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| Few places so reward a rally driver as the cane fields in KwaZulu-Natal. |
THE inaugural Zane Rencken Tribute Rally, hosted at the Dalton Farmers’ Hall on Saturday, was a huge success.
Cobus Groenewald, chair of the Africa Regional Rally Organisation, said preparation often entailed more drama than any soapie, but thanks to “a passionate gentleman”, the rally happened.
Said gentleman was Maritzburg’s Dean Redelinghuys, who moved mountains to create the first event that celebrated sportsmanship across racing allegiances.
Groenewald said organising a rally is a full-time, unappreciated job “that steals at least three months” of one’s life and thanked Redelinghuys for making the historic tribute rally happen.
“The atmosphere was electric the entire day in the service park, whereby people who never knew each other from anywhere before befriended each other and enjoyed each other’s company throughout the event,” Groenewald posted after the event.
The rally attracted the largest field to a regional rally in living memory, with 38 crews racing eight “invigorating stages” through cane fields and plantations. And with drivers from both Motorsport South Africa and Arro lining up on the starting line, the competition was always going to be fierce.
Stage 1
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| Organiser of the Zane Rencken Tribute Rally, Dean Redelinghuys (left), and navigator Amon Meyiwa. |
Clyde Challenor and Graham Bishop easily won stage one, needing just 10 minutes and 32 seconds to race the tricky 12,20 km of jumps and bumps in their VW Polo, followed by Cobus and Cherise Groenewald in their overheating Toyota Run-x A7 and Bertus Labuschagne and Peter Chadwick in yet another VW Polo.
The times in the Off Road Class showed that overall victory would go down to the very last stage.
Only four seconds separated the first three cars of Ernest and Ruan Roberts, Dean Bradbury and Monique van der Merwe, and in third, Nico du Randt and Henry Kohne.
In the Social Class, it seemed early on in the event that Paolo Gouveia and Ashley Eddie were going to have an easy day at the office in their Nissan Skyline GTR, with a convincing 39 second-stage win over their nearest rivals.
Andries and Lorraine Graaf followed in a Ford Escort. The two blokes who have the most fun in rallies, Brandt van der Merwe and Zale van Breda, followed in their Fiat Uno with a time of 14:47.
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| Brandt van der Merwe and Zale van Breda are the two blokes who have the most fun in rallies, driving to the rally and then racing in the social class in their Fiat Uno. |
Stage 2
Despite a couple of Gauteng drivers having had close encounters of the cane kind in stage one, the “red mist” came down and on stage two’s 16,30 km, the crews pushed their cars as fast as gravity and grip allowed.
Redelinghuys and co-pilot Amon Meyiwa ran into early trouble with their selector not hooking the first two cogs, and at the end of stage two, all crews were mending cars and broken egos.
Stage 3
The third stage was a fast, flowing 13,60 km. Marco Ferreira and Hannes Pienaar placed third in a Subaru Impreza in a time of 10:39 but it would also prove to be their last stage, as their Subaru’s suspension had collapsed.
Stage 4
The fourth stage saw four cars exit the racing. The Groenewalds had no fuel pressure in their RunX, ditto Brian and Ashley Scott in their VW Polo. The Nissan Skyline of Keith Delport and Mari Duccasse parted ways with its diff and Callie van der Merwe and Rene Pallas sheared the wheel studs off their Toyota Corolla.
Despite an ailing car, the Groenewalds shared a stage win with Labuschagne/Chadwick in a time of 11:34. Challenor/Bishop stopped a six seconds behind, comfortably ahead.
Stage 5
The second half of the rally repeated the four first stages and the crews thought they knew what to expect.
But KZN cane don’t tame that easily.
Stage five claimed the rear suspension of the BMW 130i driven by brothers Christo and Phillip Carstens. Meanwhile, Redelinghuys/Meyiwa’s “pit crew”, aka Japhet Zinidzi, had patched their gearbox and they posted the third-fastest stage time of 10:32.
Stage 6
The drivers lined up for the sixth stage pondering the old rally conundrum — full speed ahead or drive to finish?
Challenor/Bishop drove calm and collected to post the fastest stage time of 11:01, while Redelinghuys/Meyiwa attacked to make up for lost time, coming in 20 seconds later.
In a steady third were Labuschagne/Chadwick, with a time of 11:27.
Stage 7
The seventh stage stopped two more crews. The gearbox in the VW Polo of Redelinghuys/Meyiwa cried enough and Johan van Wyk and Sarel Coetser saw the rear axle break in their VW Golf 1, sending them into a “flying retirement”.
The Groenewald pairing also lost 15 minutes when they overshot a corner and went down an embankment, ending all hopes of a podium finish.
Challenor/Bishop by this stage were almost sure of an overall win as long as they kept it on the road.
The pairing won with 49 seconds in a time of 9:50.
Stage 8
For the final stage, all the crews realised they had to finish to win.
Marais/Huzak went on to take their first stage win of the rally in a time of 10:37, 34 seconds ahead of overall rally leaders Challenor/Bishop, and secured a third overall finish for the rally.
Challenor/Bishop finished second quickest with a time of 11:11 and clinched a well-deserved overall win.
Third on the stage and second overall went to Labuschagne/Chadwick.
RESULTS
Top 10 cars
1. Challenor/Bishop 1:26,23
2. Labuschagne/Chadwick 1:29,39
3. Kobus Marais/Huzak 1:30,18
4. Pieters/Truter 1:38,05
5. Raaths/Menge 1:39,21
6. Simpson/Raaths 1:39,30
7. Du Bruin brothers 1:40,51
8. The Pallas 1:42,31
9. Raaths/Brits 1:43,44
10. Prinsloo/Hartslief 1:45,35
Top 5 Off Road
1. Bradbury/Van der Merwe 1:22,48
2. Roberts/Roberts 1:22,55
3. Du Randt/Kohne 1:24,04
4. Tony Ball 1:28,27
5. Botes/Venter 1:36,05
Top 3 Social Class
1. Gouveia/Eddie 1:48,36
2. Graaf/Graaf 1:54,03
3. Van der Merwe/Van Breda 2:00:40
