Youngsters aplenty in this year’s rally championship

This will be especially true in the S1600 two-wheel drive class.

Reigning class champion Clint Weston, who will defend his title with Christoff Snyders in their Reef Tankers Citroen C2, is the categoty veteran at the age of 39.

He will have a bunch of talented teenagers and twenty-somethings snapping at his heels.

They will include 2013 runner-up Matthew Vacy-Lyle, 22 (Fragram Toyota Etios R2), Chad van Beurden, 20 (Beurden Construction VW Polo), Ashley Haigh-Smith, 21 (Castrol Ford Fiesta), and Guy Botterill, 28 (Yato Tools Toyota Etios).

Up-and-coming youngsters who will be looking to make their mark in this year’s competition will include Namibia’s Marko Himmel, 20 (VW Polo), who won the Polokwane Rally last year with Francois Schoonbee, Richard Leeke Jnr, 17 (ATS Ford Fiesta R2), who was second in the Polokwane Rally with Pierre Jordaan and AC Potgieter, 19, with Ernie van der Walt, 20 (Ferodo Ford Fiesta R2).

All made only occasional appearances last season, but are expected to mount a full campaign this year.

The youngest competitor in the championship will be Mari van der Walt, who turned 16 in December.

The Pretoria North grade 10 pupil will make her national championship debut as co-driver to Chris Coertse in an Electrothread Toyota Etios.

She started rallying at the age of 12 with her father, multiple former class champion and VW factory driver Tjaart van der Walt, in the RallyStar rally sprint series.

As a 14-year-old in 2012 she and her father were second in the Northern Regions championship and followed this up by winning the title last year.

All the contenders will be inspired by the progress of former S1600 stars like Henk Lategan, 19, who is now an established VW factory driver in the premier S2000 class.

Lategan scored two podium finishes last season and won nine special stages.

Meanwhile Namibian Thilo Himmel, 23, was Weston’s closest S1600 rival right up to the penultimate round last year, winning three rounds in a Toyota Etios with Armand du Toit.

He has now graduated to the S2000 Challenge, where he and Du Toit will crew a factory VW Sasolracing Polo.