Tzaneen well represented at the ARRO Rally
The final round of the ARRO (African Regional Rally Organization) rally Round 7 was held in and around the Bronkhorstspruit area on Saturday the 25th of November.
There were 32 entrants in total of which seven (7) were in the 2 Tzaneen teams, class (1300 cc- 1600cc). It rained the previous night which caused the roads to be wet and slippery and that made the race tricky. One of the stages had to be canceled as it was too wet and dangerous.
ALSO READ: Tzaneen Midas Rally revs up huge crowd
At the prize giving and year end function, which was held in Pretoria, the Simpsons team, Eddie Simpson and navigator, Louis Meng were second in their class for round 7 and won the class Championship for the year 2017, thus receiving provincial colours for rallying. Peter Pilusa from Tzaneen, in his Nissan Sentra, came fourth in this rally and got an overall third place for the year.
Eddie Simpson mentioned that this was a tough rally due to the wet roads but at least he finished this rally unlike in Tzaneen when he drove a little too fast and went “over the edge” and damaged the lower control arm of the Opel.
Eddie wrote the following:
“I would like to say a special word of thanks to my great friends who assisted us when I damaged my car: Thank you to Hennie Smit and Blacky from Midas, who came out at 22:00 to open their store and assist us with a spare part. To Leon Jordon and Dirk van der Westhuizen from Protow, who worked until the early hours of the morning repairing the car and to Frikkie Steenberg from Dunlop Express and Stefan le Roux from SuperQuick who helped with the wheel alignment the following morning. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have been able to get back into the race the following day.
I had great support from all institutions, including the Tzaneen Local Municipality and the Traffic Department when organizing this rally. The regional rally in Tzaneen was one of the most successful rallies with so many spectators and interest that the organizers of the National Rally has contacted me and are seriously considering to cancel the Cape Town Rally and moving it to Tzaneen. The TV coverage sponsored by Midas has put Tzaneen back in the spotlight.
“Our major Maripa Mangena is very keen of the idea of hosting the Rally in Tzaneen and phoned the Chairman of ARRO to arrange having the rally in Tzaneen next year. We will work closely with the Tzaneen Chamber of Commence to make the National Rally a reality in Tzaneen,” Simpson concluded.
