The South African Rally Championship burst into life at the Cape Swartland Rally last weekend with rounds one and two taking place in the Malmesbury, Riebeek Kasteel area, as the oldest running motorsport championship in the country entered its sixty second year of existence. Added into the mix were some challenging night stages on and around Killarney International Raceway that entertained the crowds that had gathered in support.

Photo by Abri de Bruin, Cloudnr9
A total of twenty eight cars lined up for the Friday start of round one, that saw a varied mix of state-of the-art national competitors cars to classic regional entrants in the twenty eight strong field.
Leading out the Eastern Cape entries from Algoa Rally Club were Neels Vosloo & Rikus Fourie in their Hella sponsored VoslooR VW Polo who took part in the NRC4 class which is an open class that caters for two-wheel/front-wheel drive cars with limited modifications being allowed and Oliver de Man and Ingrid Jeacocks in the their classic Toyota Corolla that were in the NRC5 class for older generation two wheel drive cars.
Vosloo & Fourie put in a masterful performance in both rounds taking third place overall and first in the NRC4 class in round one which they then followed up by placing second overall and once again winning their class in the second round. Fourie had the following to say “For the team it was a new challenge as Neels had never taken part in a rally in this area, but he thrived in the hot conditions on the tricky loose gravel surface with many fast flowing sections. It became an absolute trust game with me trusting his driving ability and him my navigating ability to get us some good results through the gravel stages. We had a total blast on the very technical Killarney night stages and Neels was brilliant as he got his first taste of Killarney, we overdid it in one corner and lost four places in the blink of an eye, but it really kept the appreciative crowd entertained. Round two took place in the Reibeek Kasteel area where neither of us had ever rallied before. We just kept it neat and tidy and focussed on finishing in one piece while other teams faltered. The Gazoo Racing Toyotas unfortunately tripped up over some of the many obstacles which led us to second place overall”.
For Fourie it was a very emotional event as his father Joe, who is well known in rally and off-road racing circles is gravely ill in hospital and as a family they made the tough decision to head down to the Cape to compete and do this event as a tribute to him, as they had good memories when they competed as a father and son team at the Swartland Rally for the first time in 1997.
This result sees the VoslooR team in second place in the championship standings with 104 points behind Chris Coertse and Carolyn Swan who triumphed in both rounds in the Cape, bagging 126 points. A new introduction this year is a separate four-wheel drive championship as well as a two-wheel championship that the local stars now lead. This event also had an added incentive of double points on offer to entice the upcountry teams to participate.
Although de Man and Jeacocks rally together in the Algoa Rally Club championship it was their first national rally together and they really kept the crowd entertained with the sideways action of the classic rear-wheel drive Toyota that revelled in the loose surface conditions of the high speed gravel stages. They secured a fifth place overall in round one and fourth in round two as well as winning the NRC5 class in both rounds and find themselves in fourth place overall in the championship standing with 84 points.