Third motor rally comes to city

POLOKWANE – Limpopo’s motorsport enthusiasts can look forward to yet another exciting Polokwane Motor Rally, the penultimate round of the South African Rally Championship, which will take place on October 18 and 19.

This is the third year that the Polokwane Municipality partnered with South African Motorsport in this regard. Charmaine Fortune, press relations officer of South African Motorsport’s South African Rally Championship said they hoped to renew the partnership with the municipality for next year’s event and beyond. She added that negotiations were still ongoing and they were positive that the national rally fraternity would return to this region next year.

“The Polokwane Motor Rally has certainly become a popular event among competitors, teams and spectators alike because Polokwane is centrally based for most of the teams. It’s only the Volkswagen factory team and a few other crews that are from the Western Cape. As for the rest, most are based in Gauteng. So for the Gauteng-based crews this a popular event,” she said.

The Peter Mokaba Sports Complex will be the Polokwane Motor Rally’s headquarters, she said, adding that the sport complex and Polokwane’s facilities such as the excellent accommodation made this event a popular one for contestants, teams, families of the teams and the spectators. She also complimented the host of land owners who were once again very cooperative in allowing competitors to race on their properties.

The clerk of the course, Willie du Plessis said the enthusiastic cooperation of the municipality, businesses and land owners who had once again gone out of their way to provide the necessary permissions to organise the rally was appreciated. “We have been able to set-up a total of 11 stages in and around Polokwane and the total route is some 550km.”

The event will start at 12:00 on Friday, October 18 with the official opening being held at the municipal offices. The participants will travel in convoy in their vehicles to the sport complex, escorted by traffic officials.

Friday’s action will consist of six stages, which will begin with a 10km gravel stage south of Polokwane. This will be followed by four more gravel stages and a short 2,9km tarmac stage in the area of the sport complex, which will end the day’s proceedings. The last stage of the day will commence at around 17:00.

On Saturday, the rally will begin at 06:30 with a 15-minute period for the servicing of vehicles before the first of the day’s five stages starts. The first stage of the second day will be a 33km test of some 40km north of the city. The first four stages will all be contested on gravel and the final stage will be a repeat of Friday’s short tarmac stage at the complex.

Du Plessis said all the roads were in excellent condition and the competitors could expect some fast sections mixed with slower, more technical sections. “Day one’s stages will be more tight and technical, while day two will consist of more open and faster sections. As usual dust will be a challenge for the crews, but if it rains, some stages will be even more difficult,” he explained.

Spectator guides giving the details of safe vantage points, competitor and championship information can be downloaded at www.sarallying.co.za or collected at the venue at the beginning of the rally.

The municipality confirmed that the three-year agreement would be discussed at a council meeting in the near future.