THE Volkswagen Sasolracing rally team head to Mpumalanga for the second round of the South African National Rally Championship. With one podium result for the season already under the belt, the team is eager to put more points on their national score card at
At the first round of the season, in KwaZulu-Natal, it was Henk Lategan and Barry White who stepped up to take the Volkswagen Sasolracing team’s first podium result – claiming third overall.
“Henk and Barry produced a good result for round one,” says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “They’ve opened the 2015 season for the Volkswagen Sasolracing team with a podium and we expect they’ll continue on this trend throughout the season.”
Gugu Zulu and Pierre Arries displayed surprising pace considering it was only their first outing together. With the focus on building communication in the car and learning to work as a team, they produced a strong finish, just outside of the top five finishers for round one.
“Sixth across the line at the Tour Natal was a bit better than we predicted for Gugu and Pierre,” says Rowe. “Attacking stages in the S2000 category successfully requires good pace which is only possible if the team works well together in the car. At the rate they race through the stages the driver and navigator have to work well together to record the best possible time. For Gugu and Pierre to show they pace they already have is extremely encouraging for the rest of this season.”
Hans Weijs Jnr and Björn Degandt have thrown down the gauntlet for the Sasol Rally. Rolling their Volkswagen Sasolracing S2000 at the Tour Natal means Weijs has the bit firmly between his teeth. He indicated his intentions for the Sasol Rally at the first round.
“The Sasol Rally is mine,” says Weijs. “We had good pace and were on track to produce good stages times, things didn’t work out at the Tour Natal, but I’m determined for the Sasol Rally.”
Each of the Volkswagen Sasolracing S2000s have specific goals in mind for the Sasol Rally – and each of these will see the team aiming for maximum pace out on the stages, producing some high-speed rally action to delight fans.