SA Rally finale will be new for all

The SA Rally title may be done and dusted but Toyota Yaris crew Hergen Fekken and Carolyn Swan will still be gunning for second overall in Bela Bela.

The SA Rally title may be done and dusted but Toyota Yaris crew Hergen Fekken and Carolyn Swan will still be gunning for second overall in Bela Bela.

Published Nov 10, 2014

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Bela-Bela, Limpopo - The 2014 SA Rally championship will reach its final showdown at the all-new Bela-Bela Rally in Limpopo on the weekend of 22 November.

Appropriately, in what has been an unpredictable series spread over eight rounds in six provinces, the two-day finale over 10 special stages will be centred on the historic town of Bela-Bela ('the pot that boils' in Tswana), formerly Warmbaths - each derived from the geothermic hot springs around which the town is built.

Clerk of the Course Willie du Plessis has promised a complex route that will require concentration as well as pace.

"There will be no relaxing on this final rally of the season," he warned. "We have an unusual situation in that this is the first national rally to be staged in the area, so it will be brand new for everybody.

"The route is quite tight and very tricky in places; it's not a high-speed rally, but there are some long straights where the drivers can exercise their right foot and explore the extent of their bravery."

Apart from a two-pass reconnaissance run of the route on Thursday 20 November, which will; be open to all competitors but not obligatory, the 10 gravel special stages will be virgin racing territory for all.

The longest special stage is 27km (SS6, repeated as SS9 on Saturday) and the shortest is 10km (SS2, repeated as SS4 on Friday). The total stage distance for the two days is 176km and the liaison sections linking the stages add up to just 98km.

NEW IDEAS

Rally headquarters will be at the Forever Resort and the single service area will be right across the road at the old caravan park.

A number of innovations from a national championship rally point of view include a lunchtime service break of 90 minutes in Bela-Bela on Day 2 - Saturday 22 November - to allow spectators and fans the opportunity to get close to the cars, the drivers and navigators.

The Rotary Club of Warmbaths will be turning the service park into an International Fan Park for the weekend, in collaboration with the local primary and high schools, church and other charity organisations, Die Suid Afrikaanse Vroue Federasie and the Stadspoort Project, who will all add to the carnival atmosphere with various food stalls, craft markets and a beer garden.

Du Plessis has made a specific effort to lay out a compact route that will make it as easy as possible for spectators to watch stages and visit the service park without having to travel great distances. Virtually every stage is within 10km of rally headquarters and the service park in Bela-Bela.

There will be four stages on Friday, after a ceremonial start from the Bela Mall in Mark Street at 1pm.

The overnight stop on Friday will be at Bela-Bela, before the rally restarts for the final six special stages at 9am on Saturday, finishing at about 3.30pm at the Forever Resort in Bela-Bela.

The traditional podium ceremony and champagne spraying will be at 4.30pm and there will be an official end-of-season prize-giving at the Forever Resort Conference Centre at 7pm.

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