The short, tight and tricky Bela-Bela Motor Rally in Limpopo Province signals the halfway point in the 2015 National Rally Championship, and as such will be a make or break event for many leading teams’ championship aspirations.
Like last year the rally, to be hosted in the historic town of Bela-Bela (“the pot that boils’ in the local language, Tswana) on June 19 and 20, will be compact. The organisers, the Rally Commission of Motorsport South Africa, made a specific effort to devise an event with virtually every stage just 10 kilometres away from the central rally headquarters and service area.
The total stage distance for the two days is 178 kilometres and the open sections linking the stages add up to just 55 kilometres. This will make it easy for spectators to watch stages and visit the service park without having to travel great distances.
A two-pass reconnaissance of the route, which is open to all competitors but not obligatory, is scheduled for Thursday, June 18, and scrutineering of the cars at Century 21 at the Waterfront from 18:00 to 20:00 will also be open to the public.
Four stages will be run on Friday, with a ceremonial start from the Bela Mall in Mark Street at 12:00. Rally headquarters will be at the Forever Resort and the single service area will be right across the road at the old caravan park.
There will be an overnight stop at Bela-Bela on Friday before the rally restarts for the final six special stages at 08:00 on Saturday. The rally will finish at around 14:30 on Saturday at the Forever Resort in Bela-Bela.
The longest special stage, the Towoomba Farm stage, is 27 kilometres (stage six, repeated as stage 9 on Saturday) and the shortest is a 10 kilometres stage at the Bela-Bela Waterfront (stage 2, repeated as stage 4 on Friday).
One of the event liaison sections on Friday will run through the Bela-Bela Ext 8 Township and on Saturday Stage 7 will traverse the same area. On Friday pupils of the Thusanang Special School, will be given the opportunity to see the cars and meet the competitors.
The Rotary Club of Warmbaths has also thrown its weight behind the event and will again turn the Dunlop Service Park into a Rotary International Fan Park for the weekend. The service break in Bela-Bela on Friday and Saturday will also allow spectators and fans the opportunity to get close to the cars, drivers and navigators.
Given the short and compact nature of the event reigning champions Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris) will have their work cut out if they want to stay in the hunt for this year’s championship.
With Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Performance Fiesta) victorious in three events on the trot the Toyota pair needs to win in the Waterberg to keep their championship chances alive.
The same applies for third placed Gugu Zulu, now with Hilton Auffray in the navigator’s seat, in his Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo. Besides keeping his championship hopes alive, Zulu needs a good result if he wants to keep Giniel de Villiers/Carolyn Swan (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris) behind him.
A good result will also be crucial in the hotly contested S1600 class. With Matthew Vacy-Lyle/Schalk Van Heerden (Fragram Toyota Etios), Paulus Franken/Henry Kohne (Manitou Group VW Polo R2) and Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios) separated by only 3 points a good performance in the Waterberg will be advantageous going into the second part of the season.
Richard Leeke, chairman of the Rally Commission of Motorsport South Africa, again thanked the local community of Bela-Bela for their enthusiastic support and co-operation.
“We are indebted to the landowners for allowing us to use their private roads, both to access the special stages and for the special stages themselves. With their support we can now look forward to another exciting event in the Waterberg,” he added.
More good news for rally enthusiasts is besides the normal rally TV broadcasts on SuperSport, a new online TV channel for the National Rally Championship has been established, enabling those unable to watch the original television broadcast to still access all TV broadcasts.