CHALLENGING ALL TAR RALLY KILLARNEY

Who would have thought that 73.37km of special stage could deliver so much fun and excitement? A beautiful winter morning set the scene for the WPMC All Tar Rally (with a touch of Rally X gravel) at the Killarney International Raceway on Saturday 5 August 2023. Being based at a single venue allows a unique format with Rally Cars facing a Challenge from almost any category of motorsport. Twenty two rally teams joined by fifteen Challenge teams.

John Peiser and Brian Hoskins used to be a mean combination in their Speed Pro Cycling Equipment S5 Subaru Impreza GT 2.0 Turbo 4×4, but you should see them in action in the 0 car provided by Renault Table View! There is no substitute for experience and having these WPMC veterans opening stages added a touch of nostalgia.

Llewellyn Jones and Christophé Pichon started their day sporting by spinning the 434 S5 CPMCC CEJ Plant Hire Subaru Impreza 2.0 Tubro 4×4 on the opening 13.49km Twister special stage. Going one up was Kesevan and Mikyle Naidoo who retired their 410 S3 CCMCC Freightmore Toyota Corolla RXi 1600 having moved less than 30m with an as yet unknown electrical problem.

Making their first appearance in 2023 was Ismaeel Davids and Yusuf Ganief in the ex-JP Damseaux 431 S5 CCMCC ID Paving Toyota Run X 2.0 4×4 S2000 and claimed the first stage win by four seconds from Inus du Plessis and Piet Carinus in their 461 S5 CPMCC Coastal Tool Hire BMW E36 328i with Koos and Sebastian Swanepoel impressive in fourth spot with their 446 S4 WPMC KSD / ValueCrete BMW E36 328i. Owen Jones and Aden Bredenkamp fifth, acclimatising to the Shaun Jones 454 S5 CPMCC Advanced Asphalting Subaru Impreza WRX STi 2.0 Turbo 4×4. The defending champions suffered a serious on board fire during the recent Algoa Rally and Dad sportingly made his car available for the balance of the season.

On the Challenge side Ernest Page and Nashrene Schloss enjoyed a 26 second benefit after SS1 in their 19C BMW E36 328i with the 43C BMW E36 328i of Dexter Bruce and Junaid Hamid in pursuit. Emile Assure and Ridwaan Nordien sharing third fastest with the Joker, alias the 74C Jean Meyer and Liebe Portwig BMW E36 328i. Sadly Gavin and Lauren Cerff decided to park their 17B Navaho Spur VW Golf MkI 2.0 in Castrol (Quarry or Turn 2) corner having quite literally driven the right front wheel off the car. Officially the wheel studs snapped but possibly a Navaho Spur breakfast won the vote for an early exit.

Jean Naudé and Jeandré Cronjé missed special stage one, but are then credited with a, simply too good to be true stage winning time, on the repeat SS2 Twister in their Rally X 7C BMW E36 328i. The absence of Judges of Fact however made the time stick to officially see their Beemer take 1mi09 seconds off the well driven 434 Scoobie of Llewellyn Jones and Christophé Pichon over 13.49km. They in turn could only take 3 sec off the exceptionally well driven 180kW Beemer of Inus du Plessis and Piet Carinus who managed to take just a single second off the S2000 Run X of Ismaeel Davids and Yusuf Ganief.

Special Stage 3 a 11.47km stage that saw Llewellyn and Christophé taking another nine seconds off the Coastal Beemer and the Swanepoel father and son in third spot. Now measuring 14.30km the reversed Twister looked set to really establish the result as special stages 4 and 5. Clint Lawrence and friends enjoyed their vantage point at the reverse entry to the Joubert Pit Lane whilst WPMC Commentators, Byron Hite and Emile “Tint” Brand had a go at everyone from their perch on top of the Castrol Control Tower. Seeing the huge number of spectators lining the top floor of the Joubert pits really created quite vibe for the competitors who did their level best to entertain.

Sadly, SS4 had to be canned when Faizel Davids and Terry Croy attacked an immovable Killarney bollard in the 422 S3 CCMCC Extreme Motorsport Toyota Corolla RXi 1600. Fortunately damage was restricted to the right rear of the car and acciDent Guru is just down the road. Paul van Wyk possible still have paint in store as the car was just recently rebuilt there. Hopefully back in time for Klipdale guys?

Rupert van Zyl and Craig Gray ran out of gears in the 405 S4 CPMCC Hollandse Motor Spesialis VW Polo 2.0, Warren Scholtz and Justin Gay ran out of something important on their 444 S5 CPMCC Dynamic Plant Solutions Subaru Impreza 2.0 Turbo 4×4 as did Riyaan Amlay and Amaan Amlay in their 433 S3 CCMCC Ramlay Builders Toyota Corolla RXi 1600.

The All Tar is short, but brutal, on man and machine and the high attrition rate bore testimony to the fact that man and machine work extremely hard here. In fact the cancellation of SS4 almost certainly brought relief to a few teams who were starting to encounter numerous niggling problems. Great to notice the return of Castrol as sponsor of Turn 2 (Quarry) but even more encouraging was the sight of many spectators on the former Goodwood Showgrounds concrete stands that now serve the Cape Helldriver Tarmac Oval.

Chris and Penny (alias Lance and Rosemarie Maytham) travelled from Bredasdorp to spectate with Gaynor Maytham whilst Johan Barnard, Abduraghman Amlay, Salvan Moodley, Thorsten Pey and Eric Joseph representing some of the “oumanne”. Really good to see so many familiar faces present and the fact that that Mr Motorcycle, Dave Abrahams actually spectated on stage will probably lead to more icy weather.

At the top of the Challenge time sheets it was Ernest Page and Nashrene Schloss (19C Burly Pro BMW E36) who dominated in their Beemer with Dexter Bruce and Junaid Hamid (58C Burly Pro BMW E36) second and Emile Assure and Ridwaan Nordien (43C Krisp Vehicle Cooling BMW E36) third. The three Beemers followed by the most unlikely rally 22C DTM Helderberg Nissan Maxima 3.0 of Wayne and Stacy Wilson. Even John Craig (Former SA GpN Champion for Nissan) would flinch if he saw the manner in which this father and son combination threw this really big and heavy machine around Killarney. Somehow they found ways of fitting it through the narrow gaps and no, contrary to visual impressions, it is not converted to rear wheel drive! Would somebody tell Wayne that please.

Jean Meyer and Liebe Portwig drive the Joker (74 N2 Towing BMW E36) and Eugene de Bruyn and JP de Bruyn drive the Crazy Frog (30 N2 Autoworx BMW E36) in Rally X events and neither team know how to read a stopwatch – they just want to be “slideways” for as long a possible. Yes, they could be recording faster times, but why would they? Barry Williams and Jason Thornton (117C Tri Brake & Clutch BMW E36) share a more conservative approach with Divan Wentzel and Arno Michels (26C Motul BMW E36) whilst still demonstrating a definite talent for driving “slideways”. Carel van der Merwe and Rhonette Rossouw defended front wheel drive honours in their ex-Marius Swart 48B Master Drive VW Golf MkI 2.0.

Sadly the neat 71B HSC Racing VW Golf MkI of Layne and Braddon Hutchings had disappeared from the scoresheet and they were joined by the 7C JN Pools BMW E36 of Jean Naudé and Jeandré Cronjé. Neels van Wyk (Rally4All) and Ryno van Wyk were posting good times in their neat 200 B Rally4All Ford Sapphire, but it was seen to limp from a of stage with a left rear puncture, whilst the 34C BMW E36 of Nico Smuts and Devon McDonald also failed to complete the final stage. Ruan Reynders and Herman Mathee was having a great time in the Gp2 based 11B Ford Escort MkII Turbo racer, but the car proved extremely low and an on board fire eventually put them out of the event.

Llewellyn Jones spun coming off the infamous Rally X “yump” whilst a variety of mishaps had teams sigh in relief when SS4 was cancelled. At the top of the field there was nothing between the top three cars with a single second between the Scoobie and BMW on stage 5 times. But, this is motorsport and she can be a cruel mistress as the Beemer suddenly ran out of clutch, allowing the CEJ Scoobie to win by 41 seconds from the S2000 Run X who managed to sneak into second as 4min lateness saw the BMW drop back to third on penalties. Owen Jones and Aden Bredenkamp just seven seconds later in the blue Scoobie of Shaun.

Koos and Sebastian Swanepoel claimed their first class win as father and son I fifth spot with Winston and Matthew Neethling equally pleased with sixth as father and son in the ex-Hannes Grobler 428 S5 CCMCC Howard Centre Motors Nissan Sentra 2.0 STi 4×4. Warren Köhler and Lloyd Brady celebrated their return with an encouraging seventh in the 465 S4 CCMCC Köhler Pac BMW E36 328i. This car was wrecked on the Porterville Rally and many late nights at acciDent Guru saw it re-shelled just in time to start.

Mustapha Mia and Ameen Snell eighth in their 456 S3 CCMCC Mia’s Motors Toyota Tazz 160i followed by the 427 S4 CCMCC Howard Centre Motors BMW E36 328i of Clinton and Cohen Sassman. It is believed that this car was a potential non starter after the somewhat rusty veteran modified the rear suspension during a practice off earlier in the week.

Kobus Edas looked extremely nervous in the service park till Junayed Edas (son) and Reyanah Edas (daughter)brought the 466 S3 CCMCC Edas Racing Toyota Tazz 160i home in tenth overall. Johann and Petra Zulch eleventh overall in their always immaculately prepared 439 S2 CPMCC Ceres Toyota Ford Escort 1600 Sport. As the only S2 entry the Ceres based husband and wife are slotted into S3 and to finish third in the higher capacity class for a second successive event is quite an admirable achievement.

Allan Croy (debutant driver) and Tyler Croy brought their 441 S3 CCMCC CTG Auto Toyota Corolla RXi 1600 home in twelfth spot. Lucky thirteen going to Ra’is Edas and Marius Rudolph in the Kobus Edas 464 S3 CCMCC Edas Racing Toyota Corolla RXi 1600. Kobus looking decidedly better when all his children and cars reached Parc Fermé. Final classified finishers for the Rally was Julian Calvert and Nick Knights in the 409 S3 CPMCC VW Golf MkIII GTi 2.0.

The Challenge podium order stayed consistent with Ernest Page and Nashrene Schloss taking top spot in their 19C Burly Pro BMW E36. Dexter Bruce and Junaid Hamid second in their 43C Burly Pro BMW E36 and in third it was Emile Assure and Ridwaan Nordien in their Krisp Cooling Systems BMW E36. All those laps of Killarney certainly being put to good use.

The seemingly out of control Wayne and Stacy Wilson 22C DTM Helderberg Nissan Maxima 3.0 was very entertaining and one could almost sense the concrete walls breathing a sigh of relief once it passed by at speed. Fourth place certainly impressive – now imagine if it actually had some grip!

Jean Meyer and Liebe Portwig also navigated their way around these stages to fifth overall, through the side windows in the 74C Joker N2 Towing BMW E36. Neat drive to sixth for Barry Williams and Jason Thornton in their 117C Tri Brake & Clutch BMW E36 with Divan Wentzel and Arno Michels seventh in the neatly driven 26C Motul BMW E36. Carel van der Merwe and Rhonette Rossouw kept their 48B Master Drive VW Golf MkI 2.0 neat and tidy to finish eighth and the final classified Challenge finishers were Eugene de Bruyn and JP de Bruyn in the spectacular 30C Crazy Frog N2 Autoworx BMW E36.

Neels van Wyk and Ryno van Wyk completed the event as Super Rally in their neat 200B Rally4All Ford Sapphire.
With respect to the Rally vs Challenge cars the rallyists proved superior for 2023!

With a 37 strong entry the WPMC All Tar have now finally proven it’s potential and can only become bigger and better going forward.

Maybe it is time for the WPMC Mini Carlo to return too?

See you in Klipdale for Round 5 of the Western Cape Rally Club Class Championship.

Published by: Patrick Vermaak

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