The Swartland Rally was a test of man and machine

I arrived in the Western Cape with bit more confidence than before. I had at least raced our Toyota GR Yaris at the iCam All Tar Rally the month before.

But as the name suggests, it was all on tar. I know tar. The Swartland Rally is all gravel. I do not know gravel.

X Shift sequential box fitted

Thursday was official shakedown. This would be my first taste of gravel and also my first run in our Toyota GR Yaris with a X Shift sequential box fitted to the car.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) guys had also installed a turbo anti-lag function to keep the boost always on the boil as well as a launch control function.

Shock troubles persist

Our little rocket was ready to fly. Well almost. Mechanical issues are very much a part of rallying. The first time the car was pushed over a jump, it broke the back left shock. This would not have been so bad, but these locally produced shocks had broken in testing before the first round.

A decision was made to rebuild the shock that night at Malmesbury Toyota and have the car ready for Round 1 of the Swartland Rally on Saturday morning for the Riebeek Kasteel stages. Line up, hit the launch control button and our Toyota GR Yaris bolts off the line in blur of dust and stones.

But less than a kilometre or two into the stage the back left shock breaks again. Decision time on the fly. Do we retire the car or do we push through this stage and Stage 2? Then get the car to the 30-minute service point. We decide to push on as we need the practice.

At the service park it was confirmed that the shock had broken, but we have no chance of fixing it in the 30 minutes allocated. We only have 30 minutes grace after this and then we would automatically be eliminated from the rally.

A makeshift cradle was installed under the shock to prevent further damage to the car and we decided to have a go at finishing the remaining four stages of the day as is. Then it would be back to Malmesbury Toyota that night for some much-needed repairs.

Standard GR Yaris parts used

Rally is all about repair decisions I have come to realise. Things seldomly run smooth. You are taking a very fast car and have it cover some seriously hostile off-road territory at pace. What can go wrong? Seemingly anything and everything is the right answer.

It was decided that we would find and fit a standard set of GR Yaris shocks for Round 3 on Saturday that would be in and around Malmesbury. Working into the early hours of the morning, the TGRSA crew got the new stuff in and presented us with a ready to go car the next day.

Confidence turns to fear

This was obviously not ideal as the standard shock does not have the raised ride height and travel offered by a pukka rally shock. But at least we were still in the rally and excited for what the day would bring. In fact, I was quite upbeat about the day.

But it didn’t take long for this confidence to turn into fear. Day 2’s stages were way different to Day 1 in my opinion. Loose stones everywhere made it feel like the car was on glass. And getting the car back under control when at speed was not easy.

Thankfully, my navigator, Kes Naidoo, is a very experienced TGRSA man both as navigator and driver. He jumped in with valuable on the fly driver coaching to get us through the worst of it.

We get to the end and on the podium again

The standard shocks were not great. But they did a job despite a bit of damage to the undercarriage, which included a crunched exhaust due to the car being too low. With a bunch of hairy moments mixed with a lot of laughs, we got through the six stages of Round 3 of the South African National Rally Championship.

The surprise came when we checked the leader board and saw that we had snuck into third place in class and 10th overall on Day 2, after being fifth in class and 13th overall on Day 1. I know we are a million miles away from being the fastest out there but we will take the small victories where we can.

What’s next?

Rounds 4 and 5 of the South African National Rally Championship will be up in the forests of Tzaneen on 29 and 30 May. Just when I thought I had it all figured out I have been told that forest rallies are way different to what I have just experienced.