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Sasol has withdrawn as series sponsor but there are rumours that Total may take over the spot.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