RACE REVIEW – ALL TAR RALLY – 5 AUGUST 2023

RACE REVIEW – ALL TAR RALLY – 5 AUGUST 2023

ALL ACTION, ALL THE WAY AT KILLARNEY’S ALL TAR RALLY

It was all action, all the way at Round 4 of the 2023 Western Cape Clubs Rally Championship, the All Tar Rally at Killarney on Saturday 5 August – although the name wasn’t quite accurate as some of the special stages also included sections of the World Rallycross circuit, and some of the contestant found the tar sections a little confining, and took to the dirt alongside the tighter corners!

Nevertheless, after seven special stages and a little more than 70 kilometres of intense, closely-fought competition, the winners by just 41 seconds were Lewellyn Jones and Christophe Pichon in their Subaru Impreza WRX Sti. Second were Ismaeel Davids and Yusuf Ganief in the potent ex works, two litre, all-wheel drive Toyota Runx, with Inus du Plessis and Piet Carinus third overall, 31 seconds further adrift, in their BMW E36 3.30.

Kosie Swanepoel, with his teenage son Sebastian in the hot seat, led Class S4 in 5th overall in their BMW E36 3.28, while Mustapha Mia and Ameen Snell, punching well above their weight in a 1.6-litre Toyota Tazz, took Class S3 in eighth overall.

Ernest Page, assisted by top navigator Nashrene Schloss, beat his Krisp E36 team-mates Dexter Bruce/Junaid Hamid and Emile Assure/Ridwaan Nordien by more than four minutes to win the Challenge category for non-rally vehicles in convincing style (although his BMW was somewhat the worse for wear afterwards!) and in fact his total elapsed time would have placed him fifth overall in the Rally category.

Carel van der Merwe and Rhonette Rossouw won Class B in their VW Golf 1, finishing eighth overall in the Challenge category.

This intense, quick-fire event subjects the cars to constant hard acceleration and even harder braking. It’s always hard on cars and this year was no exception, with only 25 of the 37 starters still running at the end of Special Stage 7 – and a few of those had to be gently nursed home!