Rally war to visit Bapsfontein

The 10 stages making up the route are all easily accessible from a central point at the East Rand motorsport venue, marking this as the most compact event of the year.

Currently, the team to beat is Toyota works crew Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee in their Castrol Toyota Yaris S2000.

They scored back-to-back wins in KwaZulu-Natal and on the Sasol Rally, putting them 10 points ahead of team mates Hergen Fekken/Carolyn Swan in the second Castrol Yaris.

A further nine points in arrears is Dakar hero Giniel de Villiers/Greg Godrich (Imperial Toyota Yaris S2000) with two consistent finishes under their belts.

Dakar star Giniel de Villiers and Greg Godrich (Imperial Toyota Yaris) should fight for a podium place around bapsfontein this weekend. Picture: Dave Ledbitter.

Heading the ‘best-of-the-rest’ is the spectacular pairing of Hans Weijs/Bjorn Degandt in their Sasol Volkswagen Polo, just 1.5 points ahead of their team mates Henk Lategan/Barry White. Both VW crews will need to watch out for the third Sasol VW entry of Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin. The latter crew claimed their best ever result on the recent Sasol Rally and with Zulu’s confidence at a high point, no one will bet against a podium for the popular driver.

Both Japie van Niekerk/Gerhard Snyman (New Africa Developments Ford Fiesta) and Mark Cronje/Robin Houghton (Ford Racing Fiesta) are currently propping up the bottom of the points table. Both teams have suffered appalling luck in the year’s first two events, but both could fight for victory this weekend.

Henk Lategan and Barry White will lead the Sasol Volkswagen team.

Super 2000 Challenge:

The class for older all-wheel drive machinery is headed by Namibian Thilo Himmel/Armand du Toit in their Investec Volkswagen Polo Vivo, three points clear of Piet Bakkes/Shaun Visser (Accident Guru Toyota RunX).

Wilro Dippenaar/Kesevan Naidoo (PZN Panelbeaters Toyota Auris) currently lie third, and they could certainly aim for the top podium place.

Super 1600:

2014 is not proving to be a good year for defending champions. Clint Weston/Christoff Snyders (Reef Tankers Citroen C2 R2) are at the bottom of the class points table while Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios R2) have dominated with two straight victories.

Botterill seems unbeatable at the moment, but Weston is super quick and will get on top of his car gremlins at some point.

A surprising second in class is Willie van Straaten/Scott Howden (Collisen Engineering Toyota RunX) with a second and fourth to their names.

Matthew Vacy-Lyle/Schalk van Heerden (Fragram Tools Toyota Etios) is third in class with two fifth places, just 3.5 points ahead of Chad van Beurden/Nico Swartz (Beurden Construction Volkswagen Polo R2).

Other VW Polo runners looking to turn their season around include AC Potgieter/Tommy du Toit (Tri-Sec Autohaus Polo), Paul Franken/Henry Kohne (Manitou Polo) and Marko Himmel/Francois Schoonbee.

Ford is represented by their leading team of Richard Leeke III/Rikus Fourie (ATS Fiesta R2), who are half a point up on Ashley Haigh Smith/Damien van As (React Fiesta R2).

The talented Ernie van der Walt/James Aldridge (Ferodo Fiesta R2) should be in the mix, along with Donovan Meyer/Stefan Cilliers (SA Earthworks Fiesta R2) and Lourens van Rensburg/ Pierre Jordaan (7 Films Fiesta).

In the battle of the older Toyotas, its even points for Andrew Heine/Robbie Coetzee (Heinesport Toyota Auris) and Nico Nienaber/Gert Janse van Rensburg in their IFS Toyota RunX, pegged on 19 apiece.

Route:

Seven of the 10 special stages make use of Rallystar so fans, who will be required to pay R100 per car of four people or R30 per person to walk in, will get their money’s worth.

Friday consists of four stages, all of which will be repeated on Saturday. The popular SuperSpecial stage, where cars compete two-at-a-time, will round out each day’s action.