2011 South African National Rally Championship

[Bruce D]

Thought I'd start a new thread to keep up with the news for next season as well as what we know at this stage.

A more defined calendar has been published now so I'll start with that:

Calendar

25 - 26 March - Total Tour Natal Rally
15 - 17 April - Sasol Rally (African Championship Rnd 2)
6 -7 May - Tzaneen Rally
3 - 4 June - Ermelo Rally
15 -16 July - Volkswagen Rally
26 - 27 August - Osram Bloemfontein Rally
23 - 24 September - Toyota Swartland Rally
21 - 22 October - Toyota Gauteng Rally

So now it seems like only 1 event in KZN after all while the Tzaneen event returns but in a earlier slot in the year.

Classes

The new class structure should look like this:

S2000 - For current S2000 cars as well as future SA homologated S2000 vehicles. N4 cars will now be grouped into this class too.

A7 - as per 2010

A6 - as per 2010 with N3 cars combined into the class.

A5 - as per 2010

No N2 (and presumably N1) cars allowed.

General rule changes

1. SA homologations now allowed. Cars must run as either international or SA homologation - no crossing over allowed.

2. Tar stages no longer than 15 km per stage and a total of 30km per event.

3. Max amount of tyres allowed per event is 20.

4. No slicks allowed on any class.

5. No wet gravel tyres allowed for classe S2000 / N4.

6. Service time to increase to 30min.

Series sponsor
Sasol has withdrawn as series sponsor but there are rumours that Total may take over the spot.

Competitors

These are the ones that I know of for 2011:

VW Motorsport should still have 3 cars, presumably still with BP sponsorship for reiging champions Enzo Kuun / Guy Hodgson, Hergen Fekken / Pierre Arries and Jan Habig now with Robert Paisley.

Toyota Motorsport should still have 2 cars with Castrol sponsorship for Johnny Gemmell and Leeroy Poulter but their respective co-drivers have yet to be confirmed that I know.

I've heard that Ford will have 4 S2000 Fiestas here next season for Charl Wilken / Greg Godrich, Conrad Rautenbach / Peter Marsh, Mark Cronje / Robin Houghton and a Namibian crew.

The various privateers are unknown at this stage (Grant can keep us updated on their side of things), although I have heard that Heinrich Lategan is waiting to see if a S2000 Mini gets developed, which I personally think is going to happen at some point in 2011.

[Grant_RSA]

You have summed it all up, as for our plans , you know as much as i do at this stage, however all things pointing to as per 2010 for us.

[Bruce D]

Just to sum up some more stuff, I see that Total have confirmed Jean-Pierre Damseaux, Mohammed Moosa (with Grant_RSA presumably in the hot seat), Craig Trott and Stephanie Hugo. The first 2 should by S2000s and the latter 2 sound like they'll be A6 cars.

Interesting that another circuit racer is converting to rallying with Guy Botterill joining in the A6 RunX that Leeroy Poulter used to win the A6 class last year.

Also I see over at promotor.co.za that they have pictures of Ashley Haigh-Smith's new Ford Fiesta R2 - the A6 class looks like it could be a cracker this season.

[Grant_RSA]

i think the circuit racers are realising that rallying is just that much more exciting and challenging,

Yes i think A6 will be good this year, with the 2 ladies joining the fray , will be interesting to see. There are a bunch of youngsters in this class, and the steady Craig Trott who i predict will pick up the pieces and win the championship yet again with his consistency. Christoff Snyders in the Polo is the unknown and of course if our old Auris makes another appearance that may be the car to beat. The Ford is a good car, but i honestly dont know if Ashley will be able to run away with it like he should in that car.

Silly season should get into full swing from next week, maybe there will be some more interesting things coming out of the woodwork.

[Bruce D]

Was the Auris Tjaart Conradie had your old one? I thought it was. I've heard via the grapevine that Trott had an option on a Auris for this year, remains to be seen whether that happens or not. I believe the Auris is a much better car as far as the rear suspension is concerned. We all know that the RunX suffers from the pogo effect at the back over jumps, just ask Serge Damseaux, Ettiene Lourens and Nicholas Ryan to name a few who gone end-over-end with those things.

[Grant_RSA]

yes , there was only 1 A6 Auris built, and believe me we had some moments with the backend of that one as well, as well as the RunX this last season.

I hope Craig does get it, he will need the sequential box to keep up with the Ford and Polo.

[Bruce D]

I've got mixed feelings about sequential gearboxes in A6 cars - just seems like an unnecessary expense for that class

[Grant_RSA]

think we lost the last few posts on this thread.

News is that Motorite has pulled out of rallying, so no Motorite Polo s2000 for Evan Hutchsion and Elvene Coetzee.

[Bruce D]

I also see that Schalk Burger Jnr, who was luck to survive his crash into the river last year, is now talking about driving a Prodrive Impreza in the African Rally Championship. Will be interesting to see if he does some SA events with it, besides the Sasol of course.

Sad news about Motorite, although the news said rallying, not necessarily off-road racing too.

Grant, what sort of figure did your RunX S2000 cost? I'm interested to see that a Peugeot 207 is about 400 000 Euros, which is about R4 million in our money, yet I remember an article in Car Magazine testing the Polo S2000 and saying it only cost R1.5 million. Just thinking that a local S2000 car is costing much less than the European versions.

[Grant_RSA]

I didnt see figures when our car was built, but i would imagine the R1.5mil figure sounds about right. We are lucky in SA that the manufacturers look to subsidise some of the costs( getting more cars competing) as opposed to making a profit. The RunX turned out to be more cost effective route for us.

The Gearbox and motor are the biggest costs and will make your eyes water.

Not sure how the R4mil price tag can be justified, i dont think the Ford even costs that sort of money, 207 is getting a bit long in the tooth as well.

[Mirek]

I also see that Schalk Burger Jnr, who was luck to survive his crash into the river last year, is now talking about driving a Prodrive Impreza in the African Rally Championship. Will be interesting to see if he does some SA events with it, besides the Sasol of course.

Sad news about Motorite, although the news said rallying, not necessarily off-road racing too.

Grant, what sort of figure did your RunX S2000 cost? I'm interested to see that a Peugeot 207 is about 400 000 Euros, which is about R4 million in our money, yet I remember an article in Car Magazine testing the Polo S2000 and saying it only cost R1.5 million. Just thinking that a local S2000 car is costing much less than the European versions.

207 S2000 Evo (latest model) cost 264 thousand Euro. Fabia is similar. Engine of Fabia is around 45 thousand Euro and gearbox is 22 thousand. I don't know prices of spare parts for Peugeot.

[Bruce D]

That still means nearly R3 million, so very expensive compared to our cars. Maybe thats why places like the British series struggle, they don't have the manufacturers making the cars cheap.

[Grant_RSA]

We are unfortunately running older generation cars, this could be at least 1 reason for the cost difference.

[Grant_RSA]

Now were up to 4 Fords with possibility of a 5th, this is almost getting out of hand :-D

[BruceD]

Quite a few interesting stories on Rallyworld.net this week. I'm particularly glad to hear the return of Jon Williams. I thought he was just coming right when he left for the Pirelli driver challenge thing and then disappeared. A good young talent there, should be interesting to see how he goes.

[Grant_RSA]

Looks like the rest is pretty much as per last year, with the exception of Elvene Coetzee joining Leeroy Poulter.

[Bruce D]

It's been confirmed that the BP VW team will now have 4 works cars, as Gineal de Villiers joins, partnered by Ralph Pitchford.

Also some calendar changes are happening but nothing seems to be confirmed yet so we'll see what happens.

[Bruce D]

Hmm, interesting rumour emerging this morning that Hein Lategan and Visser du Plessis in the Pirtek team may in fact have Peugeot 207 S2000 cars for the season! That should throw an interesting spanner into the works. This also means their 2 Auris S2000s become available.

[Bruce D]

Seems the rumour is true. Lategan will have a S2000 207 but it won't be ready for the first round. He may have to sit out that round.

Grant, what's your take on this new Citroen Cup? Citroen have confirmed they are supporting 4 R2 spec C2s for competitors in A6. Sounds like A6 is going to be even more competitive than we thought!

[Grant_RSA]

I heard mumblings about citroen late last year but assumed it had fallen by the way side, will be interesting to see who takes up the deal.. i do worry though that more imported cars are going to become to expensive in the long run, but time will tell, more competition in any class is always welcome.

I look forward to having the 207's here, all its doing is making our championships more world class.

[crunch]

Interesting you mention your thoughts that the s2000 cars may become just too expensive for the sport.
Same sort of thing here in NZ.

However; the other side of the coin is that you think it makes your Championship stronger. Not sure I follow how a type of car can make it stronger, but do follow that the more competitors the better.
In New Zealand, we have a population of 4 million and last year our National Rally Championship had 36 entries, of which 24 were in FIA GroupN or older Group A cars. Most National Championship rallies here also run with an Allcomers/local field and have a total entry number of between 50 to 70
Interested to know how many FIA cars (N, A or S2000) you had in total

Does the assumption that you must run FIA classes make our respective domestic Championships stronger?

[Bruce D]

Crunch, we've gone through a few years of rallies been decided by minutes, so the advent of S2000 allowed rallies to be really close, which in turn means the drivers are committed 110%, which in turn looks far more spectacular now than before. Plus add in the fact that the cars sound awesome. I think what's helped us here is that 2 of the cars are locally built, the Polo and Auris, so the price is down a bit compared with the European models and they are competitive against the likes of the Fiesta. I personally, and I'm sure others will agree, have always found the N4 Imprezas and Lancers very boring to watch and they are very expensive to buy and run.

I would say our events averaged about 35 to 40 entries per event in total. The thing is normally the lower classes are very well supported and the top class has 3 or 4 cars, whereas now our top class was having about 16 cars per event and the lower classes were thinning out. It's a weird situation I've never seen before here.

We originally went over to the FIA classes in about 1998 because we were trying very hard to get a round of the WRC, and for some reason it was felt that if our classes were the same there would be a chance. However this brought in the complication and cost of homologations, something we never had before, it was just "these are the rules, make a car to fit one of them". Now it's been decided that the chances of getting a WRC event are zero for various (I always thought bleedingly obvious) reasons, so we're now looking into doing a combination of FIA and local rules which match the FIA rules, much like the British Touring Car Championship and their BTC cars matching the S2000 cars of the World Touring Car Championship. So to answer your question of whether it makes it stronger or not, I'd say in this case (S2000) it did, but in the previous case (Formula 2) it didn't, and we'll have to wait a few years to see if our future approach works too.

[Bruce D]

Apparently some big announcements coming this week - should be interesting.

[Grant_RSA]

i suspect i know what they will be, but lets wait and see, dont think anyone will be to shocked.

[Bruce D]

Hmm, going to stick my neck out and say that Total will be the title sponsor of the series and Peugeot is entering as a works team. Ok, maybe not the last bit but I have inside info on the first bit.

[Grant_RSA]

mmmm, we will have to wait and see , things will start happening now, were 31 days away from the season opener so its about time.

Hope your planning your spectating on the Total already :-)

[Bruce D]

I'm planning to watch the Saturday of the Tour. My father is the route director so we were running through the stages on Google Earth and he was showing me some non-spectator points that will be good to watch, so yeah I'll hopefully be there. I live in Toti too so the spectator special stage is only a quick 5min drag up the freeway for me.

It's quite funny looking at the T&D schedule - day 1 is lots of open section for very little stage, and day 2 is lots of stage for little open section. If I remember the first section from the start to the first service is 125km, only 17km of which is 2 stages.

[Grant_RSA]

Good thing our headsets have blue tooth, we can listen to some tunes on the LOONNNGGG open sections :-D

[Bruce D]

Hey Grant, love the photoshoot! :p

http://i53.tinypic.com/21o4zg6.jpg

Actually it's pretty cool, nice to see a sponsor using their teams for promotion.

[Grant_RSA]

mmmmm, im blushing here :-)

Yes Total is looking to up the game drastically this year.

[Bruce D]

I think they have to, there are a lot of other sponsors starting to boost their profiles through rallying and a main sponsor needs to make themselves known.

[Barreis]

Who's Grant, left or right one?

[Bruce D]

Grant is on the left, Mahommed on the right.

[Mirek]

Hmm, going to stick my neck out and say that Total will be the title sponsor of the series and Peugeot is entering as a works team. Ok, maybe not the last bit but I have inside info on the first bit.

2 207 sent to RSA AFAIK :)

[Bruce D]

Yeah Mirek, we mentioned that a little earlier. One is confirmed for the first event, the other is questionable but I've got a feeling they'll both be in the first round.

[Zeakiwi]

Are these evolution spec 207s or older spec ?

[Grant_RSA]

i expect evo spec, the 1 is a new car (thus the chance of not making the first event) and the other is used,

[Mirek]

I heard also about some problems during the assembly of one car.

[Bruce D]

That does make sense because, to be honest, Lategan is quicker than teammate Visser du Plessis and du Plessis was saying his car was ready so it's probably the used version. I was trying to figure out why du Plessis would get the car when Lategan has a real chance at taking the overall title with that car.

[Grant_RSA]

So far only Visser entered, but entries close on monday, although most only do it last minute.

[Neil - RSA]

Hello Guys,

Good to see some Saffas on the Forum. :wave:

Looking forward to a good season with all the competition in the S2000 class.. :bounce:

Spoken to Visser today.. and from what I could get from the conversation both 207's might be in the race next weekend.. I'm sure to confirm it by next week. ;)

[Barreis]

:)

[Bruce D]

Great news Ermis, and welcome to the forum BTW. I think we're in for a cracking season in 2011, certainly it's wide open, the nice thing being the privateers can take it to the manufacturer teams. I'm expecting big things from the Fords this year - we know Cronje is a winner, Rautenbach will be at the front and I know from a test session at the end of last year that Wilken has found some big gains. The Peugeots are a bit of an unknown at this stage, but if they come with setup info from the likes of Guy Wilks and Kris Meekes then it will help a lot. The car is capable, it's just a case of how long it takes the team to unlock the potential in the setup.

[Neil - RSA]

Thanks for the welcome!

Cracking season.. DEFINITELY!!

I'm going to agree with you on th Ford Teams.. Speaking to Jacques Wilken 2 weeks ago they are all ready for a big season. Definitely going to give Cronje the run for his money. :)

I've also seen the Ford Fiestas S2000 in action last year at the WRC in France.. really awesome machinery!!

Peugeots very capable vehicles.. but as you said the team just need to see the potential these vehicles can provide them..

[Grant_RSA]

Ai ai ai , and nothing about us poor guys in the RunX's :-) hahahahahaha

Its going to be good, but the adaption to left hand drive for some guys may play into Toyota, VW, and 2 Fords hands early in the season.

[Bruce D]

Sorry Grant, but not sure if even a hard charging RunX can keep up with the more modern stuff, unless your upgrades really do make a difference. I'd love to be proven wrong, lets see. I'm expecting a lot of offs on the Tour as I think the pace is going to be quite hectic.

[Neil - RSA]

Hahahaha Grant.. Will still be cheering you on! ;)

[Grant_RSA]

Watch this space chaps, we may make you eat your words. :-D

I predict no offs for any cars on this event... ok ok i wish for no offs, last year was plenty thanks.

[Bruce D]

Er yes, Grant, please don't repeat last year's stunt, thanks!

Besides, isn't it traditional for Mark Cronje to crash out while leading on this event? :p

[Grant_RSA]

Come now Bruce, it made for good tv ALL season long .. :-)

I expect to see a very focused Mark this year and if things within his team setup work for him , i think the factory teams have some issues on their hands.

[Bruce D]

Ok fine, but if you have to do the same thing again, try not to land in a water. ;)

Yes, although he's got the car very late, if he can get setup stuff done on it well then Mark will be a rally winner this year, no doubts. His problem has never been speed, just making mistakes (almost always while leading too) and going off. But when you think about it he doesn't have a huge amount of rally experience anyway, so he's still learning.

[Neil - RSA]

Was a good roll Grant.. but lets rather skip that this year.. ;) Hahaha

What was the final damage to the vehicle last year.. complete write-off?

[Grant_RSA]

Nope, only the shell was damaged, was repaired and is a spare one now. oh yes and 1 shock was bent :-) sturdy things these s2000's.

Obvisously all safety equipment ie seat, belts etc were replaced, but the rest was all good.

[Barreis]

This season you could put TV shows on web that we (the rest of the world) can watch it.. :)

[Bruce D]

We'll try Barreis, but it's not easy given our cap limits and very slow internets.

[andre93]

pics of subaru bruma belfast rally??
thank's!

[Neil - RSA]

Nope, only the shell was damaged, was repaired and is a spare one now. oh yes and 1 shock was bent :-) sturdy things these s2000's.

Obvisously all safety equipment ie seat, belts etc were replaced, but the rest was all good.

Good to hear! Specially about changing the safety equipment! But thats compulsory, isn't it?

On the other hand..the shells on the Fiestas are running at £100 000 to replace.. :s Can get to a very expensive experience..

[Bruce D]

pics of subaru bruma belfast rally??
thank's!

Sorry but nobody I know has any.

[Grant_RSA]

Luckily our shells are not in that league, but are very scarce , hence the need for spares on our side.

[Bruce D]

I see that Heinrich Lategan's entry has been posted on the Tour Natal list so hopefully the car is ready now.

[Neil - RSA]

Calender for the season:

25 - 26 March - Total Tour Natal Rally
15 - 17 April - Sasol Rally (African Championship Rnd 2)
6 -7 May - Tzaneen Rally
3 - 4 June - Ermelo Rally
15 -16 July - Volkswagen Rally
26 - 27 August - Osram Bloemfontein Rally
23 - 24 September - Toyota Swartland Rally
21 - 22 October - Toyota Gauteng Rally

Anywhere I can find more details on the races? For instance how many stages & kilometers to cover per weekend..

[Neil - RSA]

I see that Heinrich Lategan's entry has been posted on the Tour Natal list so hopefully the car is ready now.

And really good looking cars aswell..

http://www.rallyworld.net/images/stories/pirt160.jpg
http://www.rallyworld.net/images/stories/pirt161.jpg

[Mirek]

Good to hear! Specially about changing the safety equipment! But thats compulsory, isn't it?

On the other hand..the shells on the Fiestas are running at £100 000 to replace.. :s Can get to a very expensive experience..

Really that much? I know only Škoda prices but bodyshell costs 24 thousand Euro for Fabia.

[Neil - RSA]

Really that much? I know only Škoda prices but bodyshell costs 24 thousand Euro for Fabia.

Apparently so.. Replacement of whole vehicle £275 000.

I'm providing the Racing Insurance on these vehicles and need to replace them with the correct values. S2000 parts very very expensive!!

[Mirek]

ok, thanks. I know prices of all parts of Fabia, not the others.

[Bruce D]

I really like the design of the car. Hmm, "Peugeot Sport South Africa" - so is this a works team, a dealer team or wishful thinking on the decals...

[Bruce D]

The new Sasol Ford team of Mark Cronje and John Williams - interesting to see Markko Martin at the launch, wonder what that means?

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg610/scaled.php?tn=0&server=610&filename=4bpay.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

I'm really loving this - SA rallying is alive and well again, even if these aren't all works teams, it's still great to see the interest in the championship.

[Bruce D]

Anywhere I can find more details on the races? For instance how many stages & kilometers to cover per weekend..

Rallyworld.net should have the Time & Distance schedule for the Tour soon, probably during the next week. I have got it, although it wasn't complete at the time I had it. The first day is a loop of 2 stages run twice, so 4 in total, day 2 is 4 stages repeated twice. Add in the Friday night and Saturday afternoon runs around Arbour Crossing shopping centre and that totals 14 stages.

[Neil - RSA]

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg610/scaled.php?tn=0&server=610&filename=4bpay.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

Really good looking vehicles!!


I'm really loving this - SA rallying is alive and well again, even if these aren't all works teams, it's still great to see the interest in the championship.

Shame here! Looking forward to a great season!!


Rallyworld.net should have the Time & Distance schedule for the Tour soon, probably during the next week. I have got it, although it wasn't complete at the time I had it. The first day is a loop of 2 stages run twice, so 4 in total, day 2 is 4 stages repeated twice. Add in the Friday night and Saturday afternoon runs around Arbour Crossing shopping centre and that totals 14 stages.

Thanks Bruce!

I got the Natal Guide so far.. but was hoping for a complete season guide..

[Bruce D]

No chance of that. Each event would only release stuff the week before the event or state it in their regulations, but nothing before that.

[Bruce D]

Just been emailed the official entry list: :D

http://i52.tinypic.com/2rz6owp.jpg

[Grant_RSA]

Only one missing is Jaco van Dyk, havnt heard anything about him off season at all :-/

[Neil - RSA]

No chance of that. Each event would only release stuff the week before the event or state it in their regulations, but nothing before that.

Hahahaha.. tried my luck.. ;)

[ProMotor]

Hi Guys, some More images of the Sasol Rally Team launch here : http://www.promotor.co.za/x/rally/national/591-sasol-powers-ford-fiestas-in-2011-south-african-rally-championship :)

[urabus-denoS2000]

VERY good championship ! Looking forward to videos :) Nr. 20 , Sebastian Klaasen , Subaru S2000 ?

[Grant_RSA]

Due to N4 virtually disappearing they decided to include N4 in class S2000 for 2011. Seabastiaan Klaasen has the only N4 competing , and possibly an Evo9 or 10 later on.

N3 also forms part of S1600 now

A5 is now S1400

[Bruce D]

Epic editing fail on the Rallystar website, stating two "Renault 207s" have been entered. :p

Given Leon Botha's hurry to bitch about everyone else, it gives me pleasure to point out his stuff up for a change.

[Bruce D]

Just thinking, the last time we saw 4 manufacturers in the top class was the 1991/92 seasons, and those were good ones so this should be very good.

[Grant_RSA]

I leave to prep for 1st event tonight, cya all soon :-)

[Neil - RSA]

I leave to prep for 1st event tonight, cya all soon :-)

All the best Grant!

Sure to see you next weekend! ;)

[Bruce D]

I leave to prep for 1st event tonight, cya all soon :-)

All the best. Hopefully I'll get a chance to pop in and say hi.

[Tazz]

So what happened to the Citroen C2 that were supposed to appear this year?

[Bruce D]

Good question Tazz, I guess it was too short a time to get it up and running, but they could be late entries.

[Barreis]

I leave to prep for 1st event tonight, cya all soon :-)

:)

[Barreis]

VERY good championship ! Looking forward to videos :) Nr. 20 , Sebastian Klaasen , Subaru S2000 ?

+1

[Bruce D]

Damn, next weekend can't come quick enough!

[Neil - RSA]

Damn, next weekend can't come quick enough!

Hahaha.. know the feeling!

I'm off the Zwartkops tomorrow for the Formula VW series.. and then next weekend the rally.

[Bruce D]

Pics of the new Polo - http://www.motorpics.co.za/picsites/PHP/lightbox.mp?ftab=0&i=302678&d=1&k=5423

I'm shocked to see it's based on the Vivo model not the new Polo shape. A bit disappointed too.

[Mirek]

I liked previous Polo more (which was one of my favorite rally cars).

Anyway if they want to have FIA homologation, they can't homologate new 2.0 N/A S2000 model since January. It would have to be 1.6T if they use new car as a basis. In this case I understand that Vivo is just a facelift of current model which can be homologated as erratum to already valid homologation.

[Barreis]

I like the car..

[OldF]

I liked previous Polo more (which was one of my favorite rally cars).

Anyway if they want to have FIA homologation, they can't homologate new 2.0 N/A S2000 model since January. It would have to be 1.6T if they use new car as a basis. In this case I understand that Vivo is just a facelift of current model which can be homologated as erratum to already valid homologation.

Or maybe an ET homologation?

[Bruce D]

Mirek, the Vivo is just a facelifted version of the old Polo here so that makes sense what you're saying. I also think it may be done because VW would want the new Polo shape for their WRC car, rather than the S2000 car. The new shape was launched here last year with rumours that it would be used from after the World Cup soccer, but it never appeared.

[OldF]

For example Mitsubishi Evo 5, Evo 6 and Evo 6 TM had the same group A homologation and the Evo 6 and Evo 6 TM homologations were made with evolution of the type ET and erratum ER.

http://www.ralliart.co.jp/GRN/homologation/data/N5585-01_LancerEvo6.pdf

http://www.ralliart.co.jp/GRN/homologation/data/N5585-01_LancerEvo6tm.pdf

[Bruce D]

Heavy rain predicted for Friday and light rain for Saturday. Given that I live 30km north of the stages and we've had very little rain this is not surprising. But also I wouldn't count on it being consistent rain.

This also throws a curve ball into the equation because the roads tend to be quicker when damp than when dry (our surface is similar in ball-bearing style to Australia), until it gets very wet, then it's slippery but not too bad. Add to the fact that wet tyres are banned for the S2000 cars and this event just got even more interesting.

[Divan]

Good question Tazz, I guess it was too short a time to get it up and running, but they could be late entries.

Any idea who might be driving them?

I havent been as excited before a new season as I am now...

[Bruce D]

No idea as none are on the entry list and I don't recall any being mentioned.

[Neil - RSA]

Heavy rain predicted for Friday and light rain for Saturday..

..Add to the fact that wet tyres are banned for the S2000 cars and this event just got even more interesting.

Now this is going to make the race very very interesting!!

[Bruce D]

Updated entry list after late entries closed. Still no sign of the Citroens so I guess they won't make this round.

http://i56.tinypic.com/311ujoj.jpg

[Grant_RSA]

Well my notes are done,just checks need to be done.As always its going to be a wild and wooly event, hoping the rain stays away!
No wets is still a contentious issue! :-(

[Bruce D]

Grant, I've seen a provisional start list and it has you down as 16th on the road. The most interesting one is the guy seeded in 15th - Leeroy Poulter. I wonder who he bribed to get that slot? :p Given that he dominated the regional event run on almost the same roads in November I think he could do really well from there.

What's your take on strategy for this one? My father says Invernettie (SS2&4) is very slippery at the moment and most of the stuff on day 2 is also very slippery so running order is going to be critical. Will you guys just go for it on day 1 and use the good running position to boost yourselves or do you think people will hang back? Personally I can see a few people stopping during the Arbour Crossing stage to lose time and road positions for day 2.

[Grant_RSA]

That seeding was quite interesting on the Gauteng rally last year to, but oh well, further back, the cleaner the road., however there is a worry of repairs that have been done becoming loose and causing ruts.

As for strategy that is going to depend on a few factors , but i can imagine you wont see to many fireworks on day 1 , the real rally happens on saturday, and as you said road position is going to be key... at this stage im glad were not part of that game.

2 years ago we found ourselves 7th overall after day 1 in an A6, in the days where the top 6 selected starting positions, would have been interesting to see what would have happened if we had been 6th and they were faced with putting a little 2 wheel drive first on the road :-D

[Bruce D]

Yeah but the roads in general should be able to withstand the rally quite well.

Well strategy is what I was thinking. I mean Poulter may have a great road position for day 1 but does he really want to go for it then when 80% of the distance is on day 2? Gonna be really interesting. The flip side of that is that it'll be better to be first on the road if the weather is wet, but there that is not a known factor. It was meant to rain in Toti the whole weekend and we got a slight drizzle on Saturday night and last night.

This is also where I think VW has the luxury of 4 cars. They can tell Giniel and Fekken to go for it on day 1 and Enzo and Habig to play the waiting game, then on day 2 see how it plays out.

[Barreis]

Grant, I've seen a provisional start list and it has you down as 16th on the road. The most interesting one is the guy seeded in 15th - Leeroy Poulter. I wonder who he bribed to get that slot? :p Given that he dominated the regional event run on almost the same roads in November I think he could do really well from there.

What's your take on strategy for this one? My father says Invernettie (SS2&4) is very slippery at the moment and most of the stuff on day 2 is also very slippery so running order is going to be critical. Will you guys just go for it on day 1 and use the good running position to boost yourselves or do you think people will hang back? Personally I can see a few people stopping during the Arbour Crossing stage to lose time and road positions for day 2.

First 15 cars can make road full of holes..

[Bruce D]

Our KZN roads are more robust than most Barreis... ;)

Surprised Promotor didn't post this here but here are the new Peugeots http://www.promotor.co.za/x/rally/national/608-pix--the-peugeot-207-s2000s-are-here?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+promotorsa+%28ProMotorSA%29

[Tom206wrc]

So 17 S2000s(among them two Pugs for the first time on african soil) on this week-end's Total Tour Rally :p :

[Barreis]

:)

[Bruce D]

2 days to go... :D

[Grant_RSA]

Bruce you seem more excited than me :-)

I predict a stressful weekend ahead. Speak to you all on monday with a report :-D i fly out in the morning.

[Bruce D]

It's been 3 years since I last saw you guys in action so I'm very keen to see it. Got lots of friends coming to see it as well so it's gonna be a great time. Only problem I can see is that the stages are quite close to each other so if you want to keep following the front guys you have to move around quickly.

[Grant_RSA]

mmmm , well the front guys is now a relative term, you may not consider car 17 on the road "the front guys" but there is still a chance hahahahah , id say watch 1 , skip 1, there are repeats, so you will see all stages.

[Bruce D]

Well I just want to see what speed you boys are hitting at the end of the airfield runway on Montevideo, I can watch 5 cars there then move to the Ellingham hairpin, which I know from previous years is really great to watch from. I'll probably go there and park for an hour before moving to Esperanza, apparently the end is quite good to watch from (although not a spectator point - it helps when your father is the route director and can tell you these things! ;) ). Hopefully after about an hour there I can duck to the service park and say howzit to you and a few other guys before doing round 2.

Seems like the only 2 difficult to keep up with are Montevideo and Ellingham cos the end of Monte and the start of Ellingham are only 800m apart, meanwhile it's 6km for the spectators to travel, the only advantage being that the Ellingham spectator points are late in the stage. A bit of thinking to do but I'll see what we can manage.

[Barreis]

:)

[Bruce D]

Bruce you seem more excited than me :-)

Well it seems that Barreis is speechless, all he can do is grin at us, so he must be worse than me! :p

[Grant_RSA]

I personally thing Barreis needs to save his pennies and come out to good old RSA and watch a round of our championships.

The Sasol next month is a good bet, just not alot of time to save :-)

[Barreis]

Thanks very much! I except the invitation and yes, I'm a big fan of your championship! Before july it's impossible 'cos I must work. :) )))))))))))))))))))))))))))

[Bruce D]

We've woken up to a dull and overcast day here in Toti, maybe that rain is going to be a reality. Then again, it hasn't actually rained yet and maybe the cloud has come over today and will miss things tomorrow and Saturday.

[Neil - RSA]

Looking at the weather channels they predicted rain from today on all the way up to Monday.. but then again.. also the only job in the world where you can lie and still keep your job.. :)

[Bruce D]

You're forgetting all government positions there Neil. ;)

I'm told that they predicted rain last weekend and we only got a few drops and hardly any clouds so who knows. Can't trust these weather guys. Well at least the tyre choice for the S2000 cars will be simple, dry tyres or, er, dry tyres. :p

[Neil - RSA]

You're forgetting all government positions there Neil. ;)

Hahahahahahaha.. so so true! ;) Forgot about that one.. :D


Well at least the tyre choice for the S2000 cars will be simple, dry tyres or, er, dry tyres. :p

:laugh:

[Bruce D]

Bit of sad news from testing today, Visser du Plessis rolled his Peugeot 207 S2000 and sustained terminal suspension damage putting him out of the event.

[Bruce D]

Weather update, overnight rain the ground is quite wet this morning, looks like more raining coming in from the stages side. The stages are good condition so they should last but it puts a whole spin on running order. Tactics are going to be fantastic to watch. I'll bring stage times as and when I hear them today, but tomorrow I'll be out on the stages so I'll bring photos and news when I get back on Saturday night.

[Neil - RSA]

Bit of sad news from testing today, Visser du Plessis rolled his Peugeot 207 S2000 and sustained terminal suspension damage putting him out of the event.

Really bad news.. ;(


I'll bring stage times as and when I hear them today, but tomorrow I'll be out on the stages so I'll bring photos and news when I get back on Saturday night.

:up:

I'm driving through today.. sure to be on the stages on Saturday as well.. ;)

[Bruce D]

Hehe, pity we can't organise a group photo of all of us on the event, Grant and Sarally will be too busy.

Starting to get some sunshine in Westville but thats 60km away from the stages and North of them so we're getting whatever weather has been over the stages already. Still looks dark down that side.

[Neil - RSA]

It sure is a pity.. but lets see what happens.. maybe we can! ;)

I've got the feeling that the weather man might be right on his predictions this weekend.. lets hope there isn't any more accidents..

[Bruce D]

Some pics coming in from scrutineering and shakedown stage.

Mark Cronje
http://yfrog.com/h7kyr8j

Jan Habig waiting at scrutineering
http://yfrog.com/h4eo8kuj

Conrad Rautenbach at scrutineering
http://yfrog.com/hsbu5dbj

Heinrich Lategan in the only remaining Peugeot. So the car is ready to go then.
http://yfrog.com/h352atxj

[Bruce D]

The rally is on now, first stage in about 30min time so hopefully we'll get some stage times in soon.

[Bruce D]

Here we go, SS1 times:

1. Fekken - VW Polo - 6:29.1
2. Rautenbach - Ford Fiesta - +0.1s
3. Kuun - VW Polo - +1.2s
4. Habig - VW Polo - +2.5s
5. Wilken - Ford Fiesta - 2.9s
6. Moosa - Toyota RunX - +5.9s (Grant_SA :) )

Poulter has overshot a junction and lost 15sec but still no works Toyotas in the top 6. Moosa must have driven really well to set that time and Wilken is in the fight like I thought he would be.

[Bruce D]

Correct SS1 times, Cronje's transponder not working properly, he wins both opening stages. The boy is fired up!

[Neil - RSA]

Hahahaha.. you can say that again!! Those Fiestas are flying!

Really good time for Wilken.. glad to see his putting up the fight!!

[Bruce D]

Overall times after SS2:

1. Cronje - Ford - 11:58.6
2. Kuun - VW - +9.1s
3. Rautenbach - Ford - +9.9s
4. Habig - VW - +14.1s
5. Wilken - Ford - +16.5s
6. Moosa - Toyota - +21s

I'm very impressed with Moosa/Grant_SA's performance so far, absolutely brilliant for such an old model car. Beating the works cars is really great, just hope they keep it on the road this year.

[Bruce D]

Really good time for Wilken.. glad to see his putting up the fight!!

Yeah, he had a really good test session on these roads at the end of last year where they found a bit of time so I thought he'd look good on this event. Early days though and Mark is so fired up to stick it to Toyota that he's come out flying. Mind you he always was quick out the blocks.

[Bruce D]

Cronje won stages 3 and 4 to have just over 10sec lead over Kuun. Jon Williams suffering transmission trouble. The 2nd Peugeot is out.

[Divan]

Any idea what happened to Hein's Pug? Would have liked to see what it does against the VWs/Fords.

[Bruce D]

Sorry, no idea at this stage. All the twitters I'm following haven't said. Got the impression it was more a reliability issue. Not sure of his stage times either.

All the works Toyotas are way down, last I heard Gemmell was the quickest at 11th overall!

[Divan]

Jip it isn't looking good for them... I'm interested in the S1600 times as well, I want to see what Ashley is doing with with the R2. Those times will probably only be available tonight?

[Barreis]

:)

[Bruce D]

Divan, I think you may be lucky to get positions overnight but don't count on it any more than a brief mention of who is leading the class. I'm also interested to see how that class is going.

Only news I got on the Peugeot is that Lategan is reported "stuck" in SS2.

Proper overall positions after SS4 with only the superspecial tonight to run:

1. Mark Cronje - Ford Fiesta - 23:48.4
2. Enzo Kuun - VW Polo - 23:59.5
3. Hergen Fekken - VW Polo - 24:00.9
4. Conrad Rautenbach - Ford Fiesta - 24:17.1
5. Jan Habig - VW Polo - 24:25.3
6. Johnny Gemmell - Toyota Auris - 24:25.9
7. Giniel de Villiers - VW Polo - 24:34.4

Charl Wilken lost 5min in penalties due to late into and out of service with electrical problems.

To my knowledge Grant_SA is still in 8th place overall.

[Bruce D]

No news from the twitter updates now and it's been 2 1/2 hours since the stage started so looks like thats all the updates we'll get today.

Grant reports that they "had a good day, not 100% on position".

[Bruce D]

Last update for the day. Cronje and Poulter tied the super special so Cronje leads overnight by 12.8sec from Fekken with Kuun 18sec back. 4th Rautenbach, 5th Gemmell 6th Habig 7th Poulter and 8th Moosa/Grant sa

[Bruce D]

Ok, where to begin. Just got back from the stages myself, where a really great dice has developed for the lead.

Cronje continued to lead the event, while Rautenbach moved up into 2nd, Kuun 3rd, Habig 4th as Fekken lost over a minute. Unfortunately Moosa/Grant went off on the first stage of the day and lost time. I spoke to Grant at the service park after SS11 where they'd been off again, not having a good time, but lots of people losing huge amounts of time so they could still get points.

Cronje fell out on SS11 - 2 stories here as to what happened, one that he hit a bridge and ripped a wheel off. I can confirm that this is not true as I saw the car in the stage and at the service park afterwards and all the wheels were still on the wagon. I believe the 2nd story, that he hit a jump badly and broke the cooling on the car, forcing him out.

SS11 did a lot of damage as the guys were running close together and getting dust. Habig and Rautenbach are both visibly more committed and faster than anyone else. After SS12 Habig led by 0.3s from Rautenbach, Kuun 3rd +26.6s, 4th Fekken +111.9s, 5th JP Damseaux +113.6s, 6th Jon Williams +140.2s

2 stages to go at that point so we'll find out how the rest went. I'll post pictures soon too.

[Bruce D]

Rautenbach took the lead back on SS13, leading by 7sec going into the final 800m superspecial stage. He then sealed the win, his 2nd in SA rallying.

Provisional results
1. Conrad Rautenbach - Ford Fiesta - 1:40:44.0
2. Jan Habig - VW Polo - +8.2s
3. Enzo Kuun - VW Polo - +44.1s
4. Hergen Fekken - VW Polo - +2:06.8
5. Jean-Pierre Damseaux - Toyota RunX - +2:16.8
6. Nicholas Ryan - VW Polo - +2:38.2
7. Jon Williams - Ford Fiesta - +2:39.7

Ashley Haigh-Smith won S1600 in his Ford Fiesta after everyone else in the class wrong slotted on the same stage! Megan Verlague won S1400 in her Polo.

I'll have to post pictures on Monday as my connection is too slow to upload at home.

[Divan]

The lead changed a few times, seems like it was a great rally. Really glad about Ashley's win as well, his Fiesta is looking great!

[Bruce D]

It did but it seemed like everyone had trouble at some point, the top 3 were the only guys who had clear runs. When I spoke to Grant they were having a terrible time of things and miles down on time, similarly Charl Wilken was a long way behind. Even Gemmell in the works Toyota finished 10th after losing 4min with a puncture. As far as S1600 was concerned I spoke to Craig Trott at the final service and he was really just driving to the finish, they lost over a minute when Conradie wrong slotted, turned around and came back to the junction but was lost so waited for Trott to come through, unfortunately Conradie had pulled over and blocked the rally route so Trott went down the wrong road too and they lost time working this out and turning around, so Haigh-Smith may have been lucky with this result, but until we see proper stage times for all classes it's going to be hard to judge.

At more than one point today it looked like Cronje, Kuun and Fekken were going through the motions, then Rautenbach and Habig arrived next on the road and they were visibly miles quicker. An example, at the hairpin where I was standing on SS11 it was preceeded by a sweeping right-left-right section. Everyone lifted for the left except those 2 who were flat through the whole lot.

I see on Rallystar they're claiming that Cronje damaged the cooling and then in the next stage hit a bridge. I don't understand this as I was on the stage that they broke the cooling on and went straight to service after that stage and he was already retired. Not sure where this hitting the bridge story is coming from but I'm sure the TV coverage will sort it out.

[Barreis]

Whet's with Moosa/Grant?

[Bruce D]

Not sure where they finished yet, but they had a bad day 2. They went off on the day's first stage and that damaged the handling so they were off their pace slightly after that, then hit a tunnel on SS11 and that bent the rear control arm and they lost more time there.

[Bruce D]

Just seen the final results now, Moosa/Grant were 20th overall in the end, but a few non-points scoring cars above them so they got some points from it.

[Bruce D]

Got some info on the Lategan Peugeot retirement. Apparently a warning light came on during the stage which he thought was warning that the alternator wasn't charging, but it was actually low oil pressure and he blew the engine not long after that.

[Bruce D]

Some video action can be found here (not made by me):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBpjqHFbnPQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/rapidmotionrally2#p/a/u/1/oGuC_fNOb1E

If you pause the "Saturday highlights" video at 15sec and look for a blue shirt, thats me... ;)

[OldF]

A question to you guys.

What are the weights of the cars nowadays? I read in a Finnish motor sport magazine few years ago about the first Polo and Corolla and then the weights of Polos were about 1080 kg and the Corollas about 1220 kg.

Any videos from Total Tour Natal Rally?

[Bruce D]

Any videos from Total Tour Natal Rally?

See above your post ;) Just found those myself.

As far as weight is concerned, I read that Toyota had taken some weight out of the Auris and I remember the Polos weighing 1200kg at pre-rally scrutineering at last years Tour Natal Rally so I think they'll probably be close to the figures you said, but from everything I've seen I believe the Fords have a weight and traction advantage.

[OldF]

See above your post ;) Just found those myself.

As far as weight is concerned, I read that Toyota had taken some weight out of the Auris and I remember the Polos weighing 1200kg at pre-rally scrutineering at last years Tour Natal Rally so I think they'll probably be close to the figures you said, but from everything I've seen I believe the Fords have a weight and traction advantage.

Thanks Bruce D.

[Mirek]

1080 kg for S2000 is impossible. I remember that in times of 1150 kg limit cars in Barum scrutineering were heavier than that (all 207, Punto and Polo). Moreover asphalt cars are lighter than gravel cars...

If I remember right Corolla is around 1260 kg but I'm not sure.


A question on Bruce. Is FIA limit 1200 kg applied in RSA also?

[Bruce D]

Yes Mirek, it should be cos we run to the strict FIA rules here, so you can just buy a car and bring it here and be competitive, like many have done.

[Neil - RSA]

Just seen the final results now, Moosa/Grant were 20th overall in the end, but a few non-points scoring cars above them so they got some points from it.

Moosa/Grant.. sorry to hear about the misfortunes..


Got some info on the Lategan Peugeot retirement. Apparently a warning light came on during the stage which he thought was warning that the alternator wasn't charging, but it was actually low oil pressure and he blew the engine not long after that.

Ai.. also bad news.. looks like the weekend was really difficult..

Thanks for the updates Bruce! My plans unfortunately had some changes and had to cancel my trip down.. but will definitely make the next one.

[Bruce D]

Time for some pics!

Rautenbach/Killinger
http://i52.tinypic.com/zyfu5x.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/2lwmbo0.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/1yqscw.jpg

Gemmell / Sturrock
http://i55.tinypic.com/348gh93.jpg

[Bruce D]

http://i54.tinypic.com/28mg64p.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/a1qxd.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/2vagi9v.jpg

Habig / Paisley
http://i54.tinypic.com/eimlj6.jpg

[Bruce D]

http://i52.tinypic.com/2lb1954.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/6yodxy.jpg

Poulter / Coetzee
http://i52.tinypic.com/2j33cqu.jpg

De Villiers / Pitchford
http://i52.tinypic.com/2ikcug9.jpg

[Bruce D]

http://i52.tinypic.com/elebti.jpg

JP Damseaux / Swan
http://i56.tinypic.com/2r59u7c.jpg

Ryan / Tyrer
http://i54.tinypic.com/fa0sg3.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/33dgksw.jpg

[Bruce D]

Haigh-Smith / Auffray (S1600 winners)
http://i52.tinypic.com/nfl1mp.jpg

Cronje / Houghton
http://i55.tinypic.com/rml99u.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/dr785u.jpg

Fekken / Arries
http://i56.tinypic.com/kcfbck.jpg

[Grant_RSA]

hi all,

What a wild rally, we were actually 6th overall overnight after corrected times.

We had a big off on saturday morning, and lost alot of time getting out of the stage, having another stage to complete before service we had a 21km stage where we lost another 3min with wheels pointing in all different directions. Add 11 min lateness at that stage we just tried to get to the end with a car that was handling like a pig causing all kinds of handling issues and losing masses of time.

A character building rally, but positives were our day 1 performance where we were able to compete with the newer generation cars.

[Bruce D]

http://i55.tinypic.com/3128lmx.jpg

Wilken / Godrich (Sarally)
http://i51.tinypic.com/99qalu.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/359bix4.jpg

Moosa / Martin (Grant_SA)
http://i56.tinypic.com/wchldz.jpg

[Bruce D]

http://i55.tinypic.com/2e4vqzp.jpg

[Bruce D]

A character building rally, but positives were our day 1 performance where we were able to compete with the newer generation cars.

I was very impressed with the improvements the RunX had, even JP was running in a decent position, but you guys were definately the quicker RunX. Pity it all went wrong, I've never known the tunnels to cause as much trouble as they did on this event. I believe Cronje did actually hit the tunnel a little further up the road from the spectator point.

[Neil - RSA]

Welcome back Grant! ;)


wheels pointing in all different directions..

Eish.. can just imagine it was difficult getting the car to the finish! But congrats on the great start on the first day!

Bruce,

Thanks for the pics!

[Barreis]

Really nice pictures.. Nice roads also.

[andre93]

Hi is the Fiesta of Jon Williams a new car??
thank'you!!!

[Neil - RSA]

Andre,

If I'm not mistaken Jon Williams is driving with the 2010 Ford Fiesta S2000.. so yes fairly new.

[Bruce D]

Andre, I know Mark's is a brand new car, not sure about Jon.

[Grant_RSA]

Jon's car is new!

[Bruce D]

Can't believe it's only 16 days until the Sasol Rally. What a hectic start to the season.

[Grant_RSA]

You telling me, just got back to work and trying to catch everything up. Recce on Sasol means even less time.

[Neil - RSA]

Just discovered its my bachelors that weekend.. :D


but that means I'm going to miss the Sasol Rally aswell.. :(

[Bruce D]

Neil, you need to plan you calendar better!

Grant, I forgot this would have a recce on it because it's a ARC event.

[Neil - RSA]

Neil, you need to plan you calendar better!

Hahahahaha.. if only I was doing the planning on this one.. ;)

[bluuford]

Hahahahaha.. if only I was doing the planning on this one.. ;)

I finally reveal that I have been following this thread as well.. for some time already, because you seem to have very nice championship there:-) The reason why I wrote is very simple. You seem to be the second forumer after me who is brave enough to insist that he is married or going to marry soon :-P Good luck!

[Divan]

Here is another video of the weekend done by KulumaTV. Except for the name pronunciations it's quite good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS2Sn51SrHo&feature=email

[Barreis]

:)

[Neil - RSA]

Good luck!

Thanks mate!


Here is another video of the weekend done by KulumaTV.

Thanks for sharing Divan!

[Barreis]

Some video action can be found here (not made by me):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBpjqHFbnPQ

http://www.youtube.com/user/rapidmotionrally2#p/a/u/1/oGuC_fNOb1E

If you pause the "Saturday highlights" video at 15sec and look for a blue shirt, thats me... ;)

Beautiful stages..

[Bruce D]

They are. I remember the late Ove Andersson used to tell lots of people they were the best in the world and the farmers really go out of their way to make them great as well.

[Grant_RSA]

No doubt they are awesome roads, i would personally prefer it not to be the first round of the series, everyone is a bit "ring rusty" and probably the most challenging rally of the season as the opener makes it all that much more hectic.

No one seems to have gotten us on video, we must have been really slow :-) Lets see what wed nights program shows.

[Bruce D]

I'm sure you'll feature on the Wednesday night show. Your performance on day 1 should get you airtime.

[Bruce D]

Grant, you need to kick a stink to MSA. I've just seen the official points and they've moved Weston / Visser up from last to 2 places above you guys. As far as I know there were no corrected results.

[Grant_RSA]

Thanks Bruce, will look into it,

I can see a few mistakes so, will request it be looked at.

[Bruce D]

Oh ok, only spotted that one, the rest agreed with what I had worked out already. Ridiculous that it takes them over a week to do what I did in my 30min lunch break yesterday...

[Grant_RSA]

Just checked http://www.sarallying.co.za the official site, the points are correct according to those final results. Somewhere along the line someone didnt get final final results

[Bruce D]

Geez, sounds like MSA have really done a great job trying to stuff up the championship this year. Get rid of the political guys at the top and lets run it by the fans. Probably happen 10 times faster.

[Bruce D]

Here Grant, you feature a few times in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWzq1zaix5I&feature=related

[Grant_RSA]

Thanks Bruce.... no one looked to quick in those shots did they hahahhaahhah,

Tonights broadcast will be interesting, new crew, new ideas.Do miss the old guys though.

[Bruce D]

Hmm yes I'm always nervous when they change crews cos you never know if the people know what they're doing or clueless and it becomes bleedingly obvious in 30sec. So long as they stop what the other guys were doing in repeating the previous event for the first 5min, that should be great.

[Grant_RSA]

As far as i could see it was Videosport, they been in the game a long time, so know what they doing.

[Bruce D]

Yeah they should. So long as it's not a repeat of that 1998-2007 effort then I'll be happy. Geez that was a disaster.

[Grant_RSA]

i seriously doubt TV would ever go back to that, hahahaahah have you watched the A Team lately? and that used to be cool, hahahahahahha

THe entry list for the Sasol is going to be interesting to see who from Africa comes, i can only see the local entrants and that is presently on 29 National cars.

[Bruce D]

What did you think of that TV coverage last night? I thought it was really good, done well and entertaining. You're into the rally by 3min into the program and there is not 30min explaining what rallying is every time. The girl maybe needs to calm down a bit in her presentations (she seemed a bit too hyped) and be given the correct information so she doesn't look like a fool giving the wrong positions but otherwise she was good and she does the interviews well so I think she should stay.

[Grant_RSA]

Cant say i agree, feels like we have gone backwards.

yes straight into the rally, but then again its a new season, new cars, new combinations, if you didnt keep up with all the news wouldnt you have appreciated a bit of pre-season information?

Iv spoken to a few people, and reactions are very mixed,

btw it seems i am now Gavin, nice to meet you all.

[Grant_RSA]

oh yes, the lady on camera wasnt the lady who did the interviews.

[Bruce D]

Oh, well in that case, get the lady who did the interviews to do it cos she sounds clued up. The other one was on space cookies.

Yeah, watching the bits I missed again they did make quite a few mistakes. I did see Dave and Evan's comments about things last night, I do agree there were too many of them pulling up to controls.

BTW you are also Carolyn now too, as I see JP's spin was nicely credited to you guys and used as an example of how often you guys crash! Two problems, one you could see the camera angle was the same as JP's earlier one and different to you guys and two the caption at the bottom was correct that it was JP and Carolyn not you guys.

One thing I did like was the fact that the onboard cameras now faced out the front window rather than at the dashboard like the others were the last few years.

I also featured a few times, especially at the end of Esperanza 1.

[Bruce D]

I'm sorry but I worry about presenters who look like this, freaky stuff. There is such a thing as being too happy.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2vhu2rk.jpg

[Grant_RSA]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head with all your comments,

[Barreis]

Nice lady. Any chance that we could see the coverage?

[555-04Q2]

I'm sorry but I worry about presenters who look like this, freaky stuff. There is such a thing as being too happy.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2vhu2rk.jpg

Scary looking chick!!!

[Bruce D]

Nice lady. Any chance that we could see the coverage?

If I can work out how to make it a small video size then I'd send it to you.

[Barreis]

Thanks. :)

[Bruce D]

Ok got it to about 100mb but now the file is unable to be played by anything I have, which I don't normally have a problem with.

[Grant_RSA]

im waiting for someone to convert to avi for me, will see the size once done.

[Bruce D]

Will still be fairly large, I've converted to flv and it was 190mb, but the file won't play.

[Barreis]

If you can do something to work we can put it on our site
http://www.rally-emotions.com/
that everybody can see it 'cos we all think that it's interesting championship in country that started with s2000 cars.

[Grant_RSA]

I leave for the Sasol rally tomorrow morning, so will report back next week! :-)

[Bruce D]

Sounds like the Sasol will be a rough event with a total lottery being the weather, rain expected on all days.

[Barreis]

Will be tricky then.

[Bruce D]

Sasol Rally has started sunny by a threat of rain. Mark Cronje won the first stage, Giniel de Villiers has crashed out on SS1. On SS2 many people lost time, reasons unknown at this stage, Jan Habig has taken the lead from Johnny Gemmell by 6.8s, 3rd Leeroy Poulter +13.4, 4th Enzo Kuun +16.0s, 5th Hergen Fekken +20.2s, 6th Conrad Rautenbach +22.4s

[Bruce D]

Tjaart Conradie has hit a bridge in his A6 Auris and is blocking the stage on SS2. So far of the few through SS3 Habig is consolidating his lead.

[Mirek]

Is there some link to live results?

[Divan]

Check the following link, Evan updates regularly.

http://handbrakeshairpins.wordpress.com/

[Mirek]

Thanks

[Bruce D]

Overall positions after SS7:

1) Gemmell – 74m 34.9s
2) Habig +2s
3) Poulter +4.2s
4) Fekken +26.9s
5) JP. Damseaux +110.9s
6) Rautenbach +127.3s
7) Wilken +166.2s
8) Moosa +185.5s
9) Cronje +193.4s
10) Ryan +369.1s

[Bruce D]

Just got news that Habig rolled out while leading on day 2, handing the lead to Gemmell, who then lost the lead to teammate Poulter, who went on to win his first SARC event. Looks like Rautenbach was 3rd at this point but I'll get proper results tomorrow.

[Bruce D]

FINAL RESULTS

1. Leeroy Poulter - Toyota Auris S2000 - 137:27.4
2. Johnny Gemmell - Toyota Auris S2000 - 137:35.0
3. Conrad Rautenbach - Ford Fiesta S2000 - 139:12.3
4. Jean-Pierre Damseaux - Toyota RunX S2000 - 140:29.2
5. Mark Cronje - Ford Fiesta S2000 - 140:54.4
6. Charl Wilken - Ford Fiesta S2000 - 141:48.2
7. Hergen Fekken - VW Polo S2000 - 142:04.9
8. Mohammed Moosa (Grant_SA) - Toyota RunX S2000 - 143:11.4
9. Nicholas Ryan - VW Polo S2000 - 143:48.1
10. Heinrich Lategan - Peugeot 207 S2000 - 147:10.3

[Grant_RSA]

Rally was wild and very rough,

8th position not to bad,

here is some action, not us sadly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPSu1b2KsuY

[Bruce D]

Right, seen as it takes MSA 6 months to update the championship here is my unofficial championship standings:

DRIVERS
1. Conrad Rautenbach - 44pts
2. Jean-Pierre Damseaux - 33
3. Johnny Gemmell - 32
4. Hergen Fekken - 31
5. Enzo Kuun - 28
6. Nicholas Ryan - 27
7. Charl Wilken - 25
8. Leeroy Poulter - 25
9. Jon Williams - 24
10. Jan Habig - 21
etc
(Grant, I make you guys 13th overall at this stage on 15pts)

Co-Drivers
1. Carolyn Swann - 36pts
2. Pierre Arries - 34
3. Drew Sturrock - 33
4. Guy Hodgson - 31
5. Geoff Tyrer - 29
6. Greg Godrich - 27
7. Cobus Vrey - 26
8. Robert Paisley - 25
9. Elvene Coetzee - 25
10. Ralph Pitchford - 22
11. Grant Martin - 17
etc

S2000 Class
1. Rautenbach - 25
2. Poulter - 15
3. Damseaux - 14
4. Gemmell - 13
5. Habig - 12
6. Fekken - 12
7. Kuun - 10
8. Ryan - 7
9. Cronje - 6
10. Wilken - 5
etc

S1600 Class
1. Christoff Synders - 18
2. Craig Trott - 14
3. Ashley Haigh-Smith - 12
4. Clint Weston - 11
5. Tjaart Conradie - 10
6. Guy Botterill - 5
7. Paul Franken - 4

S1400 Class
1. Megan Verlaque - 3
1. Henk Lategan - 3

Junior SARC
1. Snyders - 44
2. Trott - 38
3. Weston - 35
4. Haigh-Smith - 25
5. Conradie - 21
6. Botterill - 17
7. Lategan - 16
8. Franken - 15
9. Verlaque - 14

Manufacturers

1. Toyota - 225
2. Volkswagen - 222
3. Ford - 170
4. Subaru - 13
5. Peugeot - 8

[Grant_RSA]

Bruce your fast :-) maybe you should offer your services to update :-)

[Bruce D]

Dude, I did that during my 30min lunch break using their own spreadsheet. Enough said...

[Grant_RSA]

All good,

Rally was really hectic, The Toyota's were driving out of their skin. I am surprised there werent more than just the 2 rolls , the amount of jumps probably took up half of the calls on the event.

Drew Sturrock commented to me that its insane that in this country everyone goes out balls to the wall from stage 1.

[Bruce D]

I noticed that most of Dave's photos were of cars going over jumps, that did make me wonder.

Yeah the thing is here you have to be up in the front from the word go otherwise you'll just be too far back. I mean you would have missed the WRC Jordan stage but there was a big fight for the lead there but if any of those guys had lost time they would have dropped to 3rd or 4th at worse, here you can drop a long way back. Look at Cronje, lost time in the dust and overheating and just made it back into the top 5 on a rally where everything was happening.

The guy who is the most consistent points scorer is going to win this championship as I think wins will be shared around quite a lot, plus if Habig can crash out, then anyone can, he was the last guy I thought would chuck it away although I don't know yet whether it was a unlucky moment or what.

[Grant_RSA]

At those speeds your either lucky or your not, there are so many factors that can take you out, i just know it was a big one. Habig really looked to be on a mission when we say him pull away on SS4, you could see the cars climbing into a mountain and the determination was pretty evident, and this on a stage that could bite your backside properly.

They will no doubt be back next event even more determined.

[Bruce D]

Just seen the released official points and there are a few errors. Schalk Burger's Impreza is now classified as A7??? How does that work? And then he isn't mentioned in the manufacturers.

[Barreis]

All good,
Drew Sturrock commented to me that its insane that in this country everyone goes out balls to the wall from stage 1.

I like this.

[Grant_RSA]

Round 3 this coming weekend, been through our notes and its pretty damn fast, so is going to be incredibly close at the sharp end of the field, with alot of cars in contention.

[Bruce D]

Hmm, not much difference in top end power between these guys, so that means the tight stuff is going to be important. Going to be an interesting rally this one, been a while since things were in the Witbank area if I remember correctly, although the old Wesbank Rally was run in that area for a while.

[Bruce D]

Just read on Rallyworld.net that JP Damseaux will have a Auris later this season. That should be interesting given how well he's driven this season so far. Are they getting serious about defending Carolyn's points lead?

[Grant_RSA]

I think many were waiting to see what kind of strides Toyota had made in the offseason before commiting to buying a new car, was quite surprised to read it myself.

The Fords may struggle a bit on this really fast event, their long ratio boxes are about as long as our long boxes, so they may loose out a bit on top end.

[Bruce D]

Would be interesting to see if it has all the latest works kit on it though, but I'm sure Serge would pull a few strings. ;)

I've got my doubts about the high-speed stability of the Fords as well so it may not be their event.

[Grant_RSA]

Just saw what i wrote, let me re-phrase,

the Ford long ratio boxes are close to the same as our short ratio boxes.

[Bruce D]

I thought that was what you meant but then I wasn't so sure. The thing is do you risk changing to the long ratio box for lack of acceleration over gaining maybe a few km/h in a few places.

[Grant_RSA]

Few places is major understatement, there are LOTS of very long straights. like alot of see 1300

[Bruce D]

I'm not a fan of rallies like that. Doesn't prove much besides who has the longest gear ratios and the best brakes.

[Bruce D]

About the only chance I'll have to keep everyone updated here but after SS2 Conrad Rautenbach (Ford) leads by 0.7s from Charl Wilken (Ford), 3rd Habig (VW) +4.4s, 4th Cronje (Ford) +6.8s, 5th Poulter (Toyota) +6.9s, 6th Williams (Ford) +8.5s, 7th Fekken (VW) +9.8s, 8th Gemmell (Toyota) +9.9s, 9th Damseaux (Toyota) +10.2s, 10th de Villiers (VW) +10.7s

No room for mistakes here so far!

[Bruce D]

Wilken led overnight but then Day 2 saw a epic battle between him, Rautenbach and Gemmell. Rautenbach took the lead with 1 stage to go but Wilken couldn't get it back in time and lost the rally by 2.5s! Gemmell lost time near the end with a overshoot which cost him 30sec and dropped him to 4th, although he fought back to 3rd in the end. I'll post points later.

FINAL RESULTS
1. Conrad Rauntenbach - Ford - 1:37:01.5
2. Charl Wilken - Ford - 1:37:04.0
3. Johnny Gemmell - Toyota - 1:37:36.7
4. Jan Habig - VW - 1:37:47.0
5. Hergen Fekken - VW - 1:37:52.5
6. Jon Williams - Ford - 1:38:19.3
7. Giniel de Villiers - VW - 1:38:22.6
8. Mark Cronje - Ford - 1:38:46.9
9. Enzo Kuun - VW - 1:39.30.5
10. Nicholas Ryan - VW - 1:40:04.1

12th overall after clutch trouble on day 1 were Mohammed Moosa / Grant_SA.

[Grant_RSA]

Well guess i was totally wrong about the Fords :-/

Clutch on day 1, a wrong slot , no brakes for 2 stages and a broken drive shaft on day 2, not our most stellar performance ever.

Please keep photographer Deon van der Merwe in your prayers, he was hit in SS6 by a rally car and last i heard is in ICU.

[Bruce D]

Got an update on Deon this morning, critical condition, was put in an induced coma at the scene of the accident and the doctors can't operate on his head injuries until the swelling goes down. Sounds very bad at this stage.

[Bruce D]

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

All unofficial, my calculations.

OVERALL DRIVERS
1. Conrad Rautenbach - 69pts
2. Johnny Gemmell - 51
3. Hergen Fekken - 47
4. Charl Wilken - 46
5. Jean-Pierre Damseaux - 43
6. Enzo Kuun - 40
7. Jon Williams - 39
8. Nicholas Ryan - 38
8. Jan Habig - 38
10. Giniel de Villiers 33
13 Mohammed Moosa - 24

OVERALL CO-DRIVERS
1. Drew Sturrock - 54
2. Greg Godrich - 52
3. Pierre Arries - 51
4. Carolyn Swan - 47
5. Guy Hodgson - 44
5. Robert Paisley - 44
7. Cobus Vrey - 42
8. Geoff Tyrer - 41
9. Ralph Pitchford - 36
10. Elvene Coetzee - 31
10. Robin Houghton - 31
12. Grant Martin - 27

S2000 DRIVERS
1. Rautenbach - 40
2. Gemmell - 23
3. Habig - 20
4. Fekken - 18
5. Wilken - 17
6. Poulter - 15
7. Damseaux - 14
8. Kuun - 12
9. Cronje - 9
9. Williams - 9

S1600 DRIVERS
1. Snyders - 33
2. Trott - 24
2. Haigh-Smith - 24
4. Botterill - 13
5. Weston - 11
6. Conradie - 10
7. Himmell H. - 6
8. Himmell R. - 5
9. Franken - 4
9. Zulu - 4

S1400 DRIVERS
1. Lategan - 6
2. Verlaque - 3

A7 DRIVERS
1. Burger - 2
2. Reyneke - 1

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Snyders - 69
2. Trott - 57
3. Haigh-Smith - 46
4. Weston - 35
5. Botterill - 34
6. Lategan - 31
6. Conradie - 21
8. Himmell H. - 16
9. Franken - 15
10. Verlaque - 14
10. Himmell R. - 14

MANUFACTURERS
1. Volkswagen - 338
2. Toyota - 303
3. Ford - 294
4. Peugeot - 27
5. Subaru - 16
6. Mitsubishi - 8

[Bruce D]

What really ticks me off is News24 now making a bit song and dance about it - they never talk about rallying until someone gets hurt. And also Visser du Plessis distributing photos of the guy in hospital. Something seriously wrong with these people.

[Mirek]

That's unfortunately same everywhere...

[Bruce D]

So the official points have been released and I'm still dumbfounded that Burger's points for A7 were counted for the Sasol Rally, even though he was in a N4 Lancer. Come on MSA, get it right now!

[Grant_RSA]

Round 4 next weekend, Toyota Dealer Gauteng rally,

I will check the DVD this weekend, but conditions likely to be similar to the last round, so should be really fast and flowing.

[Barreis]

Very fast championship.

[Bruce D]

Yeah Gauteng this weekend, Jean-Pierre Damseaux should be in his new Toyota Auris and the Peugeot team are saying they've found improvements for this event. Should be interesting, I just want to see if Rautenbach can continue his consistent run as the Toyotas look very strong at the moment. Not sure if we'll see the new Polo yet either, that might only come out for the next round, the VW Rally.

[Grant_RSA]

Apparently JP's Auris deal was only a rumour.

VW's new cars willl apparently debut on their home event, but could be more rumours,

It's like silly season in the middle of the season :-D

[Bruce D]

Yeah VW said they'd have the new car last year on their event and it never arrived. I thought the new car was the one they revealed on the Tour but clearly not.

As for JP, that would be a pity cos he's definately driving much better this season than he has for a while. My father spoke to Serge on the Tour and he said that Toyota wanted crazy money for a works spec Auris, something like R3.6 million which he couldn't justify. I wouldn't be surprised to see JP in a Polo next season, although it depends on the the link between Toyota and Total.

[Bruce D]

Gauteng Rally starts today, apparently it's 0 degrees Celcius at the moment, should make an interesting rally, not sure we've run an event in such colder weather in years.