Algoa Rally Club plays host to the one of the regions premier motorsport events when the Algoa National Rally takes place in the Jeffreys Bay area and Longmore Forest this weekend. With over thirty cars expected to line up at the start of the rally at Mentors Country Estate on Friday, it promises to be an action packed affair where the local regional competitors get the chance to share the big stage with the National competitors. The event comprises two separate rounds of the national championship with round five running into the night on Friday and round six a day rally mainly in the Longmore Forest on Saturday. It will also be round three and four of the Petrefuel Algoa Rally Club Championship. The planning of the event has certainly had many curve balls thrown, with massive damage to certain of the the dirt roads in the forest, following the recent heay rains, as well as the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on certain farms in the area. The organinsers have had graders in the area carrying out repairs not only to the rally route, but also on the service roads in the forest as well as at the very soggy Mentors Country Estate where the exciting first and last stages of both days will be held.
Picture credit: Darryl Kukard
Excitement is building as it the first opportunity that local spectators and rally followers will get to see the new 4-wheel drive VW Polo that Jan Habig and his team in Natal have built for Benjamin Habig and navigator Barry White. Habig and White dominated the last rally and will certainly go into the Algoa National Rally as favourites to win outright. A strong challenge from the two Toyota Gazoo Rally Starlets in the the hands of Jono van Wyk and Mandla Mdakane will no doubt be mounted from the outset of the rally.
The top local team of Neels Vosloo and Rikus Fourie in their Hella sponsored VW Polo should be strong contenders for a podium finish in the national standings after a strong performance in the Cape Swartland National Rally where they placed second overall and then followed it up by winning the local Paardepoort Rally in May. Oliver de Man will take part in the National class in his classic Toyota Corolla E70 without his regular navigator Ingrid Jeacocks who joins Jono van Wyk in his 4 wheel-drive Toyota Starlet. Llyod Brady will be in the hot-seat along de Man for this event. Current championship leaders Chris Coertse in his immaculate Mazda 2 will no doubt be a threat as he has been a regular visitor to the Longmore Forest in recent years and with Matt Kohler reading the notes for him should run at the sharp end of the field. Joining the National action for the first time are Deon Kretzmann and Jason Schreiber in the ex-Guy Botterill Toyota Etios R2 and it will be really interesting to follow their progress as Kretzmann has certainly got to grips with the very quick car of late and should put in a strong performance.
Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout will be swopping their 4-wheel drive Toyota for a VW Polo 1 litre TDI for this event as their Toyota undergoes some repairs and modifications.
The Daniel Pienaar team have carried out extensive repairs to their cars since the damage suffered at the Paardepoort Rally and will run both their VW Polo with Winley Maartin and Kaylin Kapp and Tashne Wait and Wesley Schultz in the VW Golf A1.
Etienne Malherbe and navigator Patrick Vermaak will once again team up as they celebrate forty years of rallying since they started at the Lowveld 500 on the 19th May 1984 with Malherbe finishing in 26th place in a Mazda RX2 Rotary and Vermaak finishing in 12th overall in an Alfa Guilia. The pair will be making a surprise appearance in a Toyota and not the familiar Datsun SSS that Malherbe has campaigned for so many years.
The action gets underway on Friday from Mentors Country Estate at 13h00 following a street parade through Jeffreys Bay and then at 08h00 on Saturday for round six. A comprehensive program and spectator rally guide can be downloaded at www.motor-mouth.co.za
