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The 21st Volkswagen Algoa Rally
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Author: Patrick Vermaak

Publishing date: 20.07.2004 06:31

Etienne du Toit and Patrick Vermaak will certainly remember a certain 21st birthday!
Arriving at Heidelberg just past midnight it was time to congratulate Ettiene du Toit on his 21st birthday and with the non-drivers celebrating the occasion with an appropriate bottle of champers the long trek towards the Eastern Cape capital was resumed. With a number of WP teams considered regulars on the annual pilgrimage to Port Elizabeth this was going to be a special occasion as it was to be the 21st edition of the VW Algoa Rally.

Arriving early on Thursday morning Phillip Koekemoer guided us to their superb facilities at Algoa Toyota where the factory team had already started their final preparations in earnest. Serge was in and out at regular intervals making sure that the A8 Castrol Run X was ready to meet the expected VW onslaught whilst Etienne Lourens simply could not find a persistent electrical problem on the Total sponsored RunX.

If ever proof was needed that a rally is won or lost before the event even starts, this was it as every conceivable problem was evaluated and eliminated. Etienne finally tracking their electrical glitch at 2am on Friday morning.

With a new engine fitted to the McCarthy N1 City Gp N2 Toyota Corolla RXi 1600 we were really looking forward to the challenge ahead. We did not expect to find the Toyota more powerful, but the delivery was much better and impeccable preparation by Alan du Toit, George Trautman and Johan Crous saw the car much improved overall. Mapping of the engine confirmed that all was well and with the wheel alignment completed we headed for documentation and scrutineering in Uitenhage. New to the area made navigation quite a challenge but eventually we all reached the VW Auto Pavilion.
Serge Damseaux with Robert Paisley sharing Serge's 66th overall win


Now whether you are a VW fan or not, this is a worthwhile facility to visit. Inside you will find the rally S1 Quattro of Sarel van der Merwe, the dominant Wesbank Terry Moss Rothmans Quattro, one of the A4 Golf’s driven by Jannie Habig and the one of a kind 4x4 Turbo Passat as driven by Nic de Waal. The beautiful 1960 DKW and 1952 Beetle is worth appreciating as are the vast collection of VW models (miniature) on display. You can listen to the waste-gate of the Quattro Turbo in action or watch recordings of these monsters in action. VW addicts will indulge in all the memorabilia on sale and it certainly created just the right atmosphere for the start of the event.

Jerry Bailey awaited competitors at the VW Service Centre for scrutineering and all passed without much drama. The car that caught the eye was the very attractive Brospeed Ford Focus of Jacques Botha and with new suspension fitted at the event much was expected from this new N3 challenger. With all the paperwork completed we headed back to the Oslo flats in PE where we had to shutdown Team GrandPa before we could crash for the night (what was left of it in any case). Friday morning saw everyone gather at the Auto Pavilion in anticipation of the start and many a familiar face was present to make it a great occasion.

Sarel van der Merwe must rate as the best known motorsport personality in the world whether you love him or hate him and getting a pic of him next to the S1 Quattro that helped build his rich history was a good start to the day. With all the bulletins and, and, and …. read and completed it was time to watch the likes of Jannie, Serge and Enzo blast the opening salvo down the main road. Looks alone don’t always make the grade and the Brospeed Focus of Jacques Botha decided to part company with a brand new left shock when it simply broke on stage one. The fairly high speed stage settled the adrenalin levels and stage two really got the momentum going with a race track feel and more challenging corners. Jaco Venter dropping out with a blown motor on his A6 Corolla (All the way from Louis Trichardt to do two stages!) and he was followed back home by an ill Schalk Burger who wisely decided to call it a day rather than risk an expensive accident. JP Damseaux started well but with a conrod ventilating the engine block he too had an early day.

Jan Habig and Douglas Judd - just not good enough this time.
Stage three was the Ford test track (never knew Ford’s were tested this thoroughly, it’s more suited to a Ratel) with loose sand mixed with mud patches and some “humungus” rocks dug up by the leading 4x4’s. Running at the back of the field in a N2 becomes quite a challenge. Stage four was the first “nice” stage with Aldo Scribante a pleasure in any direction. It was also very clear that everyone was giving it stick on this event as the pace was quite hectic in all the various classes. Nobody got a second for free and it would be reflected in the high attrition rate. Serge was chasing Sarel’s record on his home turf and Toyota wanted to beat VW on their 21st event. The 4x4 N4’s needed to prove a point and it was Mitsubishi against Subaru.

Hergen had the now indestructible Polo out against a much improved Corolla for JP in A7 and with the Toyota out he seemed to have matters pretty much sown up. Jakkie Joubert and Craig Trott had a score to settle in A6 and in A5 it was Gugu (Sasol) against a determined Nkosinathi (BP). On equal points Charl Wilken and Rodney Visagie both needed an N3 win whilst the likeable Chris de Wit found himself the main target in N2 with Jon Williams on a mission and fast improving Ettiene du Toit showing some real flair. Wessel Venter the pesky fly that simply never lets up in the less powerful but ever consistent yellow Corolla. Gary Swemmer and Eugene Lourens eyed top honours in N1.
Gary Swemmer in action


Stage five did not win any prizes from the respective teams but took the rally into PE which have to make it worthwhile from a publicity perspective. Stage six provided a personal highlight as this represents true rallying to me. Culturama scores eleven in my book as it was a super forest stage in near perfect weather conditions and it was at night! Man, that was nice! I have to compliment young Ettiene du Toit as this was only his fourth rally and his first forest / night stage. To finish only six seconds behind Chris de Wit was impressive. Not so nice was passing the upside down Subaru of Stephan van Dyk and Mark Pymm, their event clearly over.

Stage seven (PPC) actually took a bit of the fun out of this event. I was one of the many to slip up inside the forest and though I had my driver turn around instinctively I doubted the instruction and opted to follow the clearly visible tracks, only to be met by a high speed train of oncoming (lost) rally cars shortly after. The resulting chaos saw many near misses as teams found themselves misled by arrowing of another stage before realizing their error and backtracking (at the very real risk of more head on meetings with speeding rally cars). Despite the lack of markings I still accepted responsibility for the mistake as navigator and by the time we reached Jeffrey’s Bay I felt decidedly sick about the time lost and the dangers faced. We also incurred lateness as I refused to have Ettiene race through the streets of the town in order to make up time. Getting caught driving like lunatics on public roads would simply have brought the sport into disrepute and we could have made it on time had I not made a mistake. No matter how many other cars got lost, I simply could not accept the fact that I had made a mistake and I was ready to pack up and go home.
Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson finishing in 3rd overall position


Obviously a popular stage there were people everywhere in J Bay and with us possibly still not in the correct frame of mind we tried just a little too hard, but it was an enjoyable spectator stage. Final stage for the day was the reputed Van Stadens Pass and this got our mindset on the right track again with its high speed and challenging nature before heading back to PE for a short overnight stop. As first time Algoa competitors it was quite an eye opener to see just how hard everyone was pushing and the unfamiliar territory made it quite a challenge to stay on top of your own game. Arriving at PE it was clear that the PPC stage had created havoc and there were petitions going around demanding the cancellation of the stage. From a dangerous side I certainly agree, but the bottom line was that the good route marking of the previous stages had lulled most into a false concept that everything will be properly marked. Clearly one of the leading pack wrong-slotted and conveniently removed whatever markings were present as they knew the following crews would hopefully fall for the same mistake. Not the first time and it will not be the last time either, it just never affected so many on the same stage before!

To further upset my day we arrived at the restart to find that we have had a 10min20 penalty slapped on, resulting in a second to last on the road start to day two. Needless to say I was overjoyed about this and my driver started advertising my seat. Nothing we could do now but wake up Dawn Coetzee, an irritate Joe Fourie, and Willie du Plessis (as if they needed more irritation after the night before). The good news was that the lost teams were credited with the slowest class times on stage 7, but somehow a ten minute penalty felt worse than getting lost as it normally only relates to clocking in early somewhere. I really felt chirpy by now as I had never ever before wrong-slotted this badly and early penalties represented the ultimate error! Even though I knew this was a paper problem I had no way to change it now and we were stuck at the back of the field.

It was a small consolation for the Toyota team and Capetonians that Serge managed to slip into the lead with Jannie and Enzo in hot pursuit. The forests were at least a nice prospect, even though Ettiene only considered it a nice place to get rid of me at this stage. This is where rallying belongs and it showed in the results. The pace was demanding on man and machine, but always enjoyable. On stage times Jon Williams led class N2 with Chris De Wit and Ettiene du Toit tying for second spot after day one. Wessel Venter in 4th remaining in touch.

Jon and Douglas Williams
Jon and Doug Williams started day two guns ablaze, posting a time that even made Chris look slow. Then Chris bowed out on stage eleven with a broken gearbox. Jon was on a mission and continued to impress with blistering times. Stage 12we seemed to have found enough pace to run with the Williams entry but then with less than a kilometer to go on stage 13 Charl Wilken and Robin Houghton invited us for a chat next to the road and we obliged by parking the Corolla on its roof next to their firmly planted RunX. We simply had to be more spectacular than them as the TV camera was present! Just to make my day Willie had informed me that the mistake was found and all the penalties were removed. Fat lot that helped me now! Come to think of it, maybe Ettiene was aiming for that tree on my side? Charl and Robin enjoying the most spectacular vantage point of the rally.

Charl Wilken and Robin Houghton - leading comfortably before their off!
What more could go wrong you would be tempted to ask! Just to really spoil our weekend Jon and Douglas Williams suffered a puncture shortly before reaching this corner and it probably kept them intact. Then they suffered another in stage 14, losing more than five minutes! Had we not rolled the class win would have been ours. Our year can only improve at this rate!

Congratulations to Jon and Douglas Williams, you deserved victory. Wessel Venter / Patrick Johnson added a fine second spot to their Cape win earlier this year. Simply proving that to finish first, you first have to finish. Chris de Wit will not take this lying down and we look forward to raising our stakes when we meet again! Serge finally pipping Sarel for the most wins in SA rallying and could it be any sweeter taking the honour from Sarel in PE on the VW rally. There was nothing in it between Jannie and Serge and expect more of the same on the Border Mountain.
Chris de Wit and Patric Yende - Class N2


To everyone who assisted us in getting the Corolla back on the road a sincere thank you, it would have been impossible without your assistance! We hope to be back soon.

Forest stages rule! Even better at night!

Patrick Vermaak

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