12/03/09 - The 2009 Sasol SA Rally Championship Rally season promises to be another humdinger with the factory Volkswagen and Toyota teams going all out for the 2009 championship, a battle that is set to rage from March until the final round in October.

The South African motor industry is part of the greater international motoring community, yet in spite of the financially challenging times faced by the global manufacturers, the local subsidiaries are putting on a brave face and fielding highly competitive teams in the quest to win the 2009 Sasol SA Rally Championship.

Budget cuts are the order of the day yet a healthy thirty five competitors should make the running for the various championships on offer, with fields boosted by another dozen teams as irregular competitors dip in and out of the championship as funds allow.

Heading the overall title chase is the three-car BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo trio of defending champions Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries, 2007 titleholders Jan Habig/Douglas Judd and the 2006 champs Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson. Volkswagen, who ended the 2008 season with a 1-2-3 championship lockout, will be hard pushed to repeat that domination.

It was an opportunistic year for Volkswagen - whose trio walked away with six victories - as Toyota was re-building their team in the wake of Serge Damseaux’s retirement at the end of 2007 and developing a new S2000 Castrol-backed Auris in a trying season. In spite of the massive workload, Toyota managed to claim an unexpected but very welcome two victories.

Fekken and Arries, four times a winner last year, will have a new car to defend their title, with Habig and Kuun making do with what they had, refurbished for action once more.

In the Toyota camp, Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh and Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley will take the fight to the VW camp. The Castrol Toyota teams were ultra competitive but prone to mistakes and niggling mechanical issues that hampered their quest for wins. The Auris, launched late in the year, demonstrated it has the pace – and more – to fend off the Uitenhage challenge and this is where the real action will be – a five way fight for overall rally wins on every outing.

Both Volkswagen and Toyota have a bevy of S2000 privateers to help add points towards the prestigious Manufacturer’s Championship, won by Toyota these past 11 consecutive years. Heading the line-up is JP Damseaux and new co-driver Andre Vermeulen in their newly re-shelled Team Total Toyota RunX. Damseaux claimed his career first win last year and will be hunting more, making him a dangerous prospect. He will be joined by Fernando Rueda/Cobus Vrey, who debut their S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX. This Total pair ended 3rd overall on a recent regional event, won by Damseaux, so fireworks can be expected between the Total crews.

Japie van Niekerk/Robin Houghton returns for another season of S2000 rallying, the New Africa Developments Toyota RunX a good prospect for the podium. Van Niekerk ended 3rd overall on his first outing in S2000 last year in KZN and became one of the most consistent points scorers last year.

Volkswagen has the services of Theuns Joubert/Hennie Botes in a new S2000 Salom Group Polo as well as the Rally Chicks, Lola/Megan Verlaque in the ex-Williams Polo as and when their African Championship campaign allows them a local outing. Joubert is still relatively new to rallying and his progress will be watched with interest. The Rally Chicks on the other hand, ended the recent Tanzanian Rally 4th overall in their first outing in S2000 and should show well.

Class A7 will experience resurgence after a year in the wilderness. Heading the entry are defending champions Chris de Wit and Dean Redelinghuys in their reliable Team Total Toyota RunX. The KZN pairing are always there or thereabouts and should start the year with a bang on home soil, but the biggest threat will come from Evan Hutchinson and new co-driver Elvene Coetzee.

Hutchinson’s professional Motorite team will put their hard lessons from 2008 to good use, but should look over their shoulders for the young hotshot Stevan Wilken/Greg Gericke in a brand new Pannar Seeds/Triton Express Volkswagen Polo.

Wilken has been quick in the lower classes, if a little hairy, but should he settle quickly, he will be a real championship contender.

Do not discount the Toyota Corollas of 2008 Northern Regions Champions Schalk Burger/Armand du Toit, with backing from Ultimate Sports Nutrition and Michael Otto/Tommy du Toit (Auto Doctor Toyota Corolla). The Corolla is reputed to be superior to the RunX and both drivers have made their mark. Preparation has been intense, so reliability of the older Toyotas should not be an issue.

Class A6 is on a downward trend in terms of numbers but the three Team Total cars confirmed for the class will be at it hammer and tongs. Favourites for the title should be Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin in their Total Toyota Auris on the basis of the car’s newness and potential, whereas titleholder Craig Trott and new co-driver Robbie Coetzee are in their familiar older Toyota RunX.

Making a well-deserved move to the modified class are multiple champions Rodney Visagie and Carolyn Swan in another red and white Toyota RunX.

Class A5 will be a hotly contested championship with 2007 champions Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin returning to the class in a BP Ultimate Volkswagen CitiGolf going head-to-head with the 2008 champions Andre Cleenwerck/Des de Fortier in an identical BP CitiGolf. This little fight could well be one of the highlights of the season.

Piet Bakkes/Johan Aucamp (Sasol Komatipoort CitiGolf), are short on mileage after a crash-riddled season in 2008, but return armed with the knowledge of where a CitiGolf’s performance limits are.

Just out of matric, Morne Janse van Rensburg/Mark Irvine (GC Diesel VW CitiGolf) will continue his studies in gravel racing, while even younger than Van Rensburg is Ashley Haigh Smith/Hilton Auffrey in their Team React Toyota Yaris. The battle of the scholars will also be fascinating to watch.

Vusi Mabanga/Shaun Visser should move up the order in their Team Total Toyota Yaris who may find unexpected competition from newcomer to rallying Riyad Jaffer/Henry Dearlove in the Sasol Toyota Yaris. Jaffer is a competent racer from production cars and nearly won the 2007 class B title, losing out by a single point in the final round.

PRODUCTION CARS:

The Production Car Championship is set to be a monumental fight for title honours this year when the defending champions Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich take to the stages in their new Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza N14, taking on former champs Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman (Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14) and Hein Lategan/Johan van der Merwe (Afrox Subaru Impreza).

Wilken dominated the 2008 season with five wins and seven finishes, winning more stages than all the other class N4 competitors put together. Armed with a new car, which is due to be upgraded to N15 specification later in the season, Wilken will be a formidable force and wants to right his Tour Natal indiscretion last year, when he crashed out while comfortably leading.

For Du Plessis and Snyman, they will be aiming to show that their underwhelming season, in spite of the latest car in the category, was an anomaly, so the Pirtek Subaru crew should be one to watch. The 2007 champion was winless last season, which doesn’t sit comfortably with the Pretoria businessman.

The Afrox Subaru Lategan/vd Merwe pair made waves from their first appearance in class N4, immediately on the pace and threatening the established leaders. They clinched their first win on the Osram Rally and will be going flat out to take the championship.

Joos and Danie Stassen return in their privateer De Goede Finance Subaru Impreza, complete with Wild Willie watching their every move perched on the Subaru’s rear wing. The Nelspruit-based brothers endured a steep learning curve last year, but with some upgrades to their car, will be closer to the pace but remain under-funded compared to the top three contenders.

Mike Nathan returns to the sport in class N4 with the ex-Fernando Rueda Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. Derek Jacobs joins the AWI entry, and already the duo can boast a second place finish on the opening round of the Western Cape Rally Championship, so Nathan will be buoyed by his initial result and may factor in the podium fight.

Rounding out the class N4 entry is the young Zimbabwean Chase Attwell and co-driver Dave Milner in a newly built Subaru Impreza N10. The Zimbabwean team is contesting both the Sasol SA National Rally Championship as well as the African Rally Championship, so may miss a few rounds during the year.

Attwell has speed, but was accident prone last year. On the Tour, he had to be cut out of his car after a major roll.

Class N3 has shrunk in size to three runners, headed by Sasol’s Dave Compton/Pierre Jordaan in the familiar blue and yellow Toyota RunX. Compton adapted well to rallying in his maiden season last year, winning his class on a couple of occasions and will start the season as the title favourite.

Challenging Compton is the East Rand husband and wife pairing of Riaan/Hester Erasmus in their Toyota RunX. The ’08 class N2 champions have bought the N3 championship-winning car used by Rodney Visagie so the machinery is well established as a major class player, while Erasmus has a reasonable amount of experience in the sport.

Capetonian Duncan English/AN Other will compete in his Toyota RunX while fellow Cape residents Abduraghman Amlay/Yusuf Ganief should keep them all honest in a similar car.