FORMER African Rally Championship (ARC) winner Conrad Rautenbach will take part in the Total Tour of Natal in Durban, South Africa this coming weekend. The Total Tour of Natal is the opening stage of the South African Rally Championship and is set to be staged on March 6 and 7.
The 25-year-old Rautenbach has been racing in the World Rally Championship during the last two years for the Citroen Junior Team.
The Durban race will be the Zimbabwean’s first rally of the year and he will be driving his Subaru Impreza N2010.
“I am just really pleased to be competing again and competing back in Africa,” Rautenbach told autosport.com last week.
“I do not know much about the event we are doing, it is not one I have done before, but I am sure it will be good.
“The car is certainly going to be good, it is the same one Anders Grondal used on Rally of Sweden.”
In 2007, Rautenbach set a new record of being the youngest winner of the ARC when he won the title aged just 22 years.
This gave him the ticket to compete on the WRC where he did quite well in the two seasons he spent on the world stage.
Another Zimbabwean racer Chase Attwell will also be taking part in the Durban rally in his Subaru Impreza N12B machine.
Attwell left the country on Friday as he hopes to finish the rally after three previous attempts ended in misfortunes.
“This time I hope to finish the race because every time we go to Durban we have problems that stop us from finishing,” Attwell told Standardsport.
Attwell’s first attempt at the rally in 2007 did not go down well after he rolled over his Toyota Corolla.
The following year he was back again, but it ended in similar fashion when he once again rolled over his Toyota RunX eight times.
There was also no joy for Attwell in the rally last year when he also rolled over his Subaru Impreza.
This year the 20-year-old hopes to do better and at least finish the race without crashing out.
“We are going early to get to watch the DVD of the course because we are not allowed to recce in the South African Championship,” he said.
“We need to have a close look of the route and make our own notes of the tight corners.”
In many rallies drivers are allowed to do test runs on the stages of the course before the actual race to create shorthand notes of the route. This process is called reconnaissance or recce.
During a recce the co-driver writes down shorthand notes on how best to drive the stage.
Usually the drivers call out the turns and road conditions for the co-drivers to write down.
These shorthand notes are read aloud through an internal intercom system during the actual race, allowing the driver to anticipate the upcoming terrain and take the course as fast as possible.

BY NIGEL MATONGORERE

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