VW Rally team rings in changes ahead of 2014 season
The South African Rally Championship will undergo a number of changes this season, with major personnel differences from the 2013 season.
Youngster Henk Lategan and Barry White should lead the Sasol Volkswagen rally team this season. Pictures: Dave Ledbitter.
The Sasol Volkswagen team announced last week that top drivers Hergen Fekken and Enzo Kuun and navigator Douglas Judd will be leaving the fold this season.
“Hergen, Enzo and Douglas have been valuable members of the team during their years of competition and each will move on to different challenges in the new year. Navigator Pierre Arries will have a non-competition role within the team for this season,” said Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport.
“The Sasol Volkswagen team is passionate about competition,” said Rowe.
“The only constant is change and this is especially true in the field of motorsport. Over the years events have changed, rules have changed, cars have changed and now we will see a few changes when it comes to team members.
“We are evaluating our options with regard to the driver line-up for 2014. We expect to make an announcement by mid-February for our three Sasol Volkswagen Polo S2000 entries,” said Rowe.
It does not take a genius to guess that youngster Henk Lategan will stay in the team, accompanied by navigator Barry White.
Furthermore, since Volkswagen did not mention Gugu Zulu, one assumes he will stay, probably with Charl Peskin in the hot seat of a S2000 Challenge car. And, according to some pit lane gossip, we think that German youngster Hans Weiss will return to these shores, also in the top S2000 class.
What Volkswagen did confirm is the inclusion of a number of exciting young privateer teams that will compete on the national stage in Volkswagen Polo rally cars.
The newcomers will be led by Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit who will tackle the S2000 Challenge category.
In the S1600 class, Paulus Franken, Marco Himmel, Chad van Beurden and AC Potgieter, along with each of their navigators, will keep this category highly competitive in the 2014 season.”Supporting Thilo and the other young teams is another step in accelerating the process of identifying new rally talent,” said Rowe.
“There is a need to increase the available motorsport talent and encourage and develop the next generation of stars,” he added.
