The organisers of the Tour Natal Rally that will run on the KZN South Coast on 27/28 February, had received 18 national championship entries for the event, the first round of of the 2015 SA National Rally Championship. The total number of entries is 24 with six NRC2 cars making up the rest of the field.
A glaring absence in the entry list is the absence of an entry from Toyota. The entries closed yesterday, but late entries close on the 19th. Rumour has it that Toyota may enter three cars, but that remains to be seen. It is unlike Toyota to take so long to make its team known for the coming season and this has led to much speculation about their plans.
A total of only six S2000 cars have been entered, of which four comes from Volkswagen Sasol Racing, one from Ford and the other a privateer entry. The four Volkswagen Polo entries are Hans Weisj, Henk Lategan, Gugu Zulu and Thilo Himmel. Mark Cronje and his Ford s Fiesta S2000, has been entered by Ford, while Japie van Niekerk will run a privately owned Ford Fiesta under the NAD banner.
There has been a marked drop in the number of S2000 cars competing in the National Rally Championship in the last two years. About three years ago the S2000 entries easily numbered up to 19 or 20 cars.
The S1600 2WD class has fared somewhat better with ten entries.The entries include last year’s champion, Guy Botterill in a Toyota Etios R2, Chad van Beurden in a Volkswagen Polo, Piet Bakkes in a Toyota Auris.
The evergreen Etienne Lourens will co-drive for Nico Higgs also in a Volkswagen Polo in Class S1600 this year..
One competitor, the talented Wilro Dippenaar from Namibia, has entered the S2000 Challenge Cup.
Among the six NRC2 cars will be the Lancia Fulvia of Tony Ball. Local lads, Trevor Graham and Brian Clifton will be running a Nissan Skyline in the class.
Hergen Fekken and Enzo Kuun will not bee seen in action. Fekken was shown the door by Toyota last week, while Enzo Kuun “retired” the year before last, but campaigned in Japie van Niekerk’s spare Ford Fiesta last year.
The Tour Natal is one of the oldest events in the country and has always been the scene setter of what could be expected in the championship in the coming year.
The rally will start in Scottburgh at 13:00 on Friday 27 February and six stages will be run before the cars return to Scottburg for the overnight stop. The first day’s stages will consist of 71km. The second day will consist of five stages of 107ikm. The total stage kilometres will be 178km.
All the stages will be gravel and include a number of the traditional sugar cane stages used over the years.
The rally is being organised by a committee of he Natal Motorcycle and Car Club.
Tour Natal provisional entry list
2 S2000 VW POLO VW SASOL RACING HANS WEIJS JNR BJORN DEGANT
5 S2000 VW POLO VW SASOL RACING GUGULETHU ZULU PIERRE ARRIES
12 S20000 FORD FIESTA JAPIE VAN NIEKERK GORDON NOBLE
17 S2000 VW POLO VW SASOL RACING HENK LATEGAN BARRY WHITE
24 S2000 FORD FIESTA FORD MARK CRONJE ROBIN HOUGHTON
35 S2000 VW POLO VW SASOL RACING THILO HIMMEL ARMAND DU TOIT
21 NRC4 TOYOTA AURIS WILRO DIPPENAAR KES NAIDOO
30 S1600 TOYOTA AURIS PIET BAKKES SHAUN VISSER
62 S1600 VW POLO PAULUS FRANKEN HENRY KOHNE
65 S1600 FORD FIESTA ASHLEY HAIGH-SMITH DAMIAN VAN ASS
71 S1600 TOYOTA ETIOS GUY BOTTERILL SIMON VACY-LYLE
72 S1600 VW POLO AC POTGIETER TA DU TOIT
74 S1600 TOYOTA ETIOS MATTHEW VACY-LYLE SCHALK VAN HEERDEN
77 S1600 VW POLO ANDREW HEINE ROBBIE COETZEE
95 S1600 FORD FIESTA ERNIE VAN DER WALT ROWAN ROBBERTZE
96 S1600 FORD FIESTA RICHARD LEEKE III RIKUS FOURIE
98 S1600 VW POLO CHAD VAN BEURDEN NICO
100 S1600 VW POLO NICO HIGGS ETIENNE LOURENS
306 NRC2 TOYOTA COROLLA HANNO EHLERS KEVIN CUNNINGHAM
309 NRC2 FORD ESCORT VAUGHAN ROBINSON EDWARD STANDEN
311 NRC2 LANCIA FULVIA TONY BALL WADE HARRIS
312 NRC2 VW PLAYA BERTUS LABUSCHAGNE PETER CHADWICK
313 NRC2 NISSAN SKYLINE TREVOR GRAHAM BRIAN CLIFTON
555 NRC2 DATSUN SSS COUPE BRYAN HEINE KEITH HEINE