The Petrefuel Algoa Rally Club Championship came to end last weekend at the Amatola Rally that was based in the sleepy village of Hogsback with round 6 being a night rally on the Friday night and round 7 being a day rally on Saturday, with both rounds racing through the forests that surround Hogsback.

Picture: Dirt Drifters: Neels Vosloo & Rikus Fourie power their way to overall victory in the Amatola Rally held in Hogsback.

Picture credit: Darryl Kukard – Motor Mouth

The drama started immediately on Friday as the scheduled 8pm start had to be delayed due to the heavy mist that blanketed the area from early evening. The first cars eventually started at around 9:30pm and immediately the teams realised what challenges lay ahead on the technical course that had been laid out, with the cars feeling under-powered due to the high altitude which also led to a couple of the competitors battling nausea in the misty conditions. Unfortunately the mist worsened as the night wore on and the race organisers, due to safety concerns, decided to end the night rally at the conclusion of the second stage and it was Deon Kretzmann and Navigator Jason Schreiber in a Toyota Etios that emerged as the winners with East London’s Oliver de Man and Shanay Roebuck in a Toyota Corolla taking second place followed by the VW Polo of Riekus Schmidt and Marco Griesel in third. 

During Saturdays final round of the championship the teams were once again tested to the limit with many of the cars suffering suspension damage leading to only seven out of the original twenty starters managing to complete the entire rally. The national pairing of Neels Vosloo and Rikus Fourie put in yet another polished performance to bring their Hella Backed VW Polo home in first place overall to end off a relatively dominant all round seasons performance to be crowned 2024 Algoa rally Club Champions. Kretzmann and Schreiber enjoyed their best season yet and came home in second place in the Triple LLL Plant Hire Etios, finishing the rally 25 seconds behind the Hella Polo and taking second place in the championship as well.  Defending champions Juan and Tarryn van Rooyen in their Innova VW Polo where back on pace after a somewhat inconsistent season to round out the podium positions in Hogsback and ended seventh in the championship.

An excited Deon Kretzmann, after his second place finish had the following to say, “It was great to rally in a new area where none of us had raced before, with beautiful mountains and forests as well as some great spectator points where the crowds could see multiple cars on stage for long periods. The layout consisted of fast flowing stages with a few high speed crests that thrilled the spectators, mixed with some very technical bits with no room for error. In the night rally the navigators had to really remain calm and focused in the mist as it was so easy to get lost.” 

 The overall championship standings at the conclusion of the 2024 season are as follows –