Ceres Rally - Witzenberg Motorklub - 22 May 2004
author: Patrick Vermaak
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Stephan van Dyk and Mark Pym - should win if they stay on the road
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Round two of the 2004 WP Special Stage Rally Championship is set to take place in the beautiful Ceres valley on Saturday 22 May 2004.
The eight stage event will once again be compact and spectator friendly.
Documentation takes place at Players Club (08h00) and Scrutineering (from 08h15) will be completed next door at Ceres Exhaust & Wheel Alignment Centre, now owned by Martin Esterhuyse.
An announcement regarding a new overall sponsor is imminent and Players have been extremely supportive of the event. Martin Esterhuyse and Johann Zulch responsible for the bulk of the organizing and they deserve lots of credit for their efforts. The number draw for the event will take place at the CPMCC Rollbar on Wednesday 12 May 2004.
Stage one is known as Dankbaar 1 and will provide competing crews with a challenging 12.35km route before heading towards Quians 1, an 8.82km combination of the routes as used during the May and October Ceres 2003 rallies. Stage three will once again be the key to success on this event as the 20.44km Vanganella 1 includes something of everything when its dry. Rain could change the entire scenario! Stage four, Doringbos is run over 15.27km and presents a few surprises of its own near prince Alfred Hamlet before crews head towards Players for a well deserved lunch break and Service Park.
Spectators could consider spectating stage 1 or 2 before moving on towards stage 4 and with the four stages being repeated in the afternoon they could alternate their choice between stages 1 and 2. The finish / prizegiving will once again be at the popular Players Club.
Given the performance of the regional entries during the recent Toyota Dealers Rally the action at the front of the WP field should warrant a trip to the Boland on 22 May as Richard Behm and Grant St Clair look set to defend their regional titles in the ex-Fernando Rueda Palbin Pallets & Bins SWMC Gp N4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI 4x4 Turbo. Their only challenge should come from the Team Total class A7 SWMC Toyota Corolla RXi 2.0 of Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey. Both teams failed to finish the Dealers rally and both would like to return with overall victory.
Top of the drivers points log is Serge Damseaux (SWMC) and Fernando Rueda (CPMCC) but neither is likely to start the Ceres event. With 17 regional drivers championships behind his name Serge only contests selected regional events whilst health problems have led to Fernando withdrawing from the Total Rally of SA. Stephan van Dyk and Mark Pym surprised many in their ex-Schalk Burger CPMCC GpN4 Subaru STi 4x4 Turbo and could just be the upset of the event. Wessel Venter and Patrick Johnson celebrated their first ever national class win and the yellow CPMCC Gp N2 Harkers Automotive / Shell WP Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6 should once again rub shoulders with the quicker cars.
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Richard Behm and Grant St Clair in their Mitsubishi Evo VI
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Ettiene du Toit and Patrick Vermaak gradually found their feet in the ex-Dean Sanders WBMK Gp N2 National Catering Equipment / Wimpy Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6 and achieved an encouraging result on their debut event. Despite limited gravel experience young du Toit have impressed with a cool head on his shoulders and the format of the Ceres event with once again provide valuable experience. Jon and Douglas Williams will be back with a vengeance as their Trident Press Gp N2 SWMC Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6 struggled with failing suspension. Possibly the quickest combination in the class, their progress will be noted.
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Jacques Brits and Hendrik la Grange?
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Mike Nathan and Pieter Euvrard was another new combination in their ex-Diffie Marais CPMCC class A6 Aluminium Window Industries Toyota Conquest RSi 1.6 and Mike enjoys the Ceres conditions. John Peiser and Brian Hoskins finished their debut event with a class win in their CPMCC Gp N1 VW Golf 1.4i and the former Clubmans racer thoroughly enjoyed his first gravel experience. Jacques Brits and Hendrik la Grange made it home in their ex-Richard Behm WBMK GpN2 Elize Signs Toyota Conquest RSi 1.6 and have every intention to do so again. André George and Hilton Auffray brought their CCMCC class S2 VW Golf 1.6 home despite a magnitude of problems and they too are looking forward to a trouble free event.
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Amlay and Ganief Toyota Corolla
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A broken gearbox saw Andy Haigh-Smith and Gerald Brace spectating but the “oumanne” are set to return with a vengeance in the very quick Team React class A6 CPMCC Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6. Abduraghman Amlay and Yusuf Ganief were most unfortunate in that they broke a cambelt after having completed the final stage in their class A6 CCMCC Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6. Quick on any day, this car could also produce a good result. Charl Strydom and Sakkie Bosman also succumbed to a broken cambelt and the always immaculately prepared Sabre Paints class A6 CPMCC VW Golf A3 CSL 1.6 rarely fails to finish an event. Neels van Wyk and Jeremy Northcote now run a 1800 engine in their VW Golf CSL and have moved into class S3. Having made a national impact when he fell into the Caledon watersplash Neels would hope that their result would be what attracts most attention this time.
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Carl Strydom and Sakkie Bosman
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Rupert van Zyl and Christo de Bruin also vanished of the scoreboard with their ex-Nigel Dodgen class S3 CPMCC VW Golf MkI 1800 and normally run very consistently. Peter Heyer-Cleave and Brendon Schultz share a rare Kenyan Gp N4 CPMCC Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 4x4 Turbo in class S5 and should become more competitive with every outing. Lance Slabbert / Deon van Greunen (Class S3 VW Golf GTi 1800) and Kesevan Naidoo / Garth Scholtz (class S2 Toyota Conquest RSi 1.6) also aim to finish the Ceres Rally whilst Shaun Jones and Billy Thorpe would have their sights set on overall victory in the ex-Jerry Bailey class S5 CPMCC VW Golf Synchro 4x4. Thenswille Overmeyer and Wesley van heerden was another combination who had little luck on the opening event and the ex-Fernando Rueda class S3 CCMCC Toyota Conquest RSi 1.6 definitely has the pace to impress.
Leon Oosthuizen impressed nobody when he managed to roll his ex-Leon Esterhuyse class S4 VW Jetta 2.0 just before the rally started and he hopes to have the car rebuilt into a new body for Ceres with Rodney Pedro still brave enough to continue as navigator. Quite a number of new combinations are set to make their debut in Ceres with the ex-Mike Wyngaard Gp N3 WBMK Opel Kadett GSi of Leon Esterhuyse and Marco Hamilton topping the list. Martin Esterhuyse Senior and Jnr look set to return to the fray with the Ceres Exhaust & Wheel Alignment class S4 Toyota Corolla 2.0. With Dave Gregory having joined forces with Bloomsbury the class S4 BMW 325i will now be campaigned by Clinton Sassman. Navigator still to be nominated.
Nishaad Murudker have also been improving with each outing and the Murway Car Hire class S3 Toyota Conquest RSi 1700 was most unfortunate not to finish the Misverstand Rally last November. Battling to find a limited slip differential for his ex-Etienne Malherbe class S2 WBMK Nissan Stanza 1600 have sidelined Neville Young for quite some time but chances are that this friendly mechanical engineer could finally be joining in the fun on 22 May.
Thorsten Pey have as yet not been able to set up a team willing to assist in the completion of his rolling chassis class S4 BMW 328i whilst Werner Koekemoer still has both the white 328i and blue M3 powered 328i BMW rally cars. A long bout of illness have kept Robbie Robertson from rallying his always very neat class S2 Toyota Corolla SR5 1600 but he should be back soon. Ceres normally attracts the highest number of entries on the WP calender, we look forward to an even better event this year.
Patrick Vermaak
083 701 8116
Editor note - If any of the pic by lines are wrong - I apologise - we lost our picture "gallery" on Monday morning and have to search for every pic we place. Thanks to Motorpics.co.za we will overcome! So if you have any pictures of the Cape events please mail to
Yes I have a pic or two
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