Nothing Dull in this Stroom!

Patricia and dad Nick Theunissen from Sabie with their yellow Beemer.

KZN's champion rally team clinched their seventh national title in Dullstroom on Saturday in the final leg of the SA National Rally Championship sponsored by the TracN4 toll operator. 

Despite already having the title in the bag on points on Friday, driver Guy Botterill did not spare the horses on Saturday, which resulted in a rare flat tyre and destroyed rim for the normally faultless Toyota Gazoo Racing team. 

Guy Botterill.

Botterill told the small KZN media contingent -- comprising The Witness and Kululuma TV -- he just kept driving, partly because it was only about 9km to the finish, but mostly because navigator Simon Vale Lacy could not remember where their rarely used jack was stowed! (It was in hius door.)

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For the official media statement, Botterill said, “We decided to keep going, which was the right call, because our lead was only 1 minute 23 seconds and we would have struggled to change a wheel in that time. We kept on going and made it to the end, winning the stage!” Botteril said.

Simon Vale-Lacy

“Simon was fantastic on the notes all weekend and besides the destroyed rim caused by riding on a flat tyre for 9 km, the car doesn’t have a scratch.

Both members of the crew thanked their mechanics, Bright Dlomo and Paolo Gouveia, who had little to do other than clean the windscreen and “drop the sump” for the occasional oil change when the AWD Etios arrived back in park ferme.

Paulo Gouveia and Bright Dlomo has all the toys ready to operate on the AWD Etios, but no call to use it.

The situation was much different in the rally-racing Theunissen family's corner, where three sisters and their dad had a rough ride in the pine forests. 

Yvonne and Bianca did not finish in their Opel Corsa, (but this time is was not the “bliksemse ball joint's” fault), while dad Nick and Patricia limped forth in their yellow BMW with a cracked rear axle for the last stage, aiming just to stay in the fight. 

They were not alone in their troubles. The TracN4-sponsored rally in the pine plantations around Dullstroom and Belfast is known for its fast stages and the weekend's event had another high attrition rate, with several teams limping to the park ferme with bent chassis after big jumps.