My birds eye view of Round 2 of the ARRO/SA Earthworks R50k Challenge..... Firstly I would like to thank all the competitors for being just who you are and supporting the ARRO events.Can say that we have a very disciplined compliment of competitors that make any rally to organize a breeze. Secondly to our sponsor SA EARTHWORKS,without the support of Nic and the team our rallies would not be possible,from all the competitors to we thank you guys. This being ARROs 5th rally I can say despite all the odds and challenges weve finally got everything worked out,the rally ran flawless without any incidents or injuries,medics had absolutely nothing to do the whole day again and thats just the way we like it. To Leon Botha....what is there more to say.....you are the best in this country at what you do and think personally it will be many a year before there is any form of a contest when it comes to your notes,they were absolutely spot on as always and your contributions definitely helped in making this rally a huge success. Piet Van Heerden and his marshal crew were world class.All the stages ran exactly to plan without any incidents.Results were made known within 20 minutes of the last car booking into Parc Ferme,baie dankie oom ons waardeer oom se moeite en tyd opreg. And so Round 2 of the ARRO/SA Earthworks R50k challenge got under way,documentation and scruiteneering ran smoothly and prolog stage started at 13:00 as scheduled. A fast 2.12kms stage was the starting order decider on this event, Vladimir/Sibirko and Bradley Naidoo took the prolog win with a time of 1:56 closely followed by a tie for second between Chad Lambert/Henry Dearlove and Jose Ferreira/Pierre Jordaan. The Rally comprised of 6 gravel stages with a total distance of 95kms,3 stages during the day with a repeat of the same stages and night. Stage 1/4 being 23.75kms would test man and machine with extremely fast sections, jumps and the odd warthog. Stage 2/5 was to be an extremely fast 14.5kms stage. Stage 3/6 concluded the rally with a 8.45kms of tight and twisty roads. Group A would see Jose Ferreira/Pierre Jordaan taking 4 stage wins and Group overall honors for the day but it did not come easy with second place Vladimir Sibirko/Bradley Naidoo posting equally fast times,third position would go to Rinus Plomp/Johan De Bruin in their RSI Autobody Subaru GT.Chad Lambert/Henry Dearlove broke a side shaft and unfortnately had to retire in stage 1,their Run-x has now been fitted with a super charger and as we saw in the prolog stage the Subaru boys have got a 2wd contender that is more than capable of winning a rally. Group B-The group saw two new competitors in this round namely Louis Venter/Luan Coetzee and Willem Van Rensburg/Corne Fourie.Group honors and 4 stage wins went to the pairing of Louis Venter/Luan Coetzee in their Toyota Tazz followed in second place by the team of Keith Delport and Jeremy Du Plessis Nissan Skyline.Willem Van Rensburg/Corne Fourie also enjoyed two stage wins but were forced to retire in stage 5 with a broken gear link. Group C-this group saw yet another new comer to ARRO in the form of Juandre Nienaber/Schaan Janse Van Rensburg in the very well prepared X Nico Nienaber Tazz,the pairing took 4 stage wins and overall honors in the Group.Second place and two stage wins went to Michelle Lourens/Scott Howden in their KFC Toyota,this young lady is definitely a force to be reckoned with showing that she has the pace to play with boys and this being her first night rally too,well done Michelle. Group D-What can one say about Erik De Jager.....in my personal opinion probably one of the smoothest and most consistent drivers in the ARRO family showing that even with a new navigator no rally day or night is too a big a challenge for him.Erik was joined by new navigator and son of one the best navagators around Greg Godrich,Alexx Godrich.The pairing made light work of the event winning all 6 stages in their group followed in second by yet another new crew to ARRO of Sarel Coetzer/Natalie Van Wyk,this event also being Natalies first. Group E-The overall winner of this Group definitely gets my driver of the day award.Andre Ehlers/Rudolf Albrecht showed the competition that a big engine is not everything finishing 4th overall for the day and winning all six stages in his Group with a 1300cc powered Toyota Tazz,well done Andre.Second place went to the pairing of Eddie Simpson/Cherise Groenewald in their Opel Corsa,Third position was occupied by Peter Pilusa/James Thomson.James keep your passion alive its unstoppable. Group N-Once again Hennie Schoeman/Malcolm Schoeman,Rudi Van Zyl/Marco Lausberg and Johan/Jessica Van Wyk showed us all that you can have just as much fun in a basically road speced vehicle as what the top guys do in full race cars.Group honors and four stage wins went to the father and son pairing of Hennie/Malcolm Schoeman in their Datsun P510 closely followed in second place with two stage wins to their names the team of Rudi Van Zyl and Marco Lausberg in their beautifully prepared mk2 Ford Escourt.Father and Daughter pairing of Johan/Jessica filled third position in their Ford Laser. Group OR-Unfortunately there were no finishers in this Group but however did deliver some spectacular moments.The pairing of Benjamin Pihno/Charlene Vlismas in their 1300 turbo charged Tom Tom buggy showed that they were to be a very quick team to be reckoned with on the day posting the 8th fastest time in the Prolog stage,little buggy on three wheels out of every corner i spectated.Another spectacular team was the pairing of Johan/Gert Niemand in the 700hp Trophy Truck who unfortunately broke their gearbox in stage 1 and were forced to retire. ARRO would also like to thank all the photographers who capture all of our special moments.These guys brave getting as close as humanly possible to the cars to get the best pics even if it means getting soaked with water and mud(Miss. Meghan McCabe).Johan and Gerhard Niemand,Jan Viljoen,Meghan McCabe and Hanned Bronkhorst thanks for the passion and keeping our memories alive with the awesome pics you guys take. A CD is available with 3 different photographers un-water marked photos for R300,R40 postage fee.If anyone is interested in purchasing a CD please contact Johan at 0824963987 or [email protected] Our next event will be on the 28th June and hope to see you all there. Cobus
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 11:56:17 +0000
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