Standards of Rallying in South Africa
author: Leon Botha
Rallying in South Africa needs a good shake up to ensure that it can grow in the future and remains an important part of the South African motorsport scene. This is the opinion of Serge Damseaux, eight times South African Rally Driver's Champion.
Speaking from his Somerset West home, Damseaux said that the standard of organisation of rallies have to reviewed regularly to ensure that high standards are maintained. "Some of the rallies are well organised, while the organisation of others are fair", he said.
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Leon Botha
Serge looking very pleased with something else?
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Damseaux said that the time has probably come for Motorsport South Africa and the National Rally Commission to review their decision not to have national rallies observed. "Observing all the rallies will ensure that organisers are kept on their toes and that the standards are continually improved upon.
"The pace on all of the rallies has become very fast with the result that competing on certain events became dangerous. The Mountain Trial is a classic example. The current debate around the use of pace notes also needs to be resolved soon, Damseaux said.
On the positive side, he said that timing on national rallies has improved quite substantially in the past few years, but for the rest there has hardly been any forward movement. He added that the clocks used on the events needs to be calibrated regularly to ensure that they are in top working condition.
Standards two
It was also imperative, he said, that younger Clerks of the Course be given the opportunity to become involved in the organisation of national events.
"We need to look to the future and ensure that when the current crop of grade A Clerks of the Course retire, we have people with sufficient experience to take their place. If we want to be seen as a leading rallying country in Africa and the rest of the world, we need to ensure that our events meet at least the minimum world class standards" Damseaux said.
"In addition, the organisers of national rallies needed to co-operate more closely so that we can ensure that the standards and organisation of our national events are on par with each other", he said.
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