National rally champs head to Bela-Bela

Dave Ledbitter

BELA-BELA –  THE short, tight and tricky Bela-Bela Motor Rally in Limpopo signals the halfway point in the 2015 National Rally Championships, and as such, will be a make or break event for many leading teams’ championship aspirations.

Like last year, the rally, to be hosted in Bela Bela this weekend, will be compact. The organisers, the Rally Commission of Motorsport South Africa, made a specific effort to devise an event with virtually every stage just 10km away from the central rally headquarters and service area.

The total stage distance for the two days is 178km and the open sections linking the stages add up to just 55km. This will make it easy for spectators to watch stages and visit the service park without having to travel great distances.

A two-pass reconnaissance of the route, which is open to all competitors but not obligatory, is scheduled for Thursday, and scrutineering of the cars at Century 21 at the Waterfront from 18:00 to 20:00 will also be open to the public.

Four stages will be run on Friday, with a ceremonial start from the Bela Mall in Mark Street at 12:00. Rally headquarters will be at the Forever Resort and the single service area will be right across the road at the old caravan park.

There will be an overnight stop at Bela Bela on Friday before the rally restarts for the final six special stages at 08:00 on Saturday. The rally will finish at around 14:30 on Saturday at the Forever Resort.

The longest special stage, the Towoomba Farm stage, is 27km (stage six, repeated as stage nine on Saturday) and the shortest is a 10km stage at the Bela Bela Waterfront (stage two, repeated as stage four on Friday).

One of the event liaison sections on Friday will run through the Bela Bela Ext 8 Township and on Saturday, stage seven will traverse the same area. On Friday,Thusanang Special School learners will be given the opportunity to see the cars and meet the competitors.

The Rotary Club of Warmbaths has also thrown its weight behind the event and will again turn the Dunlop Service Park into a Rotary International Fan Park for the weekend.

The service break in Bela Bela on Friday and Saturday will also allow spectators and fans the opportunity to get close to the cars, drivers and navigators.

Given the short and compact nature of the event, reigning champions, Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris) will have their work cut out if they want to stay in the hunt for this year’s championship.

With Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Performance Fiesta) victorious in three events on the trot, the Toyota pair needs to win in the Waterberg to keep their championship chances alive.

The same applies for third placed Gugu Zulu, now with Hilton Auffray in the navigator’s seat in his Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo. Besides keeping his championship hopes alive, Zulu needs a good result if he wants to keep Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris) behind him.

A good result will also be crucial in the hotly contested S1600 class. With Matthew Vacy-Lyle and Schalk Van Heerden (Fragram Toyota Etios), Paulus Franken and Henry Kohne (Manitou Group VW Polo R2) and Guy Botterill adnd Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios) separated by only three points, a good performance in the Waterberg will be advantageous going into the second part of the season.

Richard Leeke, chairperson of the Rally Commission of Motorsport South Africa, again thanks the local community of Bela Bela for their enthusiastic support and co-operation.

“We are indebted to the landowners for allowing us to use their private roads, both to access the special stages and for the special stages themselves. With their support, we can now look forward to another exciting event in the Waterberg,” he adds.