Jan Habig and Douglas Judd, the reigning National Rally Champions, and fellow class A8 Sasol DualFuel™ Volkswagen Golf teammates Enzo Kuun/Pierre Arries are locked in a fierce battle for the 2002 rally championship drivers’/co-drivers’ titles, amongst other scores to be settled on 18/19 October in Limpopo Province, around Polokwane and Tzaneen. –
– The final of eight rounds, the Pretoria Motor Club-organised Toyota Dealers Great North Rally closes a thrilling MSA National Rally Championship with the overall championship titles up for grabs, as well as those for classes A8, A7 and A6. For the manufacturers involved in SA rallying, the final forest race will be equally fraught as Volkswagen heads long-time rivals Toyota by just seven points. –
– Two victories and four second place finishes have given Habig/Judd a 10 point lead over the thrice victorious Kuun/Arries and leaves Kuun with a mountain to climb. Kuun must win, with Habig finishing lower than third, to clinch the elusive title. –
– Although out of the title hunt, the factory-entered Team Castrol Toyota Corolla duo of Serge Damseaux/Robert Paisley will be out to spoil things for Volkswagen and will be aiming to score maximum points for the Japanese marque in the manufacturers challenge. Damseaux has two victories, both in the Western Cape, to show for his efforts this year after a torrid season of mechanical issues and in-car errors. Should Damseaux hare off into the lead, Habig can afford to let him go, while Kuun will have to drive hard to challenge for outright victory. –
– Class A7 is even closer, with two points separating the current class champion Tjaart van der Walt/Mike Burrows (Sasol DualFuel Volkswagen Polo Playa) from the Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi of Etienne Lourens/Andre Vermeulen, who have clinched four class victories this year, the last three in succession. Lourens had a slow start to this year, the first that Toyota has competed in class A7, but ongoing development has seen the Corolla hit the outright class pace with a vengeance. –
– Third on the class A7 points log, Hergen Fekken/Dave Lewkowicz (Sasol DualFuel VW Polo Playa) are nine points behind Lourens and can still snatch the title, in spite of crashing out of the class lead on stage nine of the Subaru Cape Rally last month. The class A7 war is one that will have spectators riveted to their vantage points in the forests of Limpopo Province. –
– The Sasol DualFuel Volkswagen Dealer Team trio of Barry Grobbelaar/Paul van Wyk, Tony Ball/Dean Redelinghuys and Keith Coleman/Uwe Koch have all had great runs this year and are good at finishing in the top 10. The pressure will be on them to add points to Volkwagen’s tally on the final event. –
– Making their debut with a new class A7 E46-bodied BMW, the Topcar Fuchs Titan BMW of Cliff Blackman/Johan Klaasen will use the event as a development exercise for an assault on the 2003 class championship, and add much needed variety to the rally scene. As the only rear-wheel drive entry, the Topcar pairing have thrilled spectators throughout the country with its tail-out sideways driving style. –
– Other class A7 runners include Robin Goodman/Greg Godrich (LUK BMS VW Polo Playa), Adrian Karth/Rikus Fourie (Shatterprufe VW Playa) and Rocky Reyneke/Andre Pheiffer (Hencom VW Golf). –
– Class N4, for turbo-charged near-standard production cars, could provide a surprise winner if conditions favour the four-wheel drive machines prevalent in the class. Spaniard Fernando Rueda/Martin Botha (Motion Vehicle Wholesalers Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6) head the class points log in spite of a non-finish in the wheat fields and are 19 points ahead of their closest challenger Pretoria Subaru Impreza WRX pilot Leon Botha. –
– Botha has leapt to second on the N4 points log in spite of only joining the series on the Sasol Rally in June, but has consistently finished in the top eight since then. Schalk Burger/Piet Swanepoel (Bridgestone Sasol Subaru Impreza WRX STi), the current FIA African Rally Champions, won their class and ended a commendable 4th overall in the Cape last month, and will be out to show the throngs of spectators the pace and style which won them the ARC crown last year. –
– Other Subaru Impreza runners are Mally Saville/Alec Harris (Auto Services Subaru), a consistent finisher this year, Lola Verlaque/Greg Gericke, Nicholas Ryan/Brian Carrihill (ABC Motors Impreza GT) and Marius Swart. –
– An exciting newcomer to class N4 is the VolkswagenSure-supported Golf Tdi of Marthinus Briers/Surita Vrey. On their debut event last month, the car ingested water on the first stage of day two, forcing it’s retirement, but the lessons learnt on that event will be put to good use this time out. –
– Class A6 is another that is unresolved in championship terms. Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Kobus Vrey and Craig Trott/Gerhard Snyman, both driving identical Team Total Toyota Corollas, are separated by four points, the younger Damseaux ahead of his KZN teammates. –
– Consistency has favoured Trott, with six points-scoring events against Damseaux’s four points hauls, and with neither crew enjoying a ‘home-town’ advantage, both will do their utmost to clinch the class crown. –
– The talented Visser du Plessis, now teamed with Richard Clark (Car Cosmetics Toyota Corolla) has sadly had an awful season, with just one points’ scoring finish this year from seven outings, while privateer Natalian Chris de Wit/Shane Saville (CTH Transport Toyota Conquest) has surprised everyone with his pace and consistency with three top ten placings in spite of his outdated machinery. –
– Other KZN runners making the trip are Peter Teague/Donovan Brown (Hi-Q VW Polo Playa) and Ken Westermayer/Warren Morton (Transaxle VW Polo Playa), both capable of finishing well up the order. –
– The numerically strong class A5 championship has already been sealed by the current class title-holders Rodney Visagie/Carolyn Swan in their Team Total Toyota Tazz after scoring four class wins and a second place this season. –
– Challengers for class honours on the Toyota Dealers Great North Rally will come from the Sasol DualFuel Junior Team Chicos of Kobus Roos/Brendan Nunan, Gugu Zulu/Dave McGregor and Nkosinathi Nzimande/Fani Fani Mayiwa, with Roos/Nunan most likely to cause an upset at the front of the A5 field. –
– Michael Houghton/Craig Jennings (Toy Toy Toyota Tazz) is another top class runner, while the Nelspruit husband and wife combo of Joel and Anneke Ritson (Malelane Toyota Tazz) have recently entered the class. –
– The Castrol Toyota Media Challenge is deadlocked at the head of their ‘rally-within-a-rally’ points table. All running identical class A5 Toyota Tazzes, Topcar and Drive/Wiel have each won three rallies, with a single victory for debutant rallyist Steven Mearns/Cirian Nunan (Cars In Action/Motorsport Africa) on the Motorpics Mountain Trial in August. The motoring scribes may individually compete in a maximum of four events each, thus it’s anybody’s guess as to the driver combinations to be entered by the motoring publications involved. –
– The class N3 battle has already been won by Geoff Mortimer/Gerry Gericke (Nissan Finance/Sasol Sentra) after the AutoXtra Renault Clio was forced out of the series following a road accident after the Volkswagen Rally in July, hospitalising the driver Ferdi Koekemoer. –
– Team Total has all but sewn up the class N2 title, with Dean Sanders/Ashley Gericke (Team Total Toyota Corolla) a safe 22 points ahead of Richard Behm/Grant St Clair (Palbin Toyota Corolla RSi). Behm would have to exceed his career best 9th place finish (scored on the Tre Cento Rally in April) and Sanders would have to non-finish for Sanders to lose the title. –
– Of more interest to Sanders, is the overall Production Car title, which he and Gericke lead by seven points from the more powerful Mitsubishi of Rueda/Martin. –
– Newcomers Gregory Bloomer/Gregory Wood (Toy Toy Toyota Tazz) have effectively secured the class N1 title, with nearly double the points of their nearest challengers, the development Team Total Sowetan Toyota Tazz pairing of Vusi Mabanga/Patrick Yende. Mabanga and Yende have faced a massive learning curve, including a few accidents in their debut year in the sport, but enjoyed a class win in April on the Tre Cento Rally in Cape Town. –
– The weather has played havoc with the Great North Rally in the recent past, with incessant rain the order of the day. The 2002 Toyota Dealers Great North Rally starts in Polokwane (Pietersburg) on Friday, 18 October at noon, with four stages in and around the Limpopo Province capital, before moving towards Magoebaskloof and the tea plantations. A dinner break in Tzaneen before two night stages completes the first day’s running. –
– Stages in the Agatha, Tzaneen and Duiwelskloof areas make up day two, with the first crews due at the finish at the Ben Vorster High School in Tzaneen at 15h00, when all the overall and class titles will be revealed for another year.
