ARTICLE ISSUED BY:  CHARMAINE FORTUNE

Picture:  Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan
Photography by:  Danie van Jaarsveld

With Rally South Africa in KwaZulu-Natal on August 17 and 18 being observed by the FIA as a candidate round of the World Rally Championship, competitors can expect a world class event that will test their skills to the limit.

Deputy clerk of the course Richard Vaughan, an experienced rally driver, who well knows the Valley of a 1000 Hills and Richmond areas through which the two-day event will pass, suggests that competitors bring their ‘A’ game with them.

There are a total of nine special stages, four on day one and five on day two, covering a total racing distance of 185 kilometres. The total rally distance, including liaison sections, is 572 kilometres. Apart from a one-kilometre super special stage on tarmac in Durban to end off each day, all the stages are on good gravel roads. The first day’s stages in the Valley of 1000 Hills are essentially quite technical, with average speeds between 60 and 80 km/h, while day two’s stages in the Richmond forests are on good quality but fast, slippery roads with average speeds up to 130 km/h in places.

The rally, round five of the SA Rally Championship, will have a ceremonial start from Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium at 11:30 on Friday, August 17. The first of two gravel stages in the Valley of 1000 Hills, Valley Short, will get underway at 12:30. It is quite a technical stage of nine kilometres. Special stage two, appropriately called Valley Long, is the longest stage of the event at 39 kilometres and is also technical and demanding of high levels of concentration.

Stage three, Pipeline, is the most testing of the entire rally and 24 kilometres long. The road is cut into a mountainside and competitors will need to be very precise in their approach to this challenge.

The day’s finale is the short super special on the tarmac surface of the site of the old Durban Drive-In, corner Argyle Road and the M4 / Stalwart Similane Streets. The total rally distance for the day is 190 kilometres with 73 kilometres of special stages.

After an overnight stop in Durban, the rally will re-start from the Moses Mabhida Stadium at 06:50 when the competitors will immediately enter a service park and refuel. Special stage five, over 32 kilometres in the Mondi forests in Richmond, will start at 08:40. It will be repeated as stage eight and is fast with sweeping corners and offers the best spectator viewing of the event with a Rally Village along the route. The cars can be seen for about two kilometres at one spectator point.

A 30-minute service stop and refuel at the Richmond Country Club separates stages five and six, with the latter, called Mid Illovo, a 34 kilometre good quality district road that is very fast and slippery. Average speeds are expected to be up around 130 km/h.

Special stage seven, Masonite, over 12 kilometres is followed by a second visit to the Richmond Country Club for a 30-minute service stop and refuel. Stage eight is a repeat of stage five and starts at 13:20, after which competitors will return to Durban on a 112 kilometre liaison section, arriving at the Durban service park after 15:00.

The rally will end with a repeat of Friday’s super special, starting at 15:44. The day’s five stages will cover 112 kilometres of a total distance of 382 kilometres.

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