23rd VW Algoa Rally 7/8 July 2006
author: Patrick Vermaak
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Etienne du Toit and Patrick Vermaak
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Not being convinced that “luck” really exists it was nevertheless with some relief that Ettiene du Toit and myself pulled into the final control in Port Elizabeth. Running quite competitively we so nearly duffed it with a stint of mud plugging on SS14. Doubt whether even our mothers would have wanted to love us after this little escapade but at least we provided some humour to the Verlaque sisters and one Derek Jacobs upon arrival. Possibly the most embarrassing moment in Ettiene’s life was when this young lady approached us at the Kings Beach spectator stage and asked her to smile for her camera – not because he was cute and available, simply because he looked so dirty!
Thanks to many nights of thankless toil by Alan du Toit, Marius and Morné Roux the McCarthy N1 City / CK Coachworks / Northern Catering Equipment / Cubana Gp N2 Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6 enjoyed a fairly clean run on it’s Ceres Toyota regional debut and the A&E Motorsport team entered the 23rd VW Algoa Rally with the sole intent on getting the car home intact. Event 21 saw Ettiene and Patrick gain maximum TV exposure by dropping in on Charl Wilken in the woods and then on event 22 they retired with a broken control arm. Finishing PE became a priority.
Real work kept both Marius and Morné from attending the event and rally newcomers, Wimpie Smit and Petri Germishuys suddenly found themselves swinging spanners. The team enjoyed an incident free trip to PE with the Quantum 2.7 once again impressive in performance. Stopping over at Humansdorp to pick up “Oom Capey” relates to another story. Thanks to Philip Koekemoer and his friendly staff we soon had final preparations of the Corolla completed at Algoa Toyota and actually found some time to drool over the serious toys of the Toyota factory team. The new, final homologation, Castrol S2000 looked the part and Serge was obviously impressed with the car.
It was in and out of the workshop all day with a multitude of small adjustments keeping every member of this team busy. They also found the time to fettle the cars of Lourens, Damseaux Jnr, Wilken and Cronjé. Ignoring the financial element the only difference between the works teams and the privateers are the fact that the latter complete all the “works” themselves. It was never the less an education to see the level of professionalism present in the Toyota team and it would later show in the results.
Defending N2 champion Mike Nathan was pacing up and down the workshop floor whilst his crew rebuilt the engine on his AWI Corolla after practice saw it overheat. Documentation and scrutineering took us to the VW Pavilion in Uitenhage and if you have not been there before, this is a must visit for any petrol head! Keeping Wimpie out of the S1 Quattro proved quite challenging whilst the W12 Nardo attracted much attention. As per normal the AMSC provided a magnificent atmosphere and meeting all the familiar faces saw the evening pass too quickly.
A good nights sleep saw us fresh and ready on Friday and an almost carnival atmosphere at Uitenhage set the scene for some great action. Day one saw the “oumanne” kick ass all
day with a very determined Jannie Habig and Douglas Judd showing that they still have what it takes to take on Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley and between the BP Polo and Castrol Run X nobody else had a chance. Hierdie twee “mag” en vir die toeskouers kon dit net een groot plesier gewees het! Jannie catching Serge asleep on stage six to end day one with 29 seconds in hand. Jannie had nothing to loose and drove like only he can, whilst Serge needed to stay close and get the Castrol car home in good condition (it’s the only one in final homologation and Ove Anderson was watching). Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson was taking it “relatively” easy as third would serve their SA title aspirations well in the second BP Polo.
Johnny Gemmell and Gerhard Snyman the class act in N4 with the Sasol Evo 8. Fernando Rueda retiring before the beach front stage in Jeffrey’s Bay with a broken gearbox on his Evo 9 and Paul Pfeiffer removing a left front wheel in the stage with the impressive Evo 6. Barry Grobbelaar doing similar things to his Sasol A7 Golf. Most unfortunate however were Kosta Koumantarakis and Barry White who had the new gearbox in their N2 Corolla fail just before the start of the event!
Adding another ten seconds on day two it was Jannie and Douglas who won from Serge and Robert after a truly great performance by both teams. Sometimes it really seems a pity that one should be the winner. Enzo en Guy were happy with third and Johnny took the Production car title as expected. JP Damseaux and Cobus Vrey impressed by winning A7 with a blistering time in SS16 whilst Mark Cronjé made A6 his own. Gugu added to the VW joy by winning A5 in his Chico whilst Chris de Wit once again showed why he is the champ in N3. Mike Nathan and Irma du Plooy winning N2.
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Mike Nathan and Irma du Plooy - class winners
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SS14 very nearly became our waterloo when we somehow got the Corolla stuck in mud. No damage, but man, does this stuff suck! Twenty minutes later we continued to rescue second in class after an otherwise very encouraging return to national action. Serge, subtle as only he can be, twisted the knife by stating that he never saw any mud on this route, but that’s life! The Corolla never missed a beat and it was great to finally finish the VW Algoa Rally. Thanks to everyone involved.
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Ettiene Malherbe and Hennie Botes - out in penultimate stage!
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Etienne Malherbe and Hennie Botes came so close, only to pop the motor on the Tazz during the penultimate tar stage. Now it’s time for the Osram Rally on 12 August!
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