There is not one single activity – except maybe – … well no, thinking of it, I cannot think of any activity these days that does not need to be jacked up to tipping point to survive in a mainstream offering everything just short of snuff movies*. If you have the right contacts you can apparently watch that as well.
The competition out there is simply too fierce to think that you will be able to draw a crowd or even get on a minor radio station with an egg and spoon run.
Real life is competing with animation that has become so real, it is difficult to know which is which.
Kids are brought up in a world of super heroes, super cars, super everything, while their parents and grandparents are still what they were a 100 years ago, although they also know how to switch on a dishwasher, cell phone and drive a car with the latter, head-clamped between shoulder and ear.
Social life even religion, suffered from an overdose of many things. TV, rent-a-movie without lifting more than a finger – something that all but killed the video rental business and caused many job-losses.
Super markets destroyed almost every small business venture – florists, butchers, green grocers, typical book shops and even the traditional biltong kiosk.
Liquor stores and chemists now have to fight discount chains, filling station owners are working for the oil companies and collect more money for the state than for their own pocket.
Lawyers have to fight “legal eagle” membership and even insurance companies cut out the middleman and now offer to give almost everything back that you have paid in over a few years.
Realism simply lost its appeal.
Gone are the days when it was almost natural for a family to sit down and play a game of Monopoly, Chinese Checkers (hope that is not seen as a racial slur)… when last did you see kids running around outside playing hide and seek or hop scotch?
A mountain bike – worthwhile but not peddling itself apparently can remove something in the order of a R100K from your already loaded credit card.
The ideal putter in golf gets mentioned as the last straw in many divorce cases.
If a new car launch is not held overseas or at least in a five star facility over a long weekend, it is a second rate car in the eyes of some editors.
If you do not undergo a pigment change and have white friends who will sponsor a bribe with six zeroes after anything better than a 2 – you will not be able to share in money handed out for work not done.
Life is short – especially in South Africa is not a joke.
Somewhere in this entertainment chain lies a sport called rallying.
It suffers from all above symptoms but characteristic to almost every form of motorsport it seems to be restricted to two or maybe three names that can win events. It is like Superman versus Mr Bean.
Money is the name of the game and the rich or well-connected walks away with the fame.
Of course you need some serious talent to be able to keep a car on the road – especially if you have to drive over your and the car’s limit to get onto the podium.
But still – back there in the field – there may just be a person whose cousin is driving around in a 1600 Ford Cortina bakkie with four used spares, a hydraulic jack, a wheel and shifting spanner on the back, to keep him in the event – who will, given half a chance in a proper car, get onto that podium.
The sport is like F1 and most other motorsport related activities – money driven.
The group of friends who initially organised a race on gravel between two towns after an afternoon in the pub, have all been forgotten.
You now either bring a canon to a gunfight or stay at home.
Still – the rally this weekend has to take place. We simply have to determine a champion for 2015.
At the start of this season one of the biggest gripes I had with the sport was the fact that Volkswagen still made use of an overseas driver – who has not really ever rated in my book. That factor has now at least been put right and VWSA is fielding a South African team.
Toyota on the other hand has through an incredible engineering effort managed to up their game on the car side so much that they have not only become a factor but have also matched their driver’s skills with cars that can keep up with the M-Sport Ford – which need no introduction on the world rally scene.
Volkswagen on the other hand had such a fountain of overseas knowledge to drink from that anyone with a bit of rally savvy had to place all bets on the VWSA team to win event at will.
On paper they still look very competitive and should actually be near, if not on top of the game in South Africa?
Let us however look at what happened so far this season.
Mark Cronje in the Ford kicked off with a start that seemed to be unstoppable, managing to win the first three events on a trot and then – out of the blue or was it the Bela-Bela dust popped Leeroy Poulter and a Toyota that seemed to be more than just a notch above the rest.
Cronje tried – had an early mishap – lost time and could simply not catch the flying Poulter again.
Then the circus moved to the Eastern Cape – home of Volkswagen. Poulter took the lead from the word go and changed what VW though belonged to them, into a Toyota home.
Once again an early mishap played havoc with Cronje’s chances – but one thing was sure – if you removed the time lost due to problems in two stages – the rally would have belonged to him. The fact that it rained like hell – well that did not favour any one of the top two drivers. It was a gamble for Cronje and a relief to Poulter that he managed to stay ahead and on the road.
Giniel did well to ride shotgun for Poulter but attacked and posted excellent times in his own right.
The Cullinan area however gives quite a mix of different types of surface – and the Ford should come to its right even though this is not the favourite hunting grounds of this team.
This is also the type of rally that may just as easy go to an experienced driver such as Hergen Fekken – which would maybe save a few faces in the Volkswagen camp and at the same time help the sport along a bit.
The fact that the organiser has placed some chicanes in the stages indicate that they managed to get long straights that will of course not prove much more than that the cars are using the same gear ratios.
The playing field is quite level on this event and bar a few tricky spots – the times should be quite close to each other – but as you know, it will not be. The top two or maybe three drivers will manage to pull away just managing to be quicker where it counts.
A dark horse on this type of event is Japie van Niekerk. He might be programmed in either – all or nothing or “I have nothing to prove” mode. The latter is my bet – especially after the recent finding in the Sasol incident between Lategan and him.
The basic ruling boils down to this, “In the circumstances and taking the following FIA rule (Clause 20.1.4 of the 2015 FIA Rallies Rule Book/Year Book) into consideration, the accident is deemed to be a ‘racing accident’, with no action required to be taken against either of the drivers.”
This court also found that van Niekerk could have done a few other things to lessen the severity of the accident. Yea, he could have gone into the spectators I suppose? Then they also thought that the “lack of visibility” counted in Lategan’s favour – wow, driving without being able to see what was coming knowing that there have to be another car on its way – should maybe be seen as extremely reckless?
I am not so sure that van Niekerk will take this finding lying down – and I don’t think we have seen the end of this little story. Time will tell.
Day One takes place in the Zonderwater grounds and few drivers do not know those stages by heart. This could result in a bit of a surprise at the end of day one, but again – I doubt it.
Day two more point and squirt stuff with the chicanes in SS5 and its repeat, while SS6 and 9 will offer a few challenges in the form of jumps and a few overshoots.
SS7 and 10 will also not serve as definite deciders – so in short if it was not for the expected sandy sections in the stages used on day Two this rally will have been a bit of a toss up to decide who will walk away with the spoils.
I have a feeling that the Toyotas may just come out on top again – while the Ford of Cronje will have to fight for a place in the sun.
Volkswagen still has to come to the party this year.
The point difference between Cronje and Poulter as it stands now, allowing for one event to be dropped will be 60 to Cronje and 56 to Poulter. Need I say that we are going to see some serious driving on the last three rallies. I think we can expect the championship to go the full eight rounds.
In the NRC4 class we find Theuns Joubert, Wilro Dippenaar and Piet Bakkes. A class win here will probably go to Dippenaar who can and will given half a chance run with the “normal” S2000 cars.
In S1600 it will take some doing to keep Guy Botterill off the top podium position but if I recall correctly Chad van Beurden drove an excellent rally on this event last year.
A very much improved Paulus Franken is ready to pull a surprise or two, although I doubt if he is ready yet to take the spoils if things go well for Botterill.
Ok so let’s wait and see what happens and which of the Ford or Toyota will have the upper-hand on this event.
