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Ford Rally kicks off second half

07 August 2013

A new rally with a new sponsor and venue will kick off the second half of the South African National Rally Championships in Gauteng on 16 and 17 August.

The Ford Dealer Rally is round five of the series and will be headquartered at the Zonderwater Correctional Services facility in Cullinan, east of Pretoria.

It was originally planned that the base of the event would be Ford's Silverton assembly plant, but roadworks in the area have necessitated a change to a more practical and suitable location.

The rally, which is being organised by the National Rally Commission, will break completely new ground for a national championship event. According to clerk of the course Willie du Plessis, the two-day route, covering some 160 kilometres of timed special stages - six on Friday and eight on Saturday - will be a challenging mix of farm roads in a predominantly mealie-growing area with some bush and tight and twisty sections.

"We've had excellent co-operation from the Cullinan landowners and the officials at the Zonderwater Correctional Services facility and, although the area is familiar to regional rally competitors, it will present a brand new challenge for national championship crews," said du Plessis. "There will be a single designated service park at the Zonderwater facility on both days, which will also serve as the start and finish on both days."

The Ford Dealer Rally will start from Zonderwater at 11h00 and the first of Friday's six special stages (five on gravel and one on tarmac) will be close to Cullinan and Mamelodi. The final stage of the day will be a two-kilometre spectator special on tarmac at Mamelodi Plaza starting at 16h00.

"Friday afternoon's tarmac stage at the shopping centre will be a unique opportunity for the local community to see the cars in action at close quarters," said du Plessis.

Spectator guides with full details of recommended spectator points and information about the teams and the championship will be available at the start.

There will be four gravel stages, each repeated, on Saturday in the Cullinan area with the event restarting from the Zonderwater facility at 08h00

With four rounds of the championship remaining reigning champions Mark Cronjé & Robin Houghton (Ford Fiesta S2000) lead the standings by just five points from multiple former champions Jan Habig & Robert Paisley (Basil Read Ford Fiesta S2000). These two crews have won each of the four events to date (Cronjé three times and Habig once), but they could get some competition from the Volkswagen and Toyota factory entries. These include Toyota Motorsport's Johnny Gemmell/Carolyn Swan and Leeroy Poulter/Elvéne Coetzee (both in Castrol Toyota Yaris cars) and Giniel de Villiers/Greg Godrich (Imperial Toyota Yaris) plus the three Volkswagen Sasol Racing Polos of multiple former champions Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries and Enzo Kuun/Douglas Judd, and 19-year-old Henk Lategan and co-driver Barry White.

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