When the 2015 Imperial Toyota Tshwane Motor Rally commences at 12:00 today from one of Tshwane’s most beautiful heritage sites, Fort Klapperkop, it will be highly tuned Volkswagen engines that will reverberate through the Tshwane capital Pretoria first.
Gugu Zulu and Hilton Auffray in their Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo S2000 will lead the similar car of team mates Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries off the start ramp to tackle four special stages close to the Zonderwater Correctional Services Facility near Cullinan.
The Yaris S2000 of Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan, currently lying third in the championship, will be the filling in a double thick Volkswagen sandwich as their Castrol Toyota will be followed by the duet of the Volkswagen Sasolracing crews Thilo Himmel/Armand du Toit and Henk Lategan/Barry White.
Winners of the recent Volkswagen Rally and the Bela-Bela Motor Rally in June, Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris) will be sixth on the road, looking over their shoulders to follow the progress of current championship leaders, the Ford Performance team of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Fiesta).
Eighth away will be another Fiesta S2000 crew, the NAD Ford pairing of Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman, followed by young Ernie van der Walt, co-piloted by Greg Godrich in their Vecto Fuel Toyota Yaris, the final crew in the premier S2000 championship.
Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo, leaders of the NRC4 class in their North City Panelbeaters Toyota Auris, will lead Theuns Joubert and Mari van der Walt (Salom Agri Toyota Auris), making a welcome return to the national championship, off the starting ramp, followed by Piet Bakkes and Shaun Visser in the Accident Guru Toyota Auris, the third entry in the NRC4 class.
In the S1600 class Ashley Haigh-Smith and Damian van Ass (Castrol Ford Fiesta R2) was supposed to lead the field from Fort Klapperkop, but with Van Ass opting out of the team because of business responsibilities, and Haigh-Smith unable to find another navigator in time, their entry was withdrawn on the eve of the event.
This means current S1600 championship leaders Matthew Vacy-Lyle and Schalk Van Heerden (Fragram Tools Toyota Etios R2) will come under starters orders first, followed by their Toyota team mates Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios R2) and Richard Leeke jnr. /Rikus Fourie (ATS Ford Fiesta R2).
The first day of the compact and spectator friendly rally, easily accessible from Gauteng, the Limpopo Province and the Highveld region of Mpumalanga, will finish later today at the Zonderwater facility.
The rally will restart from there at 09:00 tomorrow with another six stages to be completed in the area north of Bronkhorstspruit and Cullinan. Saturday’s stages will also be open to competitors in the Northern Regions Rally Championship.
The first car is expected at the finish at the Zonderwater Correctional Services facility at around 15:00.on Saturday afternoon.