UPDATE: Rally champs revved to start in Scottburgh
The season opener will see the introduction of some interesting and exciting innovations for the national series.
With just over a week to go before the Tour Natal Rally opening round of the 2015 National Rally Championship gets underway in Scottburgh, most of the top teams participating in this year’s competition are all revved up, ready and rearing to go.
While the Castrol Toyota team, that include defending champions, Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee, has not yet announced its line-up for 2015, the Volkswagen Sasol racing team, runners-up in 2014, will again field a three-car team this year.
Hans Weijs junior of the Netherlands, who finished second in the 2014 drivers’ championship and won the final rally of the year, and Belgian co-driver, Björn Degandt will be rallying alongside the talented South Africans Henk Lategan and Barry White, who acquitted themselves well in the recent Monte Carlo Rally.
Gugu Zulu and Pierre Arries will round out the team with Arries being recalled for co-driver duties after Carl Peskin, Zulu’s long-time navigator and multiple national championship winner, opted out because of business pressures.
Ford will also be officially represented in this year’s championship, fielding a Fiesta S2000 for 2012 and 2013 national rally champions, Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton. The Fiesta was recently upgraded and rebuilt by M-Sport in Britain. Since 2009 the pair has already netted 15 victories with the Fiesta, and this year they are determined to return to the form which saw them dominate the 2013 season.
The Ford onslaught will be strengthened by top privateer Japie van Niekerk in his New Africa Developments S2000 Fiesta – now with experienced UK-based navigator, Gordon Noble sitting alongside him.
Noble comes to South Africa on the back of consecutive wins in the final rounds of the FIA Junior World Rally Championship, which earned him and young driver Alastair Fischer second place overall in the series.
Five of the teams will contest the championship in S1600 Polo R2-cars, three in Ford Fiesta R2s and two teams in Toyota Etios R2s, while in the NRC2 class four entries have been received so far.
The route for the 2015 Tour Natal will be quite similar to last year’s, with the first three stages after the start at the Scottburgh Country Club to be repeated – for a total of six stages on the first day.
Another five special stages will be run, for a total of 11 stages over a distance of about 420km.
