people to the sport of rally,” said Ziyanda Makiwane, Community Affairs Practitioner at SASOL. “We then embarked on a journey along with MSA and various stakeholders to identify an additional township-based stage. Factors that were considered in selecting this stage were that this stage had to fit the flow of the SASOL Rally programme leading into the next stage. It also had to adhere to the high safety standards for both spectators and competitors. Having taken these requirements into consideration, kaNyamazane became a natural fit, because the street next to Ncakini School is in a perfect location and condition to adhere to these requirements. It didn’t end there for SASOL, as this was also an opportunity for the company to make a further contribution to the upliftment of the people residing in the close proximity of the stage. We donated computer equipment to Ncakini School and also handed out hampers to the pupils.”
MSA’s Pretorius takes this education link one step further: “In a move like this, it also introduces technology: at a technical level, it is a perfect illustration of what Maths and Science can do and where it can lead to.”
Engineers, car designers, scientists, aerodynamicists, drivers and co-drivers: the likes of M-Sport, Prodrive, McLaren, Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota and Subaru may yet have its first employee from kaNyamazane. With the exposure and effort of SASOL to reach out to the community in this way, for this one stage, the future growth and sustainability of not only the sport but also the fields of education are enriched.
Looking at the stage times, and making the kaNayamazane stage all the more poetic was that Jon Williams/Cobus Very (Team SASOL Ford Fiesta S2000) set the fastest time. Rallying is also a sport for the people, and this initiative is one way of taking the sport and motorsport in general to newer fans, audiences and heights.
