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| Caro Storm and Andrea Raaths, fastest all ladies team of the day. |
The finest form of car racing — rally — is experiencing something of a local resurgence after many years of steadily shrinking fields. A lot of the credit for this resurgence has to go to self-confessed adrenalin junkie Cobus Groenewald.
After years of rally racers moaning about Motorsport South Africa being too this and too that, Groenewald found the Africa Regional Rally Organisation (Arro). On Arro’s website, rally racers who compete under Arro state their aim is to make motorsport in South Africa accessible, safe and fun for everyone.
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| Sabie sisters Yvonne and Biance Theunissen blame a "bliksemse ball joint" for not being fastest all ladies team on the day. |
The racers have been racing under the international affiliation of the national federation, the World of Motorsport ZA, (Womza) since 2013 and while Arro’s events come with all the usual bickering associated with racing, the organisation’ support base is growing.
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| The office of the amateur rally racer. |
One such supporter is Dean Redelinghuys from Pietermaritzburg, who invited Wheels along to the second round of the Womza National Rally Championship, which was held in Secunda on Saturday,
Apart from us KZNenners, a relatively large field of 26 other cars had entered, with racers from the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Some crews worked from the back of a bakkie, and they had lots to do, as this year’s tracks on the farm Holfontein had several rough sections that saw 11 cars retire.
The marshalls also used stop watches and soon trusted the drivers to nominate their times. After the seventh stage was cancelled, racing concluded with a shambolic night stage and 16 cars in park ferme.
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| Dean Redelinhuys and team traveled six hours to get to Secunda. |
KZN competitors Redelinghuys and navigator Amon Meyiwa, as well as eventual class winners Marco Ferreira and Hannes Pienaar, were among the crews who got “a bit lost”.
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| Marco Ferreira and Hannes Pienaar pitch it for the corner. |
At the jovial prize-giving ceremony Groenwald apologised in Afrikaans for the race being “a bit of a shambles”, but thanked all who traveled far to have fun against other rally addicts. That is the part that Motorsport SA events have been missing in recent times — the fun. There, as in this no entry warning on a farm fence, the detail is all too much in the fine print.
Ask any who was not covered by the life insurance.
