Review of the Regional section of the Subaru Cape Rally
author: Patrick Vermaak
When newly crowned FIA African Continent rally drivers champion, Fernando Rueda and Pierre Arries moved into the overall lead of the Cape Subaru Rally in the Motion Vehicle Wholesalers Gp N4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII 4x4 Turbo the scene was set for a fantastic tussle.
Multiple SA and WP champion driver, Serge Damseaux, and Robert Paisley, found themselves behind no less than three Gp N4 entries after day one and the Castrol SWMC class A8 Toyota Run X seemingly had no answer to the turbo 4x4 onslaught. Taking lateness after day one have become a custom with this team and Damseaux Snr is never more dangerous than when the odds are stacked against him.
Pushing hard throughout the second day the pressure paid off as first Fernando Rueda redesigned the rear suspension of the Lancer against a gatepost in stage seven, the Gemmel expired with a broken turbo (?) and Burger ran out of gears.
The Castrol Toyota Run X maintained its relentless pace to eventually take another very popular and well deserved local victory. A ninth SA title for Serge and a first title for the Run X now virtually assured as their only threat come from the Team Total class A7 Toyota Corolla RXi of Etienne Lourens and Andre Vermeulen .
|
|
Richard Behm and Grant St Clair
|
Second WP team home was an overjoyed Richard Behm and Grant St Clair in the Gp N2 winning Palbin Pallets / Wheel & Steel SWMC Toyota Corolla RSi. Having gained a healthy lead in the class on day one they finished in a fine 13th overall position.
Dean Sanders and Rod Hering were placed second in class after having lost much time in due to the water problem in Stage 1. Adding gear selection problems to their list of maladies in the Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi did not help and they eventually claimed sixteenth spot overall and second in class. Fifteenth overall and sixth in class N4 felt like overall victory to Werner Koekemoer and Graham Hooper in the Autospot CPMCC Subaru GT 4x4 Turbo. They even ran an additional lap at Killarney to celebrate in fine sideways style.
Taking eighteenth overall in their Trident Press class A6 (2nd in class national) Toyota Conquest RSi was impressive for the father and son SWMC combination of Jon and Doug Williams.
|
|
Jon & Doug Williams
|
Moving into class A6 for 2004 with a Corolla RSi should be good reason for the opposition to take note. Paul Pfeiffer and Duncan English placed their class A6 (3rd in class national) CPMCC Toyota Corolla RXi nineteenth after another consistent run. Possibly contesting the 2004 WP season in the Lancer Evo VI ? Twentieth went to the ever consistent Wessel Venter and Patrick Johnson in their yellow Shell Helix / Harkers Automotive CPMCC Gp N2 (3rd in class national) Toyota Corolla RSi. Twenty second overall went to Eastern Cape exponent, Dolf Coetzee and WP navigator, Sarita Vrey, in their class A5 Toyota Tazz.
|
|
Wessel Venter & Patrick Johnsonn
|
Still getting to grips with the ex-Diffie Marais class A6 (4th in class national) Aluminium Window Industries CPMCC Toyota Conquest RSi, Mike Nathan and Rikus Fourie were well pleased with 23rd spot overall.
|
|
Trevor Hodges and Derek Jacobs
|
Trevor Hodges and Derek Jacobs enjoyed a noisy run to 25th overall and first Regional Only team home in their class A7 (4th in class national) with their Barons N1 City CCMCC VW Golf A3 GTi 1800. Charl Strydom and Sakkie Bosman also fell foul of the stage one water and the normally bullet proof class A6 (5th in class national) Sabre Paints CPMCC VW Golf A3 CSL 1600 had to accept 26th overall.
|
|
Neels van Wyk & Jeremy Northcote
|
Having completed stage one stuck in third gear Neels van Wyk and Jeremy Northcote started day two with all the gears in their class S2 Brackenfell Coachworks SWMC VW Golf CSL 1600 kicking back into place and to their own surprise they came home second in the Regional Only section. Third Regional Only entry home was the class S4 winning Schus Nissan Kuilsrivier CPMCC Sentra STi 2.0 of Les Faasen and Mandy Amery.
Rupert van der Merwe and Rikus Fourie placed their ex-Spotti Woodhead class S3 WBMK / AMSC VW Polo Playa 1800 fourth in the Regional Only section (29th overall) but more importantly Rupert finally got some much needed rally mileage behind his name and it would be wise to keep an eye on his progress.
Jean du Plessis and Johan (JC) Barnard impressed with yet another fine performance in their class S2 Chris Barnard Herstelwerke WBMK Toyota Corolla TRD 1600 and 30th overall was well deserved as the team does not even have an odometer fitted to this car.
|
|
Jean du Plessis and Johan (JC) Barnard
|
Newcomers, Kesevan Naidoo and Garth Scholtz did well to complete their first event in the class S2 CCMCC Toyota Conquest 1300, taking 32nd spot overall and final WP crew home .
Non-finisher from the Western Cape unfortunately included the class A7 Team Total SWMC Toyota Corolla RXi of Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey. Complaining of clutch problems on Friday they eventually went out with gear selection problems after stage seven having run a strong second to Etienne Lourens. Abduraghman Amlay and Yusuf Ganief suffered from rear suspension problems on day one and the class A6 CCMCC Toyota Corolla RSi eventually cried enough after seven stages. Shaun Jones and Billy Thorpe completed stage one stuck in third gear but looked strong on day two until the somewhat temperamental class S5 Galvatech CPMCC VW Golf Synchro 4x4 also failed after seven stages.
|
|
Flying Follow-Up. The legendary Lance and Rosemarie Maytham
|
The “Ou manne”, Andy Haigh-Smith and Gerald Brace ran strong in class A6 with their Team React / Dameseaux Motorsport prepared CPMCC Toyota Corolla RSi but disappeared off the score sheets after stage six. Martin Esterhuyse and Dave Gregory ran consistently in their class S4 CPMCC Magnum Radiators BMW 325 until the driveshaft snapped enetering the popular Bridgetown spectator point on stage six. Andre Cleenwerck and Carl Peskin were strong pre event favourites to win the regional only section but their normally reliable class A7 Adez Motorsport CPMCC VW Polo Playa 2.0 expired in stage five. The class S3 Fetch and Carry Express Couriers CPMCC VW Golf GTi 1800 of Lance Slabbert and Deon van Greunen lasted till stage five whilst the class S2 Max Bodyworks CCMCC VW Golf MkI 1600 of André George and Hilton Auffray only reached stage four.
Rupert van Zyl and Robin Lussem attacked the pit wall at Killarney in their class S3 M&H Civils CPMCC VW Golf GTi 1800 and unfortunately the score read : Wall 1 Golf 0. Robbie Robertson and Ria Marais failed to start the event in their class S2 SWMC Toyota Corolla SR5 1600 when the headgasket blew enroute to the start venue.
|
|
Look and tell me what you see. No, you go and look. No you go....
|
Compliments to Adriene Swart / CPMCC with regular updates of information regarding the build up to the event and to Leon Botha and www.rallystar.co.za for the SMS results. Keep it up !
The next WP rally will be the Ceres Delta WBMK event on 25 October 2003 in the popular Ceres district. Watch this spot for more details soon.
|
|
Pick-Up for the entire event was Renier and Ronel Nortjé. They deserve a medal !!
|
|
|
