Bela-Bela Rally brings 2014 season to an exciting close

THE 2014 South African National Rally Championship comes to a close with the all-new Bela-Bela Motor Rally in Limpopo Province this Friday and Saturday.

Appropriately, in what has been an absorbing potboiler of a championship, spread over eight rounds and six provinces, the 10-special stage event will be centred on the historic town of Bela-Bela (“the pot that boils” in the local language, Tswana), formerly known as Warmbaths, whose name is derived from the geothermic hot springs around which the town is built.

Starting at 1pm tomorrow from the Bela Mall in Mark Street, it will be a spectatorfriendly event centred around the Forever Resort.

The title has already been wrapped up by Castrol Toyota’s Leeroy Poulter and his navigator Elvéne Coetzee, so the attention is shifting to the battle for second place. In the running for runner-up position are Castrol Toyota’s Herken Fekken/Carolyn Swan, and Volkswagen Sasolracing’s Dutch driver Hans Weijs Jnr and his navigator Björn Degandt.

Last year’s champions, Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton in the Ford Dealer Team Fiesta, would also love to finish off a troubled season with a victory.

By their standards, their 2014 campaign has been indifferent and the 2012 and 2013 champions can so far only look back on two victories this season in a year which has been a real test of character.

When things go well, the Ford Dealer Team Fiesta S2000 has been the fastest car over just about any given stage. - Motoring Staff