ONE of Namibia’s most enduring sporting events, the Total Tara Rally will take place for the 47th successive year from 19 to 21 November. At the launch on Wednesday night, the chairman of the organising committee Harald Lingner said that the route for this year’s rally had to be changed several times.
“This year’s event was an absolute challenge to organise, as it is becoming more and more difficult to convince the farmers to rally on their farms. Because of this the itinerary had to be changed a couple of times, taking us from Wilhelmstal to Hochfeld and Rehoboth before finalising the entire route around Windhoek and Okahandja,” he said.
The rally will start on Thursday, 19 November at SKW with four night stages in Windhoek, with the popular ‘stadium stage’ being the first and fourth stages.
On Friday, 20 November, the rally moves to Okahandja where eight stages will be held, before returning to the Tony Rust Race Track for the highlight of the day.
On Saturday, 21 November, the crews will travel some 50km south to complete three stages before returning to Windhoek for the final three stages, with the first cars expected to arrive by 16h00.
Lingner thanked Total for its sponsorship. “Our gratitude again goes to Total Namibia, for again being the main sponsor of this event. Not only is Total Namibia sponsoring this event, but they also form part of the organising committee. Thank you, it is great to have you on board,” he said.
Several other sponsors have also come on board for this year’s event, namely Windhoek Country Club and Resort, Cymot Windhoek, Satcom Namibia, Chubb Fire, Battery Centre, IS Freight Services, Radio Kosmos and One FM.
Total will also run a Facebook competition in conjunction with Radio Kosmos, in which five winners will be selected at Total Service Stations to experience a spin in Team Total’s rally car with Total driver Wilro Dippenaar behind the wheel. The competition starts on 25 October on Radio Kosmos and the winners will be announced after the Total Tara Rally.
The Total Tara Rally was first held in 1969 when Chris Liebenberg and navigator Andre de Jager of Namibia won the race.
Since then the rally has been held each year without fail, with some of the top rally drivers from South Africa and Namibia appearing on the podium.
In the Seventies, South African rally legends Geoff Mortimer and Sarel van der Merwe each won the title twice, while Namibian legends like Laurence Koch, Uwe Kessler, Llewellyn Anthony, Theo Coetzee and Junior Bruwer all won the rally during the next two decades.
Over the past two decades top South African drivers like Serge Damseaux, his son JP Damseuax, Hergen Fekken and Japie van Niekerk have each won the rally twice, as has Namibian rally stars Richard Himmel, Gerhard Truter and Wilro Dippenaar.
Dippenaar and his navigator Riaan van der Westhuizen will be driving for Team Total at the rally with the aim of winning the title for a third time – a feat that has never been done before.
Dippenaar and Van der Westhuizen are also currently leading the Namibian Rally Championship and are sure to be crowned Namibian champions at the Total Tara Rally since they cannot be caught anymore.
They lead the Namibian Rally Championship series with 100 points, followed by Handre Myburgh and Geon Ellis on 60 and Allan Martin and Berto Mostert on 59 points.