Scottburgh, KwaZulu-Natal - The 2015 SA Rally Championship will kick off this weekend with 25 of the country’s top rally crews negotiating the fast gravel roads through the sugarcane farm lands of the South Coast in the season-opening Tour Natal Rally.
Seven teams have entered the premier S2000 class for modified, normally-aspirated, all-wheel-drive cars with engines not exceeding two litres, while 10 will vie for honours in the S1600 Two Wheel Drive Championship for normally-aspirated cars with engines not exceeding 1.6-litres.
Two teams have also entered the new NRC4 Challenge for existing S2000 Challenge and N4 cars (all-wheel drive with turbocharged engines not exceeding two litres and limited modifications), while six entries have been received in the NRC2 class for older pre-2000 four-cylinder two-wheel-drive cars.
Reigning champions Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee will defend their title in a new-look Toyota Yaris S2000, but will this year be challenged by new team-mate Giniel de Villiers in the second factory-backed Yaris. De Villiers is no stranger to top SA rallying after several seasons in a privateer Yaris, but his move to the factory team for 2015 means Hergen Fekken is left without a drive, while Carolyn Swan, who last year called notes for Fekken, moves to the navigator’s seat alongside De Villiers.
FORD TO PUT UP A BIG FIGHT
Expect a big challenge from 2012 and 2013 champions Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton who are back in their Ford Fiesta S2000, recently upgraded and rebuilt by M-Sport in Britain. Ford’s onslaught will be strengthened by top privateer Japie van Niekerk in a similar Fiesta S2000. Van Niekerk was a consistent front-runner in 2014 and now has experienced UK-based navigator Gordon Noble sitting next to him.
The team’s Fiesta S2000 has had a complete mechanical make-over, and Van Niekerk could be a serious challenger this year.
Volkswagen’s Hans Weijs Jnr from the Netherlands and Belgian co-driver Björn Degandt will want to prove a point in Natal. Weijs was runner-up in the 2014 Drivers’ championship and the pair won the final rally of the year in their works Polo S2000, so for them nothing short of a victory will suffice.
The talented young Henk Lategan, with Barry White reading the notes, was consistently fast in 2014. This year the works Volkswagen pairing, who acquitted themselves well in the recent Monte Carlo Rally, will be eager to put in some good results on home soil.
ZULU - THE 2015 REVELATION?
The experienced Gugu Zulu could prove to be the revelation of the season. Last year the works VW racing driver showed winning pace, and with Pierre Arries alongside him he will be looking for stage wins and podium positions in his Polo S2000.
In the S1600-class the battle between defending champions Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle (Toyota Etios R2) and last year’s runner-up, Matthew Vacy-Lyle and Schalk Van Heerden ( Toyota Etios R2) will continue.
They will be hard pushed by Ashley Haigh-Smith and Damian van As (Ford Fiesta R2), Paulus Franken and Henry Kohne (VW Polo R2) and young Richard Leeke and Rikus Fourie (Ford Fiesta R2).
In the NRC4 Challenge Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo have entered their older spec Toyota Auris S2000 Challenge car, and they will be up against Piet Bakkes and Shaun Visser in a similar vehicle.
Six teams will contest the NRC2 class for older pre-2000 four-cylinder two wheel-drive cars; including the Corolla of Hanno Ehlers and Kevin Cunningham, Vaughan Robinson and Edward Standen in a Ford Escort, Tony Ball and Wade Harris (Lancia Fulvia), Bertus Labuschagne and Peter Chadwick (VW Polo), Trevor Graham and Brian Clifton (Nissan Skyline) and Bryan and Keith Heine in their Datsun SSS.
Star Motoring