Even though I believe that F1 has become so controlled that any reasonable driver will be able to drive an F1 and do reasonably well, you will be forgiven for shouting, “that is absolutely bull”.
I agree and have to admit that if ever I fit into that cockpit without a serious anxiety attack, I do not think I will keep one of those little monsters on the road once around the track without landing a pavilion in the scrapyard and me in the graveyard.
Still – even with the billions riding the game, a top team like Red Bull is stuck without engines for next year.
Neither Ferrari nor Mercedes will sell Red Bull their engines that is on par with what they use in their own teams. Red Bull in turn does not want to speak to Renault as their engines proved useless and furthermore Renault is taking over the Lotus team to compete for themselves.
So Red Bull may just move out of F1 into something else – who knows?
So it seems as if motorsport has its problems in all facets.
A heartening aspect was that I saw the Off-Road RSF VW Amarok in action at Rallystar this week and to say the least – I was impressed. This new addition to the Off-Road scene with Christiaan du Plooy behind the steering is going to make life a little more difficult for the top runners than they would like the case to be.
On the Off-Road subject we heard this week that Richard Shilling is stepping down as CEO of SANORA which of course is the South African Off-Road Association in December, and will be replaced by Siegfried Rousseau. Schilling will continue as president of the FIA Cross Country Commission which controls the sport worldwide.
Some positive news also received was that the other Richard – Richard Leeke will be stepping down as President of the NRC – but that is unfortunately only hearsay at the moment and we will all have to wait and see.
There was supposed to be a meeting of competitors this week before the Polokwane Rally but that was postponed to Monday in Johannesburg with obviously less attendees. It is also interesting to see that no one of the motorsport clubs have been invited to attend the meeting and I doubt if any other official received an invitation – except of course the chosen loyal paid ones.
This shows that no lesson has been learned and that Mr Leeke still believes that he will be able to run events and grow the sport without using any of the traditional enthusiasts, let alone the traditional clubs that carried the sport through the years when he concentrated on making money from everyone involved. I now believe the saying that the only thing without limits is the arrogance of some people.
I do also believe however – if the grapevine is correct that Leeke will not have such an easy time as he may hope for on Monday –that the privateers may decide to have their say about the ridiculous level of expenses and a few other aspects of the sport.
I have lost contact – but it was interesting to see who have also climbed off the bandwagon this year and who now admit that I may have been right with my predictions regarding the sport and where we are at the moment.
But that is enough of the pleasantries – let’s have a look at what’s going to happen on this rally – or rather what has to happen for Mark Cronje to clinch the championship as I also predicted at the beginning of this year.
To start off with, we are finishing the year with an entry of 20 cars – if you include the Polo Cup Car to be driven by rally rookie Willem Cilliers and a little more experienced but limited to “tulip” navigation Jaco van der Linde.
I had the opportunity for the first time ever to look at the wonderful accurate pace notes written by the Jemba system and I was actually surprised – albeit not pleasantly. As I always said – the notes “written” by this thing will depend on how the car is driven and I was actually shocked at how inaccurate some of the information were.
I am not sure what “value” is currently sold to the competitor by Mr Leeke, as I could not find one from 7 teams I phoned who actually looks at the video made by the Pace Note team.
The teams were all either using “their” notes from the past or write new notes during the two pass recce – so the “basic notes” serve little less than keeping the guys on the right route – if the makers of them can stay on the right route as well.
If I think back to the trouble we went into to try and edit out time wasted at gates and any other delay to keep the video as short as possible and what I saw here – I truly do not understand how the change has improved anything.
With the two run recce teams are away from their businesses no less than 16 extra days per year – which brings the total absence from work and business due to rallying to more than a month per year? Maybe salaried guys can afford that and their employers do not mind paying for this added absence – but do they then take normal leave as well?
No business person can afford this – except maybe one or two can actually afford this two-pass recce nonsense – and at least one person said that if this does not change he will not be rallying next year.
Anyway – as I am typing this I am waiting anxiously to hear back from those I tried to write notes for, for this event. It will be interesting to see how many mistakes I made by trying to second guess the “base notes” by watching the video.
The first stage starts tomorrow at 13h15 when the first car will enter the “traditional” Polokwane Brick stage.
Although I battled to get a proper perception of the route – it did not look too bad and all teams should get through the 10,37km stage without too many hassles.
Special Stage 2 is also just over 10kms and that starts at 14h20. The stage is also fairly straight forward and should also be completed in rather fast time.
Stage 3 is according to everyone I spoke to “a rough one” and some drivers decided to take it easy and survive. That of course like my F1 story is total Bull – when the flag drops common-sense does the same, it drops and a red haze settles over the eyes of the driver and he changes into a bit of a monster who tries to destroy the car. I believe that the misinterpretation the video gives will be sorted out during the recce.
On day 1 the last stage will be a repeat of Stage 2.
On Saturday the rally opens with a 38km special quite far to the north of Polokwane. The stages will be a little less technical but the expected heat and dusty conditions will not make it any easier for anyone on day two.
Stages 7 and 8 are both just more than 17kms in length each.
The competitors will do a repeat of SS6 the long 38km stage and the final stage is a repeat of SS7.
Mark Cronje has to keep things together but also make it as difficult as possible for Leeroy Poulter to win the event as he will be leading Poulter by 9,5 points going into this final rally.
This means that if Cronje does not finish – Poulter has to do better than third overall to win the championship.
If Cronje finishes fourth or better – my calculations says that Poulter cannot win.
The odds are therefore against Poulter going into this rally, but we all know that this is not a sport unlike boxing. You prepare, you train, you do everything possible and you get into the ring – walk into a sucker punch and voíla – your lights go out.
Fact is though that it is better to go into the fight knowing that all you need to do is to survive.
This will be Volkswagen’s swan song for the time being – they will be back, although I do not believe ever again as a so-called “Works Team”.
This means that especially young Henk Lategan will try to drive the rally of his life. He will want to end his career as a Volkswagen driver with an overall win – and nothing less. I will not be surprised if he ends up on top of the podium in this one – believe me – he can and that will be poetic justice if ever I saw it in action.
Hergen will most probably see this as his exit from rallying and Gugu Zula on the other hand may also decide to call it a day. The latter decision will be sad for rallying as Gugu respectfully represents the only bit of colour in the sport, so in short – we cannot afford him to walk away from the sport – not right now at least. I sincerely hope that someone can do a proper deal with Volkswagen to keep Gugu in the running during 2016.
The second Toyota driver – Giniel de Villiers will have to see if he can push Mark Cronje down in the order – that is if Leeroy is ahead of him and he will also make life difficult for all and sundry as he will be fast especially on Saturday when the stages suits him better.
Theuns Joubert will make it his task to win the NRC4 championship – and all he has to do is to finish the event. Piet Bakkes in second position in that watered down championship – not due their own doing – but due to a lack of entries due to a lack of funds in the pockets of the “rich but less fortunate” millionaires.
Guy Botterill will win the S1600 championship and the team will want Mathew Vacy-Lyle to finish in second spot.
There are only 8 S1600’s running on this event and Paulus Franken is the only driver that can upset Vacy-Lyles hope on a second overall spot.
Willem Cilliers is the only competitor in the so-called Polo Cup while there are three entries in the NRC2 class with the Baker brother’s untouchable – especially around their hometown.
Well – that is it – my apology for the “late” article and a bit of lack of enthusiasm – but I am sure you guys will understand that only one thing will retrieve my lost energy.