Despite being forced out of the season-opening Total Tour Natal Rally on Saturday, former production car champion Visser du Plessis showed in the 11 special stages he completed during the two-day event in KwaZulu Natal that he is again going to be a force to be reckoned with in this year’s Sasol SA Rally Championship.
Du Plessis, with Gerhard Snyman reading the route notes alongside him, drove his Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14 as well as he ever has and closely contested the class N4 production car honours with reigning champions Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich (Subaru Impreza N14) and Hein Lategan/Johan van der Merwe (Subaru Impreza) before his diff broke four stages from the finish. At the time he was lying third overall and second in class.
With Wilken going on to finish second overall behind the S2000 Toyota RunX of Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh and ahead of the S2000 Volkswagen Polo of reigning national champions Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries, Du Plessis was left to rue a mechanical failure that probably robbed him of a podium finish.
“We were 100% better than we were at the end of last year,” he said. “For the first time since we got it, my car is making the right power, it handles better and it will improve even more.
“We were right on the pace throughout the event and pushing the factory S2000 cars. With fine tuning and the right attention to every little detail, we can aim for a top five finish in every single event in this year’s championship.
“We lost some time on day one with the diff not locking under braking, but we fixed this at the end of the day and were confident for Saturday’s eight stages. We were just 15 seconds behind Charl and fourth overall.
“We had navigational problems on Saturday’s first stage and lost about 40 seconds altogether after twice taking a wrong turn. I put my head down and pushed really hard for a couple of stages and was making good times.
“On stage 10 I noticed the car was shuddering under braking and reported this to my service crew, but I think it was the start of the problem that eventually left us without any gears in stage 11.
“We demonstrated this weekend that, given the right equipment, we can challenge for the production car lead. I think we’re going to have a great contest this season with Charl and Hein and I’m sure we’re going to get among the S2000s on occasion. We’re all good drivers and we’re pushing each other.
“I have to thank my service crew and engineer Freddie Pretorius as well as Hein Lategan for their support. Hein and I are an unofficial team and his technical input is invaluable,” said Du Plessis.
The next round of the Sasol Rally Championship is the Toyota Dealer Rally in the Western Cape on April 3 and 4.