AUTOMARK NMCC RALLY - NATAL RESULTS AND WRAP!
author: Leon Botha
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Leon Botha
A walk in the Park, nogal?
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Kassie Coetzee claimed the event to have been “a walk in the park”, little knowing that was exactly what I thought it would be!
I went so far to say to Callie van der Merwe when he asked me after Stage 2 how the Subaru was going, that “ ’n man wat nie met hierdie kar ‘n rally kan wen nie is ‘n …….” which means roughly translated that I had to win or would be whatever I said to Callie.
Thinking about van der Merwe – the rally ace, not Koos, when years ago after an exceptional run in the, under correction Kreepy Krawly Ford Escort, he said something to the following effect – “It seems as though I can not do anything wrong in this car” or “nobody seems to be able to beat me” – and then everything went wrong! Sarel and that Ford did not achieve a hell of a lot for a long time.
Needless to say, my own windgat-geit, cost me plenty. We completed every rally we did this year in the Pretoria Subaru STi – I never had a flat in any of the rallies.
Stage 3 in Shark country however it felt if Moby Dick, or whatever the biggest shark available is, grabbed me by the short and curlies and threw me right over a sugar cane field.
Old wise guy decided that seeing we were a bit short on rubber, we should use the “wets” in stage three, as four and five will be following each other, without servicing allowed in between!
Now with my specific experience in skating on thin ice throughout a stormy rally career, never really having enough tyres for an event, mostly because of a lack of budget, I should at least know what to do, and what not to do!
Ok, now I know that if you use all 160 odd kilowatts available on the wheels, if you throw the car around, trying to test every possible handling characteristic for use during the 2003 season, then “wet tyres” will last for about 10kms on a perfectly dry road!
Two flats in one stage borders on the ridiculous, and when you discover, after stopping in the stage to change the wheel, that the wheel spanner will not fit into the hole in the rim around the nut, then you know you have seriously pissed off the gods of rallying!
Have you ever had that feeling, where you wish you were dead, or at least pray to be taken away, as you can simply not carry on? Well, if not you must try to loosen a wheel, when it gets more difficult to turn the wheel spanner every turn you loosen the nut.
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Leon Botha
Now this could have been a nice pic! Leon and Carolyn in serious action!
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This time around, as I think was mentioned in a previous article my navigator was Carolyn Swan, the first ever women beside me except of course for my ex-wife of many years, after she navigated for me once. In the divorce proceedings, this was given as the main cause for the divorce!
Now as I mentioned, I invited four male co-drivers, all of them, well except maybe Francois, strong and healthy men, you see Francois is not big, but he is very inventive, and gets so high on adrenaline, that he will use his mouth as a air tool to loosen nuts, if need be! Anyway with teh guys as navigators in the other events, we never got any flat!
But, of course – this was very well planned! I had to get no less than three flat wheels in one rally while having a women navigator. However, when I was huffing and puffing, Carolyn pushed me away, while she loosened the bloody wheel and I lay flat on my back having a private heart attack.
We lost close to eleven minutes in this stage and after leading by about 40 seconds after the second stage we were now trailing by a week!
We then worked out that we could never catch the leaders again, and we would now simply concentrate on winning all the stages! You see, windgat again!
Fitted with brand new second hand tyres we took on the next stage – and lo and behold, coming to a very sharp horseshoe left, we find our way totally blocked by Mally Saville, who managed to be stuck with a Subaru!
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Alanie Botha
Mally again!
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Now that takes some doing, needless to say, more than one wheel was hanging in the air. Caroline and I jumped out to clear the road, and when I put all my weight behind a mighty shove, the Subaru disappeared so quickly, I landed on my arse about ten metres down the road. Carolyn carried me back to the car and strapped me in – because by now I totally exhausted.
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Leon Botha
Mally Saville - won the Natal Championship.
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We got going and the next problem was to stay on the road in Mally’s dust. Be it as it may, Mally won the Shark Country Championship (sorry Paul – the Porra actually wanted to know why I did not leave poor Mally there? and threatened with things such as human rights and because he is Portuguese an International incident etc.!) You see, if Mally was stuck for longer in the stage, Paul Gouveia would have won the championship.
Well after this, our times say it all. We managed to win five from eight stages, with the mentioned Mr Gouveia buggering up my record in the last stage, when the Sharkies did not tell me about a negative camber at a T-junction, where I almost ended our rally. Went sideways into a safety barrier, causing a photographer to do the 400m sprint in less than 15 seconds!
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Leon Botha
Marius Swart - pic by Dave Ledbitter
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The rally was decided between Marius Swart and David Crause in the Subaru Impreza GT, and a charging Nick Ryan and Geoff Tyrer in a similar car. Nick lost more than a minute in Stage One when they took a wrong route at a “funny” instruction. In Geoff’s defence, this could have happened to anyone, but sadly, this mistake cost them the rally.
Nick drove brilliantly winning two stages and claimed second fastest in three but still had to see Marius Swart beating him by a mere six seconds.
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Leon Botha
Nick Ryan in action on the Great North Rally - Pic MotorPics.co.za
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Looking at Ryan’s progress in the car and the times he manages to post, I do believe that this young man will make a mark or two on the rally scene in South Africa. His times are impressive to say the least and keeping in mind his “lack” of proper experience, limited funding and the normal problems, he is busy doing a great job.
If Subaru is looking for a candidate to link their super cars to, they can start with this young man. He has a nice personality, talent and I would like to drive a car he is associated with, not rather sell it.
Paul Gouveia once again proved that he has the ability, to keep up with the best and he went so far as to win a Stage overall. He managed a brilliant third overall with the very experienced Robert Paisley sitting next to him. Paisley must have been there for another reason as well, and that was to get a close look at what to expect during the first rally of the 2003 season. (Paul we need a picture of you in action)
Chris de Wit, once again proved that he is not a flash in the pan, and I must sincerely say, that this young man deserves assistance, by Toyota and perhaps an enthusiastic sponsor such as TOTAL? What must he still do to prove that he is easily one of the most talented drivers on the circuit? Janine Labuschagne, also proved that she is at least a good navigator, when she brought him home in another excellent position.
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Leon Botha
Chris de Wit and Janine Labuschagne
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Mally Saville and Alec Harris lost their chance to win the rally overall when they landed on the uphill bank with their wheels in the air. The gearbox manufactured by Ken Westermeyer causing a great improvement to the performance of the car.
The Greek team? of Kosta Koumantarakis (still easier than some of those names with all the double k’s and umlauts on) and John Costa (now that is a hell of a lot better) did very well and I know for a fact that they had a few of the top contenders very worried at some stage or another.
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Leon Botha
KCosta2 on their way to a fine 6th overall.
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The previously mention gearbox fundi Ken Westermeyer and Detlef Wedekind, finished in a credible seventh position in their VW Polo Playa followed by team mates (I think) Peter Teague and Donovan Brown in a similar car.
My favourite team, that of Lola and Megan Verlaque brought their Subaru home in ninth position, after a drive that shows Lola getting to grips with the car. Always fun to listen to this lady describing her experience through the stages. Very highly strung and forgive me for saying it, but she may even be more superstitious than yours truly!
Gawie and Santie Nel in their Nissan Hardbody completed the top 10 positions, while 11th (not impressive at all) position was taken in by Kassie Coetzee and Ockie Fourie in a two-storey high bread van! The Toyota with the high off-road suspension looks as though it might roll on the start line, but Coetzee throws it around at random, enjoying himself. I was only joking about the “not impressive” part, always fun to make old Kassie worry for a minute or so!
Richard Vaughan and Natasha Flack in their VW Golf finished in 12th position after what seems to be a very consistent run. They were followed – see what I mean about being superstitious – in position 12A, by Leon Botha and Carolyn Swan – shall I tell the whole story again?
14th belonged to Nkisonathi Nzimandi and Fani-Fani Moyiwa in another VW Golf, followed by John and Steven Ogden in their ever reliable Skyline. When will this car ever stop going?
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Leon Botha
Trott and Snyman stuck for 20 minutes in Stage 1
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Now – can you believe this, even worse than us, Craig Trott and Gerhard Snyman finishing in an unfamiliar 16th position after being stuck for almost 20 minutes in – Stage 1! You know the story about IF certain parts of the anatomy gets moved, your aunt would have been your uncle, well just for interest sake, if stage one did not happen to these poor guys, they might have finished in third position.
17th were Belitzky and Cheyne in a Toyota Tazz, 18th Cranson and Plumb in an Alfetta, followed by another Alfa driven by Carrihil and Vos, while the two Escorts made up positions 19 and 20 crewed by Wyatt/Blackburn and Pieters and Mustard.
Stage three claimed Alterskye and Alan Bisset, who rolled where I may have if they did not, Callie vd Merwe and Gideon Trollip got stuck less than 100m from Alterskye and that was that.
Jose da Costa sommer killed the Sentra while it was still on the trailer. Now he is getting rid of that bloody car. Hope RallyStar® is not read to far up in Africa!
SUMMARY
A well-organised and enjoyable event. The roads were very slippery in places but nice and smooth. There were only a few rough spots. The Pace Notes were well done and of great assistance. Sponsors – well represented and can be proud to have their name linked to this event.
Thanks guys – now for a well-deserved month of relaxation, before it starts all over again!
We apologise for the lack of proper pics! There will be more to follow. If you can assist please send some through!
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