As they tick off the corners one by one through the eight stages of the Osram Rally no genuine rally driver will deny the pure joy experienced while adrenaline pumps harder through veins than fuel through the rally car's injectors.
Most things happen in 4th, 5th and 6th. The mountainous area becomes a winter bleached blur. Narrow one-car-bridges change into monsters with giant side-teeth that can not wait to swallow your R100K+ shock absorbers - seals, stickers and all!
When going up reaching the peaks on the mountains it feels if some rally god with a sense of humour stole the engine power, then while going down the twisty mountain-sides you wish he did!
Blind-rise after blind-rise come up and all you have is the word of the person who wrote the Route Notes on the road, being read to you by a scared navigator?
The more experienced drivers visualise the crests and corners as they come up, while the less experience driver tries to work out how much to turn for a "2" or a "3"?
A little bit too much and you easily miss the road, not enough - the same problem. The sweat breaks out on upper lip and brow despite the fact that temperature in this part of the world does its best to compete with Sweden and Finland. This is after all the home of South Africa's own ski-resort.
There are tricky corners where reflex and counter reflex kicks in almost simultaneously - twitch right almost before you flicked slightly to the left to line up the car for a hidden corner. Everything based on pure talent, trust and a fair bit of luck.
The only difference this year is that no less than 17 of the world-class rally S2000's teams will tackle each other.
It would be an understatement of 2010 to say that the competition in this class will be fierce. It will be no less scary that what you see in the incredible WRC series. Our top drivers are also busy hunting where you need more than just talent and a rifle.
The addition of the two world-class Ford Fiestas, one driven by multiple South African champion, Charl Wilken and the other by Conrad Rautenbach who has a fair amount of World Rally Championship experience behind him, will make life for all and sundry sitting in an 'ordinary' South African built S2000 even more difficult.
Wilken had some extremely bad luck when his brand new car exploded into a fireball due to a small design problem after the first rally of the year. This incident put a serious dent in the teams budget and took care of any space for further mishaps.
To crown it for 2010 Charl then missed an event and received the replacement car shortly before the third event hardly having time to set up, let alone test the car. A non-finish due to a freak incident where they could simply not get a rim that bent almost around a brake-calliper off to change a wheel in a stage!
No one can blame him for deciding that he had to turn his "luck" around during the Volkswagen rally and he took a 'rather safe than sorry' approach still finishing fifth overall after a few small problems.
The car and driver are however ready to tackle the Osram although I do not expect Charl to chase far off titles, he may still find a perfect pace to stay in contention without taking any risk?
Rautenbach on the other hand won a rally overall and came closer than many teams would have liked to winning two more! There is no doubt that he gained some valuable experience overseas and that the moment he gets all together he will be a hard act to follow, let alone beat!
Hergen Fekken the current South African champion and according to the latest speed seeding list, the fastest local man in a rally car, must wonder what he did to deserve the rotten luck so far in 2010?
He proved that he can stay with any of the Fords - despite, and I say this respectfully, the slightly inferior Volkswagen Polo performance. The only condition is that he needs to get the car to the finish line in one piece. The fact that the suspension failed during the last rally will not help much for his confidence, but it will not harm his determination. I have a feeling that if you want to walk away with top honours in Barkley-east you will have to keep Fekken and Arries behind you as they will not look for anything less that the top step on the podium.
When we combine seeding with experience (and obviously talent) however two other names pop up - Jan Habig and Enzo Kuun. Problem here is that both of them need to change either driving style or attitude.
Habig is one of few drivers in the WORLD who can drive "sideways"and carry speed through corners. This of course causes nightmares for me when attempting to get young students to drive smoothly through corners - they prefer to try Habigism which often gets a bit heavy on dad's pocket and causes a few bruises on my already battered body and reputation as trainer/instructor!
His driving style will however not really work to his advantage this time as many of the corners require sheer speed from start to exit and any side-ways movement will cost time. I can see Habig saying, "So - then I will simply straighten out and beat the buggers?"
Enzo? Well it will be very interesting to see how he decides to tackle this one. He is currently sharing the Championship points-lead with Johnny Gemmell - both on 88 points with nothing to spare as every single point will now count up to the end of the season.
That gives the answer, does it not? I believe that both Kuun and Gemmell will have to attack with all they got and hope the other driver loses time or makes a mistake? Neither of them will worry too much about the Ford antics - they will without doubt simply keep the other in the eye.
Toyota wants wins but they have only two drivers to rely on if we leave 'privateer' Hein Lategan out of the equation for the time being. Volkswagen on the other hand has three very quick drivers, any of whom in their own right can win any event.
As said Toyota relies on Johnny Gemmell and Mark Cronje. No need to discuss much about Gemmell as he is arguably one of the best drivers in rallying and he very, very seldom fails under pressure. Mark Cronje on the other hand is also extremely quick and the moment things go right for him he does not only upset the applecart, he can derail a train. Problem however is that he needs to keep it together and fix whatever weakness there is in the armour. On a good day he can and will cause havoc with many aspirations.
Hein Lategan has proven that he can not only match the best pace set, but even more important is the fact that he actually knows and believes that he can do it. He may have forgotten a discussion we had a while back when, humble as he is, when he doubted my prediction when I said that he would be able to match the top pace.
Add to that the fact that he has proven in the past that he is very quick on the Osram roads and you have your dark horse for the rally.
Further on the "privateer" side - which of course include both the Ford entries. One must however ignore them in this discussion as both teams can "easily" win the event overall.
Charl is ready for a win and Conrad has been unlucky as we said not to win three events already this season.
If we look at a calculated attempt, Charl must be favourite, but if Conrad gets away with his more aggressive attacks he will be a very hard act to follow.
Hein Lategan in the leading Pirtek Toyota S2000 will be up there with the leaders mostly due to his more consistent fast attacks, while he could be followed closely by either Japie van Niekerk in his New Africa Development Toyota or Lategan's Pirtek Team-mate Visser du Plessis, also in a Toyota S2000.
Theuns Joubert (Salom Racing), Mohammed Moosa (Team Total), Evan Hutchison (Team Motorite), Nicolas Ryan (Gabriel), Fernando Rueda (Team Total) and Jaco van Dyk are all on even terms so far this year although Fernando Rueda is leading Nicolas Ryan and Jaco van Dyk who are sharing "second spot" by nine points.
Neither Joubert, nor Moosa or for that matter Hutchison managed to show their true potential so far this year and anyone of them can suddenly pop back to their expected standard any time now.
The one candidate who is a total mystery at the moment, no fault of his own, is JP Damseaux who is once again experiencing a plain, solid, crappy season. Nothing seems to work out and so far he had to work harder than anyone to scrape 9 points together over the first four events. This is the sort of points he can get every rally when things go right?
All said and done about the S2000 brigade with its 17 competitors - it can not be easy to compete there. The fact that you are sitting in an S2000 means you have to win overall in the eyes of the fan - but few people know what is really cooking behind the scenes.
The one single factor that plays a major role of course is the ever present piece of paper on which you sign your name after adding a few noughts behind anything from one to nine. The bigger the leading number and the more the noughts - the bigger the driver can smile (not that they ever do - with the exception of Jaco van Dyk and Theuns Joubert).
Talking about that - I still find it hard to understand why in so many cases it seems as if the driver accidentally sat on the left one shortly before conducting a TV interview?
Jeesh …that painful expression on their faces after the "ordeal" to drive a multi million Rand car. It must be pure hell and some of them are serious material to scare any youngster away from the sport?
In Class A7 Gugu owes us a good one, while Gavin Cronje will also want to start proving that he can actually drive a rally car as well? At the time of writing, Chris de Wit's entry was not definite yet, but if he gets the sponsorship together he will once again be a factor to reckon with.
Leeroy Poulter managed to dominate in A6 so far this year and will probably do so again in the mountains, although Tjaart Conradie will not let him get away without a serious fight. Craig Trott will also not sit back and relax, as he needs point to stay in contention. His experience will count and it will come as no surprise if he manages to take honours in this class.
It will be interesting to see what happens in N3 where Abduraghman Amlay had a bit of an unhindered run up to the Volkswagen rally?
Megan Verlaque is slowly but surely getting the experience on the right side of the car she needs, and will apply her already vast amount of rally experience to take honours in this class. So far this year she showed some excellent times in stages but small problems seem to creep in and then it is a case of all for nothing!
The new girl on the block, Stefanie Hugo will do her best to firstly get as many rally kilometres as possible behind her but will definitely not hold back unnecessary. This is the first time she sets eyes on the mountainous Barkley-east area and as any genuine rally driver will know is enough to put paid to any form of heroism?
Robson Maganezi is slowly but surely gaining much needed experience and will be a factor.
Sadly Joos and Danie Stassen will be the only entry in N4 and all they need to do to win that class this year is to finish events. Sort of an empty feeling, but as Doc Craven always said - watch the scoreboard. A win is a win and basta!
I trust that if the Stassen brothers win the class this year they will dedicate the trophy to a person I will point out to them - as he was solely responsible for killing what should have been the most popular class in South African rallying. Luckily I am starting to hear a few reluctant sounds that we may sometime in the future see the light and adapt our European rules to suit the typical South African pocket? Pity it is seven years ago that I started fighting for the "Botha-class?" Standard car, roll-cage, restricted suspension, standardised computer, slightly bigger opening in the restrictor, a number on the door and there you go! We could have been looking at 20 Mitsubishis and Subarus grumbling up and down the mountains? But no - we need to spend R1.5m to compete locally against …goodness knows who?
A5? All you need to do to win in this exciting class is to beat young Ashley Haigh-Smith! Easy isn't it?
Not on your Nelly mate! You need to get up very early to catch a glimpse of him going by!
Ashley will however not be able to make any mistakes as young Morne Janse van Rensburg is getting up to speed as well, while Piet Bakkes can also mix it with the best on a good day.
The 2010 Osram Rally will start at 7h00 from Barkley East on Saturday morning the 21st August and will finish later the same day.
Hergen needs full score on every event from now on to have a small chance of defending his honour and title.
So, pack your windbreakers, hundred percent fur beanies, primus and toasted sandwiches and come watch a spectacle on some of the fastest rally roads you will ever find!
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