Round four of the South African National Rally Championship sees the BP Volkswagen Rally Team in competition in Gauteng on Friday and Saturday, 10 and 11 June.
The BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S2000 rally cars will take on the competition in the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng as the teams seeks to amass the points needed to challenge for the 2011 national title. At this point Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries are the leading pair of the quartet of BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S2000s.
Fekken and Arries are in third place overall in the national standings after the first three rounds of the season, 22 points off the leaders. A rally victory is worth 25 points so the duo is well-placed on the leaderboard and a real threat to both Conrad Rautenbach and Johnny Gemmell in first and second place.
Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson find themselves in sixth place at this point in the season – 29 points off the leaders – and looking to put in a good performance in Gauteng. Kuun and Hodgson had a few problems at the last outing and will be looking for a return to form at this event.
With a strong showing at round four of the season, they will be well-placed come their home event, the Volkswagen Rally, to be a real threat to the frontrunners.
Jan Habig and Robert Paisley are currently in eighth place overall – but this is hardly a reflection of their performance this season. Habig and Paisley have finished strongly in both the first and third rally this season. It was an accident in round two – the Sasol Rally – that has cost them dearly in points.
Despite that accident the pair made a strong return at round three – and are expected to deliver a similar performance in round four at the Gauteng event.
For Giniel de Viliers and Ralph Pitchford the learning process continues when they tackle the nine stage event. With a total stage distance of 190 kilometres the pair will be working on their in-car communication, planning and strategy. While still in the learning stages of their rally campaign and driving conservatively, the pair are a creditable 10th place overall in the standings.
That spot is also 36 points off the top-placed team in the championship so De Villiers can, should he decide to start pushing during the second half of the season, still produce a very strong result for his first season in South African rallying.
Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin will tackle class S1600 for the second time this season after swopping from the A7 category from round three. Zulu and Peskin competed in the A7 category for the first two rounds before making the move from round three to the new class. With the A7 category being removed from the national list of classes from 2012 the pair have made the change to the new class now and are working on their reliability and pace for the coming year.
The development team of Megan Verlaque and Lirene du Plessis move into their fourth rally of the year together in their BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S1400. Verlaque and Du Plessis are slowly finding their feet – both as a team and in the class and BP Volkswagen rally car. Despite these challenges the duo currently lead their class.
The BP Volkswagen Rally Team will be aiming for the maximum possible haul of points at the event – and will be working hard to get them. This will guarantee an action-packed rally to thrill motorsport fans.