Thebushveldtimes 30 january 2014 edition 15 8
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8 The Bushveld Times THURSDAY, 30 JANUARY 2014 The South African Motor- sport Club, organisers of the annual Sasol Rally in Mpumalanga, obtained all the necessary per- missions to run a tarmac Hill Climb on the Long Tom pass from Sabie in Mpumalanga and is sanctioned by Motorsport South Africa. The intention is to turn it into a prestigious annual event on the South African Motorsport calen- dar. The first event took place this past weekend and certainly tested all the logistics of Road Closures, safety and spectating opportunities. Final results: Longtom Hill Climb final run 1 Danie Stassen 02:56.1 2 Werner Koekemoer 03:07.1 3 Jose Ferreira 03:21.7 4 Anton Wannenburg 03:46.5 An exciting year of rally action lies ahead for the Volkswagen Sasolracing rally team. The 2014 national season starts in March with the first round taking place in KwaZulu-Natal. “The Volkswagen Sasolracing team is pas- sionate about competition,” says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “The only constant is change and this is especially true in the field of motorsport. Over the years events have changed, rules have changed, cars have changed and we’ve seen a few changes when it comes to team mem- bers.” “The end of the 2013 season saw us bid farewell to Hergen Fekken, Enzo Kuun and Douglas Judd, team stalwarts of many years. Hergen, Enzo and Douglas have been valuable members of the team during their years of competition and each will move on to different challenges in the new year. Pierre Arries has a non-competition role within the team for this season.” “Currently we are evaluating our options with regard to the driver line-up for 2014,” says Rowe. “We expect to make an announce- ment by mid-February for the Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo S2000s. What I can con- firm at this stage is the inclusion of a number of exciting, young privateer teams who will be competing on the national stage in Volk- swagen Polo rally cars.” The newcomers will be led by Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit who will tackle the S2000 Challenge category. In the S1600 class Pau- lus Franken, Marco Himmel, Chad van Beurden and AC Potgieter, along with each of their navi- gators will keep this category highly com- petitive in the 2014 season. “Supporting Thilo and the other young teams is another step in accelerating the process of identifying new rally talent in South Africa,” says Rowe. “There is a need to increase the available motorsport talent and encourage and develop the next generation of stars.” Volkswagen Sasolracing rings the changes for 2014 national rally season Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz (Toyo- ta Imperial Hilux) won the 13th and final stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally in South America last Saturday. They were officially classified as fourth overall at the finish in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso after a marathon race through Argentina and Chile that started in Rosario on January 5 and covered a total dis- tance of some 9 500 kilometres. The 2009 champions won the T1.1 class for petrol-powered 4x4 improved cross country vehicles for the third year in suc- cession after their third and second place finishes in 2012 and 2013 in proudly South African Hilux 4x4s. Team-mates Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie completed Poulter’s first Dakar Rally in a creditable 33rd place overall. Four other Hilux 4x4s with South African pedigrees finished in the top 25. The Belgian Overdrive Team’s Marek. “It’s always good to finish this race. It’s the longest and toughest motor race in the world, and this year’s version was the hardest we have experienced in South America so far,” said De Villiers. A good finish to the longest and toughest GWM/Haval’s impressive run of top 10 Dakar finishes continued when Frenchman Christian Lavieille, driving the number 315 Haval H8, achieved eighth place overall in the 2014 event. Lavieille, in his first outing with the GWM/Haval team, impressed with his consistency and speed. The latest suc- cess follows Carlos Sousa’s sixth places in the 2012 and 2013 Dakar races. Following the race, GWM/Haval’s team managers expressed satisfaction with the result and lauded Lavie- ille for his performance after finishing the final stage with the sixth fast- est time. In fact, such was Lavieille’s pace in the stage that he only lost out on jumping to seventh by less than two minutes! Of course, the team’s hopes for an even better finish were dashed early when race leader and surprise first stage winner, Sousa, was forced to retire following turbo troubles during stage 2. Nevertheless, in the process the team had earned its first stage win, and the first ever by a Chinese manu- facturer Top 10 finish for GMW/Haval Lucio Alvarez and Ronnie Graue finished the Ford Ranger’s Dakar Rally debut in 22nd position after safely completing the short final speed test in Chile. The Argentine duo celebrat- ed with their entire Team Ford Racing squad in Val- paraiso after completing the world’s toughest motorsport event, covering 14 days and more than 9 300 km (includ- ing over 5 200 km of special stages) through Argentina and Chile. They com- pleted the final 535 km stage, of which 157 km were competi- tive on dirt roads, in 11th place. They posted a string of top 10 stage times to battle back up the order after small but time consuming problems early in the event dropped them to 129th, ultimately proving that the Ford had the pace to be competitive. More than half the 147 start- ers failed to complete this year’s gruelling Dakar Ral- ly, which journeyed north through Argentina before crossing the Andes moun- tains and heading south along Chile’s coast. Temperatures of 45°C com- bined with rock-strewn dirt tracks, heavily rutted dry river beds and soft power- sapping sand dunes placed huge strains on man and machine. But Alvarez’s Ranger proved its strength and reliability by completing the route with nothing more than minor issues. The car was prepared and run by South Africa’s Neil Woolridge Motorsport while the complex logistics opera- tion was handled by Germa- ny’s South Racing. Team-mates Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst re- tired their similar Ranger in the second stage after a heavy roll. Solid finish for Ford Sabie Long Tom Hill Climb
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Transcript of Thebushveldtimes 30 january 2014 edition 15 8
8 The Bushveld Times THURSDAY, 30 JANUARY 2014
The South African Motor-sport Club, organisers of the annual Sasol Rally in Mpumalanga, obtained all the necessary per-missions to run a tarmac Hill Climb on the Long Tom pass from Sabie in Mpumalanga and is sanctioned by Motorsport South Africa.
The intention is to turn it into a prestigious annual event on the South African Motorsport calen-dar. The first event took place this past weekend and certainly tested all the logistics of Road Closures, safety and spectating opportunities. Final results:Longtom Hill Climb final run 1 Danie Stassen 02:56.1 2 Werner Koekemoer 03:07.1 3 Jose Ferreira 03:21.7 4 Anton Wannenburg 03:46.5
An exciting year of rally action lies ahead for the Volkswagen Sasolracing rally team. The 2014 national season starts in March with the first round taking place in KwaZulu-Natal.
“The Volkswagen Sasolracing team is pas-sionate about competition,” says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “The only constant is change and this is especially true in the field of motorsport. Over the years events have changed, rules have changed, cars have changed and we’ve seen a few changes when it comes to team mem-bers.”
“The end of the 2013 season saw us bid farewell to Hergen Fekken, Enzo Kuun and Douglas Judd, team stalwarts of many years. Hergen, Enzo and Douglas have been valuable members of the team during their years of competition and each will move on to different challenges in the new year. Pierre Arries has a non-competition role within the team for this season.”
“Currently we are evaluating our options with
regard to the driver line-up for 2014,” says Rowe. “We expect to make an announce-ment by mid-February for the Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo S2000s. What I can con-firm at this stage is the inclusion of a number of exciting, young privateer teams who will be competing on the national stage in Volk-swagen Polo rally cars.”
The newcomers will be led by Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit who will tackle the S2000 Challenge category. In the S1600 class Pau-
lus Franken, Marco Himmel, Chad van Beurden and AC Potgieter, along with each of their navi-gators will keep this category highly com-petitive in the 2014 season.
“Supporting Thilo and the other young teams is another step in accelerating the process of identifying new rally talent in South Africa,” says Rowe. “There is a need to increase the available motorsport talent and encourage and develop the next generation of stars.”
Volkswagen Sasolracing rings the changes for 2014 national rally season
Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz (Toyo-ta Imperial Hilux) won the 13th and final stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally in South America last Saturday. They were officially classified as fourth overall at the finish in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso after a marathon race through Argentina and Chile that started in Rosario on January 5 and covered a total dis-tance of some 9 500 kilometres.
The 2009 champions won the T1.1 class for petrol-powered 4x4 improved cross country vehicles for the third year in suc-cession after their third and second place finishes in 2012 and 2013 in proudly
South African Hilux 4x4s.
Team-mates Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie completed Poulter’s first Dakar Rally in a creditable 33rd place overall.
Four other Hilux 4x4s with South African pedigrees finished in the top 25. The Belgian
Overdrive Team’s Marek.
“It’s always good to finish this race. It’s the longest and toughest motor race in the world, and this year’s version was the hardest we have experienced in South America so far,” said De Villiers.
A good finish to the longest and toughest
GWM/Haval’s impressive run of top 10 Dakar finishes continued when Frenchman Christian Lavieille, driving the number 315 Haval H8, achieved eighth place overall in the 2014 event. Lavieille, in his first outing with the GWM/Haval team, impressed with his consistency and speed. The latest suc-cess follows Carlos Sousa’s sixth places in the 2012 and 2013 Dakar races.Following the race, GWM/Haval’s team managers expressed satisfaction with the
result and lauded Lavie-ille for his performance after finishing the final stage with the sixth fast-
est time. In fact, such was Lavieille’s pace in the stage that he only lost out on jumping to seventh by less than two minutes! Of course, the team’s hopes for an even better finish were dashed early when race leader and surprise first stage winner, Sousa, was forced to retire following turbo troubles during stage 2. Nevertheless, in the process the team had earned its first stage win, and the first ever by a Chinese manu-facturer
Top 10 finish for GMW/Haval
Lucio Alvarez and Ronnie Graue finished the Ford Ranger’s Dakar Rally debut in 22nd position after safely completing the short final speed test in Chile.The Argentine duo celebrat-ed with their entire Team Ford Racing squad in Val-paraiso after completing the world’s toughest motorsport event, covering 14 days and more than 9 300 km (includ-ing over 5 200 km of special stages) through Argentina
and Chile.They com-pleted the final 535 km stage, of which 157 km were competi-tive on dirt
roads, in 11th place. They posted a string of top 10 stage times to battle back up the order after small but time consuming problems early in the event dropped them to 129th, ultimately proving that the Ford had the pace to be competitive.More than half the 147 start-ers failed to complete this year’s gruelling Dakar Ral-ly, which journeyed north through Argentina before crossing the Andes moun-
tains and heading south along Chile’s coast.Temperatures of 45°C com-bined with rock-strewn dirt tracks, heavily rutted dry river beds and soft power-sapping sand dunes placed huge strains on man and machine. But Alvarez’s Ranger proved its strength and reliability by completing the route with nothing more than minor issues. The car was prepared and run by South Africa’s Neil Woolridge Motorsport while the complex logistics opera-tion was handled by Germa-ny’s South Racing. Team-mates Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst re-tired their similar Ranger in the second stage after a heavy roll.
Solid finish for Ford
Sabie Long Tom Hill Climb
