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THE Volkswagen Rally 2015 takes place on Friday and Saturday, July 17 and 18, in Port Elizabeth and surrounds. The 33rd running of the event sees the Volkswagen Rally revamped, featuring a tighter and more compact layout.
 “This is the most accessible, most spectator-friendly Volkswagen Rally we have planned to date,” says Joe Fourie, route director for the Volkswagen Rally. “We have brought the rally action as close as possible to the fans, without compromising the challenge posed to competitors.”
What awaits the national rally field in the Eastern Cape is 12 stages comprising of 200km of gravel, organised by the Algoa Rally Club with the continuing support of Volkswagen South Africa. Six of the stages are planned to take place on Friday, with the balance being run on Saturday.
“In an effort to make spectating easy, rally fans will see stages used more than once, so they can find the perfect spot and stay to watch the action instead of chasing the field as much as in the past,” says Fourie. “Stages one and five are near the Glendore Quarry turn-off, stages two and four are at Jachtvlakte while stage three spectating is at Port Elizabeth Oval Track Raceway (PEOTR). The closing stage for day one is at Aldo Scribante Raceway.”
Saturday is a bit more spread out, starting at Buffelshoek farm with spectating at the Spekboom Lapa before moving into the Longmore Forest for the Sinkdam stage, then back to PEOTR for stage nine. Stage 10 is in Longmore Forest with both the penultimate and final stages of the rally being held at PEOTR.
These final stages will see the teams competing in twos, rallying to set the fastest times side-by-side on the stage.
“We used this Super Special stage layout at the Volkswagen Rally last year,” says Fourie. “It proved challenging and very popular so we’ve brought it back with double the action promised for 2015. It should make for an exciting finish and, together with the stage nine layout, means that fully half of the spectating on Saturday can be done at just this one venue.” |
