It is time for every warm-hearted, blue-blooded, true-till-death-do-us-part rally enthusiast, to put everything you possess up for sale – we are going rallying.
No jokes – the time is here – what I warned about a few times over the past three years has come home to hatch.
When I recently read a piece written by a paid praise-singer who wrote about the wonderful insight, foresight, hindsight and incredible ability of the current “leader” and his cronies to organise rallies better than those who have been organising for many years, I will lie if I say that I was not overcome by a bout of nausea.
The sad cherry on the funeral cake was when Volkswagen yesterday announced, what I feared and predicted for quite a while – their withdrawal from rallying – well not “officially” yet, but almost everyone knows about it.
If I am not mistaken – this will probably be the end of their sponsorship of the VW Rally as well, although that may just add to their losing some touch with marketing reality in South Africa?
Was there no way to at least pre-negotiate a deal between their current sponsors and a possible private team to take over where they leave off, before adding to the already negative image they are saddled with world-wide at the moment?
I can immediately think of a two-car-team that would probably have run more successful than what the case was with them over the past three seasons.
The grandeur may have been gone, but the real reason for rallying would have come to the fore.
Let’s hope for some light to come shining through – although when I think of it … let me rather leave it at that.
The “shock” withdrawal in itself was a sad state of affairs and my thoughts immediately went out to especially Gugu Zulu and Hergen Fekken.
Henk Lategan will probably drive – well I am not sure what he will drive – but it will probably be overseas or his father may be successful in negotiating a private team with Volkswagen support, who knows?
It was high time anyway that the only so-called “works-team” left, made way for private initiative. That will also stop this buddy-buddy nonsense that is currently controlling the sport.
Anyway – what is really sad is that Volkswagen did not do what they should have done, a few years ago. That was to get someone who could actually order a Skoda – dress it up the right way – and win the Championship.
Now the sport suffers because of their own short-sightedness. Not the fault of the guys who tried to run the show – but those who allowed them to keep on doing that despite a total lack of results.
When I wrote a year or so ago that certain people should rather concentrate on their jobs like I tried to do then while making pace-notes, they thought it would be more important to get me out of the sport.
When Hankey Franky Pankey Pretorius – the infamous convicted fraudster aka MSA1– announced a few years ago, much like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music, standing on the mountains of the Northern Cape where I should have given him the smack he and his 6.2 bar ego deserved – that he would break the sport down until there was nothing left – I had a feeling that his words would come true – anyone could see the start of the demise.
When Pretorius went back on his worthless word that the “two R’s would investigate the state of rally affairs” and then would give their learned recommendations and walk away – I knew the paw-paw that would hit the fan eventually, was launched.
Very little tradition would survive the bombastic onslaught that followed and the negative vibe of the politics carried as wide as the sport stretched.
Clubs were blatantly destroyed albeit indirectly, traditional event-organisers were simply pushed aside, Dieter Kok, Fred Vroomen, Robert Marle, Bill Bright, John Ogden, Jeremy du Plessis, the list goes on, all gone!
Rallies that were traditionally linked to clubs that in these days, hardly had anything more left than that last straw to cling to, were taken away without any negotiation – sadly with the passive support of the controlling body.
Promises and undertakings were broken – nothing had a chance to stand before this ruthless and calculated onslaught and any person with a bit of insight could see that this baseless charge had to fail – and fail it did.
Once again – instead of building the sport – every bit of tradition was destroyed and all the reasons for those who have been loyal to the sport over a long, long period were taken away.
Before yesterday I had a stronger feeling that Toyota would pull out of rallying before Volkswagen – not because of a lack of results like Volkswagen – but simply because the Dakar and Off-Road program (sadly) makes more marketing sense to them at the moment and then of course the little issue of money. A Dakar bakkie sells for considerably more profit than an S2000 rally car – except maybe if you take it right past the market you are supposed to support and land them overseas. The other question also is if they would be able or willing to develop an R5?
If Toyota pulls the plug – chances are that Ford in South Africa will do the same (even though they have not been full sponsors) and we may find that a few drivers will run on “limited support” from the manufacturers.
What will happen – when Richard Leeke walks away, is that the traditional organising clubs will have to pick up the rags, lick its wounds and take charge of the events again as they did in the past.
We may once again see rallies run in traditional places instead of where no one, not even the friends and family enjoy it anymore – chasing some money here, there and everywhere.
No matter what we say or think – this is a mess and the sad part is that it also offers the perfect excuse for other companies with a vested interest to pull the leaking plug.
A sad, sad day indeed – but the signs started that day a few years ago, in the mountainous Northern Cape!