Exciting rally action looms for Algoa season’s opening round
The Regional Rally Championship roars to life this weekend in the opening round of the Algoa Rally Club season with the Daniel Pienaar Technical High School Rally taking place in and around Kariega and Despatch tomorrow.
Daniel Pienaar is one of only a few schools worldwide that offer motorsport as an extra-curricular activity and pupils can obtain colours for their achievements.
They will be running two cars in the rally, with De Villiers Wessels driving a VW Polo 250 and teacher Francois Anker navigating for him, and a VW Golf A1 with Ulrich Roberts doing the driving and Wesley Schultz the navigating.
The rally that starts at 10am tomorrow will comprise eight stages, with the first and last taking place on the schoolgrounds and the other six being held at Innibos and Spidersweb on the outskirts of Kariega and Despatch.
The main service park will be at the Innibos Party Venue and spectators are encouraged to base themselves there to get an opportunity to meet the competitors and have a close look at the cars taking part.
There are catering and braai facilities, toilets and ample parking all within walking distance of stages 2, 3 and 5.
A full spectator guide can be found on the Algoa Rally Club Facebook page.
With 23 cars, ranging from the latest spec Toyota S2000 to some classic retro Nissan Skylines, a Datsun SSS and some Toyota Corolla and Conquests, already having entered, it promises to be an actionpacked affair.
A particular highlight will be the attendance of Kassie Coetzee, whose rally career spanned 1967 to 1999.
He was a well-known figure in the 1980s heyday of rallying in the Wiel-sponsored Nissan Skyline, competing against drivers like Sarel van de Merwe, Serge Damseux, Hannes Grobler and Jannie Habig.
Coetzee will be making the trip from Mpumalanga to see his old Skyline taking part in the rally, with East London’s Wade van Zummeren behind the wheel and experienced navigator Robbie Coetzee reading the notes alongside him.
Martin van Zummeren will be racing a similar 2.8-litre Nissan Skyline with navigator Shaylene Godfrey alongside him and Jody van Zummeren will be driving a Classic Datsun PS10 alongside James Johnston.
Defending Algoa Rally Club champions Oliver de Man and navigator Ingrid Jeacocks return this season in a classic Toyota Dealer Team-built 2.2litre Corolla that featured in the early eighties.
Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout will be debuting their new Toyota Auris 4-wheel drive S2000 and have handed their VW Polo 1600 to the capable pairing of Riekus Schmidt and Sherilee Pieterse.
They will be joined by the regular Polo pairings of Neels Vosloo and Rikus Fourie, siblings Ross and Roxanne Bartle, Clyde Challenor and Grayham Bishop, father and daughter Johan and Juane Viljoen, husband and wife Juan and Tarryn van Rooyen, Deon Kretzmann and Jason Schreiber, Gary Heine and Demi Kretzmann and husband and wife Marco and Malise Griesel.
Jeandre’ Marais and Tegan Taljaard in their Humansdorp Toyota-backed Conquest will be hoping to continue the form that took them to overall class victory last season and will be up against another classic Conquest in the hands of Francois Laubscher and Mark Irvine.
Crowd favourite Eddie Banks returns with Marius Rautenbach alongside in his
BMW E36 and will no doubt keep the crowd entertained with lots of sideways action.
Another man not scared to put his car sideways through a corner is Etienne Malherbe in his well-known Datsun SSS.
He has paired up with Henry Adams and they should be a force to be reckoned with.
Rounding out the field are Herman Bernhardt and JP Smit in a Ford Escort, Jeandre Coetzer and Vincent Davies in a Toyota Corolla and Francois Vermaak and Handre van Schalkwyk in a VW Golf A1.