Rallying sisters Lola and Megan Verlaque came through their baptism of fire in the top class of the Sasol SA Rally Championship season-opener in KwaZulu Natal on Saturday with flying colours, finishing a creditable 11th overall and seventh in class S2000.
The Total Tour Natal Rally proved to be a searching test in extremely hot conditions on Friday and wet and muddy conditions on Saturday. Following their successful debut in their new four-wheel drive Volkswagen Polo in the Rally of Tanzania three weeks ago, where they finished fourth overall in the African Rally Championship event, the Rally Chicks knew that the traditionally testing Tour Natal would be a bigger challenge.
“We managed to complete the Tanzanian event without any serious damage to our car and were just hoping to survive the Tour Natal and not make fools of ourselves in only our second event in the S2000 Polo,” said Lola.
“It’s very different to the Subaru and Mitsubishi class N4 production cars we have been rallying up to now. It’s a real racing car with brakes that really work and it keeps us very busy in the cockpit and very much on our toes.
“We had problems with the power steering on Friday and I had to work very hard to keep it on the road. We started off well enough but our times got progressively slower and we were only 17th overall and eighth in our class at the overnight stop on Friday.
“Thanks to the Volkswagen technicians we were able to replace the steering rack and power steering overnight and I didn’t have to battle so much on Saturday,” said Lola.
“We had no more problems and were very happy to finish what was a very tough event. It’s going to take a few events to get to know this new car and learn how to drive it properly.”
The girls’ efforts were rewarded at a lavish prize-giving at the Durban International Conference Centre, attended by a number of VIP guests and celebrities including Miss South Africa 2008, Tatum Keshwar, where they received the award for the highest-placed lady crew.
They will miss the next round of the Sasol Rally Championship, the Toyota Dealer Rally in the Western Cape, as they will be travelling to East Africa to contest round two of the African Rally Championship, Safari Rally Kenya on April 3 to 5.