The HENCOM PANEL BEATERS HMC RALLY 3 August 2002.
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Nicolas Ryan/Brian Carrihill in the winning Subaru
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A week or so ago I was told that I would be the navigator in the Pretoria Subaru Impreza GT – during this rally. Knowing that the same workshop was also preparing the Subaru Impreza STi that I participate with in National Championship events – I did not worry too much about getting hurt on the event, as I had no doubt that the Subaru would not be finished on time.
Lo and behold – on Saturday morning at 8h18 I found myself strapped into the hot seat next to an equally hotheaded Jacques Botha. It was not too pacifying to hear that he did not drive the car on dirt yet – (which I have to admit I sort of enjoyed as the same fate befell me with the STi as the car was not even fully prepared after nevermind before, the Sasol) – and I read the first instruction to him about ten times. I knew he was out to prove a point and what worried me was that I was sitting there – a 100 percent ingredient in this proving of points. I knew that me sweet talking him about taking it easy and “feel out the car” and get used to the car and “listen I can’t read the instructions with my glasses on and can’t see the road with them off, what do you want me to do?” would not help.
As said the first instruction was something like – 400 meters ninety left and then it said “aim for the tanks” - shit man, what was this a army camp we were going through of were we expected to go through tanks? Anyway I said remember 400 – 90 left aim for the road! 5-3-2-1 the robot ticked off the lights and the Subaru was kept at a steady 8 000 rpm, the clutch dropped and off we rocketed to that blerrie 90 degree left. The 400 meter felt like 100 and when we came around the corner there were about ten lorries with water tanks on them and of course being the obvious target the Subaru was pointed into their general direction. Then I saw the arrows and pointed to them, around two helluva water tanks with two more arrows after the first two, and I pointed and two more arrows and I pointed – by now becoming an expert pointer if not a navigator – then suddenly of course no more arrows and I lost my place on the schedule. Luckily I remembered the odo’s – both of which were still working – miracles do happen – because if it was in my Subaru at least one would have gone down by now.
But let’s start the story where were ended the intro to this rally last week – and that is with “die Gogga” – or better known as Jose de Costa or even better known for the fact that he claims to have been so ugly at birth that his parents had the incubator fitted with tinted windows. Die Gogga was supposed to drive the ex Botha Sentra – the so called wonder car – you always wondered what was going to break and at what speed it would happen? Anyway – the reason I told you guys in the intro – but then at the well known 11th hour and after a Spice Gold or three, die Gogga thought that his partner, who was supposed the drive the other Italian Panel beaters Sentra, Jose the better looking Ferreira, said that if die Gogga won, it would be because he was in the quicker of the two cars.
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Jose Ferreira in the Nissan Sentra
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It is a well known fact that you must not look for trouble with either die Gogga or Spice Gold a few days before the rally, and die Gogga with SG inside of him, nouja, that is another story. So de Costa will now take the slower car, and Ferreira can take the quicker car, en as hy baie kak praat, kan hulle sommer nou om die hoek daar agter die Korporasie teen mekaar gaan jaag!
Be it as it may, a team driver change was made – the acknowledged driver of Italian Panel beaters would drive the quick wonder car, and the not acknowledged previous navigator would take him on, in the slower of the Team Italian cars. I always wondered why two Portuguese South-Africans – how do you like that – almost like the term African Americans – none of them knows where the supposed roots are buried! All our two friends know is that the shit hit the fan when Vasco da Gama landed!
To cut this short story somewhat shorter, poor old Jose in the wonder car broke something in the gearbox – the only part that never broke before, while die Gogga – please take a guess, please, please?
You got it – he managed to finish a grinning 18th overall. There you have it – a star was born! Wonder whether we should have tinted glass fitted to the now famous Italian Panel beaters Sentra?
Jacques went through the flying finish of the first stage so quick that we almost started the second stage without stopping.
With his over eager antics we managed to lose a few seconds but he still posted a very credible time.
The first ten positions after stage 10 was as follows:
1 Jaco VENTER / Tommy DU TOIT 289
2 Marius Swart / Carolyn SWAN 294 We are not sure of this time? As an impossible time was posted.
3 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 296
4 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 296
5 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 296
6 Rocky REYNEKE / Andre PHEIFFER 297
7 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 299
8 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 301
9 Schalk BURGER(Jnr) / Wim v GREUNEN 301
10 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 302
Jaco Venter was another young driver determined to prove his point and he set quite a pace from the start, mind set to build up an early lead. The Ettiene Lourens/Andre Vermeulen team was going to have a hell of a time to keep up with the standard engine fitted, also at the 11th hour, of course, to the normally very quick Toy Toy Toyota. The only thing impressive about their set up for the day, was the well rigged service vans, and a sweating Lourens. I saw his two lively daughters sitting in the family car when Ettiene came out from the stages – wonder why? Ma, druk die kinder se ore toe, pappa wil bietjie vloek?
Stage two spelled the end for a number of competitors already and by now we have lost Visser du Plessis, who withdrew because his rally car was slower than his standard road going Corolla! Visser must be now wonder what the hell he did wrong, or who done what to whom, as his luck is so bad this year, he could not even shake his car down for the next National.
The route was rough, and when I say rough, I mean it. Knowing that it is difficult to find new rally roads, it remains a pity that rallying at this level, should be made expensive because of unnecessary damage to the cars. It is easy to say “tap off” where it is rough, but you try and get that into the head of a rally driver, filled to the limit with pure adrenaline. He believes nobody will tap off and therefore he goes into and over things too quickly.
It is a known fact that when a person thinks he could win a rally overall he will take out and sign for a fourth bond on his property to get a spare part he needs to complete the event.
The pace at the front was hot – after stage three Jaco Venter was still leading and we thought we were lying about second place overall not knowing that Nicolas Ryan who started in a lowly 31st position was posting equal and better than the time we were worried about.
TOP TEN AFTER TWO
1 Jaco VENTER / Tommy DU TOIT 681
2 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 687
3 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 688
4 Rocky REYNEKE / Andre PHEIFFER 692
5 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 695
6 Nico NIENABER / Marius STEENKAMP 696
7 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 699
8 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 699
9 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 701
10 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 704
Only seven seconds separated the top three competitors, with Rocky Reynecke in the Henco Panel Beaters Golf – and also the event sponsor doing everything he knew to sort out the young brigade! Wayne Watt was putting in an impressive run with the little Toyota.
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Jacques & Leon Botha's spectacular Pretoria Subaru
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TOP TEN AFTER THREE
1 Jaco VENTER / Tommy DU TOIT 890
2 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 892
3 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 892
4 Nico NIENABER / Marius STEENKAMP 901
5 Rocky REYNEKE / Andre PHEIFFER 903
6 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 908
7 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 909
8 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 909
9 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 916
10 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 916
This once again goes to prove that the rating system used by the rally committee does not always work and can actually cause some one to loose an event while being paced on the wrong info. This can easily happen especially when the route is extremely rough and one tries to keep the car together. It is easy to say one must look all over, but to receive results and times of a competitor who starts 62 minutes behind the leaders, and who comes through to actually win the rally – nouja, dis ‘n klomp strooi!
Be it as it may the war was on, and the guys really started to sort each other out. The spectators had a field day – with Willem van Rensburg and a few other throwing the rear wheel drives around and running sideways for many meters.
TOP TEN AFTER TWO
1 Jaco VENTER / Tommy DU TOIT 681
2 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 687
3 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 688
4 Rocky REYNEKE / Andre PHEIFFER 692
5 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 695
6 Nico NIENABER / Marius STEENKAMP 696
7 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 699
8 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 699
9 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 701
10 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 704
TOP TEN AFTER THREE
1 Jaco VENTER / Tommy DU TOIT 890
2 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 892
3 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 892
4 Nico NIENABER / Marius STEENKAMP 901
5 Rocky REYNEKE / Andre PHEIFFER 903
6 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 908
7 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 909
8 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 909
9 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 916
10 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 916
As mentioned previously Nicolas Ryan came in from the cold and without us even worrying about him, he gently moved in to share second position with Jacques. Jaco Venter was now only leading by two seconds from both Ryan and Botha. Ettiene Lourens however won the stage in a time of three minutes twenty seconds. I think even he doubted the accuracy of that time, seeing that his car was really not going well at all, but nouja, some you win some you lose!.
TOP TEN AFTER FOUR
1 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 1302
2 Jaco VENTER / Tommy DU TOIT 1310
3 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 1315
4 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 1336
5 Rocky REYNEKE / Andre PHEIFFER 1336
6 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 1344
7 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 1347
8 Schalk BURGER(Jnr) / W. v GREUNEN 1347
9 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 1355
10 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 1355
Just to really stuff things up, Ryan took over the lead by winning the Stage in an impressive six minutes and fifty seconds, ten seconds faster than the second placed Venter. Venter and Botha still totally unaware of the Ryan charge. This stage spelled the end for Nico Nienaber, and the Honda Civic of Marius Swart/Carolyn Swan, and Marius van Biljon and Martin von Wiellig’s Golf also dropped out of the event. After stage four it was Ryan leading from Venter by 8 seconds and Botha by 13. Jacques had a problem with the Subaru over boosting in this stage after a turbo pipe came loose and he had to slow down considerably loosing valuable time in the process.
Jan Delport and Amanda in the meantime put in a steady performance and stayed in the top ten.
TOP TEN AFTER FIVE
1 Jaco VENTER / Tommy DU TOIT 1832
2 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 1841
3 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 1843
4 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 1881
5 Rocky REYNEKE / Andre PHEIFFER 1885
6 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 1891
7 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 1894
8 Schalk BURGER(Jnr) / W V GREUNEN 1898
9 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 1914
10 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 1916
Without being aware of the Ryan threat both Botha and Venter started to get going, Venter winning the stage by four seconds from Botha who in turn unawares took 15 seconds back from Ryan in the other Subaru.
TOP TEN AFTER SIX
1 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 2067
2 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 2067
3 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 2109
4 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 2120
5 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 2134
6 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 2143
7 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 2147
8 Erno FEKKEN / Danie DRENT 2151
9 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 2155
10 Willem J VAN RENSBURG / Flip HATTINGH 2164
Jacques lost two seconds to Ryan and now shared the lead while Venter decided to make the mother of all rally accidents totalling his very expensive Toyota. Looking at the pictures on www.rallyworld.net and hearing the different stories about what happened, how long it went on and for how far the car and spares travelled, this must have been Havoc quality. This however is a pity as Venter was not on the route when this happened and he could therefore not even claim to have lead the rally until his almost end! If this was a navigation error, Jaco will have to reconsider his position carefully, if they wanted to take a short cut, he needs to have his head read. This is a typical error that happens when too little experience meets too fast a car! It is always a shame when talent gets handicapped by brain fade!
TOP TEN AFTER SEVEN
1 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 2633
2 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 2634
3 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 2690
4 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 2700
5 Erno FEKKEN / Danie DRENT 2722
6 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 2725
7 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 2729
8 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 2745
9 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 2750
10 Tjaart CONRADIE / Chris V RENSBURG 2768
With Jaco Venter now out of the running it seemed to be a dice between Ryan and Botha. Callie vd Merwe started moving down while Erno Fekken jumped up a place or two. Stage Seven must also go down as the most ridiculous of the stages. One jump following the other, one hump onto the other, breaking expensive equipment while not proving a bloody thing as far as driving was concerned.
TOP TEN AFTER EIGHT
1 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 3047
2 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 3055
3 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 3113
4 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 3123
5 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 3140
6 Erno FEKKEN / Danie DRENT 3152
7 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 3153
8 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 3177
9 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 3179
10 Tjaart CONRADIE / ChrisVAN RENSBURG 3190
The electrical fan of our Subaru stopped midway through this stage and we almost withdrew from the rally to prevent damage to the engine. Luckily we did not and got the problem sorted out with the help of Tubby and a few other willing lads.
TOP TEN AFTER NINE
1 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 3252
2 Jacques BOTHA / Leon BOTHA 3255
3 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 3316
4 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 3323
5 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 3326
6 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 3358
7 Erno FEKKEN / Danie DRENT 3362
8 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 3384
9 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 3388
10 Tjaart CONRADIE / C VAN RENSBURG 3400
Callie moved back into fourth, Erno dropped back to seventh, Jan Delport occupied sixth and Jacques managed to take back five seconds from Ryan and the deficit was now only three seconds. Jacques was also doing better in the repeat stages the second time round, while Nicolas lost a bit of time in every stage. This however was going to be our last stage, as the Subaru cut out four kilometres into the next six kilometre stage. Dead, morsdood vrek. Nothing could persuade the computer to stop its nonsense and allow the engine to start again. Jacques was running around the car, up and down the road, and swearing in general at anything and everything. This was a real pity, as this would have been one of the closest finishes on a rally in a long time.
TOP TEN AFTER TEN
1 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 3645
2 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 3709
3 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 3713
4 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 3716
5 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 3760
6 Erno FEKKEN / Danie DRENT 3768
7 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 3787
8 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 3787
9 Tjaart CONRADIE / C VAN RENSBURG 3798
10 Guillaume JORDAAN / Alida JORDAAN 3799
Everybody moved up a place and only a disaster could take the lead away from the Ryan/Carrihill Subaru. The top Ten was sorted out and the fat lady was supposed to start singing.
TOP TEN AFTER ELEVEN
1 Nicolas RYAN / CARRIHILL 3942
2 Jaco BAKER / Richard Clark 4002
3 Philip SMIT / Cobus BOHMER 4004
4 Callie VD MERWE / Gideon TROLLIP 4012
5 Jan DELPORT / Amanda PRETORIUS 4056
6 Erno FEKKEN / Danie DRENT 4068
7 Wayne WATT / Dave WATT 4084
8 Hennie LOURENS / Menno HAVELAAR 4087
9 Guillaume JORDAAN / Alida JORDAAN 4097
10 Jose DE Gouveia / Pieta LABUSCHAGNE 4152
After a very steady drive through all the stages it seems as though something must have happened to Tjaart Conradie in the last stage of the rally. He lost three minutes and moved from a very good 9th overall into an undeserved 19th overall position. Well, what can one say?
Excellent show Nicolas, well done to Philip Smit and Cobus Bohmer with their second place and Jaco Baker/Richard Clark with their third. Pity about the penalty which cost the latter to loose second position to Philip Smit and co.
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