Motorsport South Africa gets green light to host national rally champs in Secunda
The first rally will already take place in Secunda on 11 and 12 September and will account for round 1 and 2 of the national championship.
SECUNDA – Motorsport South Africa received the green light to still present the National Rally Championship this year.
The championship was initially scheduled to kick off in March, but only days away from the start, the country was forced into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Government has now given the permission for the national rally championship to continue, but only if the organisers adhere to the strict rules and conditions. One of these conditions is that spectators are not allowed to attend any of the rallies in the championship programme.
The format of the championship has also changed, because of the short time left in the year for racing events. There will now be five rounds crammed into three events before the end of the year.
The first rally will already take place in Secunda on 11 and 12 September and will account for round 1 and 2 of the national championship.
Although spectators will not be allowed at this event, rally fans will still be able to watch and follow all the action on live streaming.
The second event will take place on 17 October as round 3, and then round 4 and 5 will be the Trac N4 Rally at Dullstroom.
The two “double round” events will consist of daily stages of between 80 and 100km per day.
The stages used on the first day will not be repeated on the second day.
Mr William Louw, spokesman for the NRC’s steering committee said the measures taken to condense the calendar into three weekends are to reduce costs and time away from work.
“It will enable most of our competitors to support the entire championship.”
All five rounds will count towards the national rally championship and there will be no dropped points.
Local big leagues racer, AC Potgieter, is glad that he will soon be back on the tracks with his navigator, Nico Swartz.
He recently test drove their VW Polo at Delmas and is geared up for the very short season ahead.
Potgieter, who races in the R2N category, is the overall runner-up of last year’s championship. He has his aim set on the first place.
Potgieter excited about Secunda being the setting of the first two rounds.
“This is my hometown and I hope benefit from this advantage,” he concluded.
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