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Sasol has withdrawn as series sponsor but there are rumours that Total may take over the spot.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