Big guns fall on Zim challenge rally

three-day event, which ran from Friday to Sunday, was staged at the home of local motorsport — Donnybrook in Harare — and the surrounding areas of Ruwa and Norton.
This year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally was the opening leg of the eight-event 2012 FIA African Rally Championship series and it attracted a disappointing field of 15 cars.
Among them were 11 Zimbabweans and four foreign drivers from South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.
Initially 17 cars were reported to have entered for this event but South Africa-based Zimbabwean Robson Maganezi and Kenya’s Don Smith failed to make it.
And the three-day event, which was eventually won by Zimbabwe’s Jess Watson, once again proved challenging for the competitors as it claimed eight casualties leading to the final stages held in Ruwa on Sunday morning.
First out of the competition was one of Zimbabwe’s top female drivers Laureen Marufu who crashed of the race at the first hurdle when her Toyota Corolla hit a tree, damaging its radiator and front suspension in the process during the opening “three-car” Super Special Stage at Donnybrook on Friday afternoon.
She was soon followed on the sidelines by fellow top Zimbabwean female driver Michelle Yorke whose Mitsubishi Evo4 developed an electrical fault on the same day.
After this, the opening script of this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally read: two out and 13 more to go!
But more misery was to follow on Day Two for the so-called “big guns” of Zimbabwean motor rallying — Chase Attwell and Jamie Whyte — both former champions of this event.
Pre-race favourite and 2009 champion Attwell bowed out of contention for the title in Ruwa on Saturday morning when his more powerful S2000 Toyota Auris hit a stump and broke its front wheel.
Attwell was soon followed on the sideways by the 2010 Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally champion Whyte who also bowed out of the race after his Subaru Impreza developed some engine problems in SS4 on Saturday morning in Ruwa.
Another top Zimbabwean driver, seasoned campaigner Richard “Mahobho” Robinson also suffered the same fate with his Mitsubishi Evo8 on Saturday.
Crack Ugandan motor rallying driver Jas Mangat was not spared either.
His Subaru Impreza developed some electrical fault on Saturday.
Mangat was, however, back in the rally on Sunday morning but as a sweep car after fixing the electrical fault on his Subaru and he was no longer in contention for the title.
The early exit of Attwell, Whyte, Robinson and Mangat left the race wide open and this paved the way for Watson, who had his wife Sasha as his co-driver, to take full advantage of their “absence” and he swept to victory without facing any hustles on Sunday afternoon. This saw Jess and Sasha Watson writing their own piece of history as they became the first husband-and-wife team to win the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally title since Independence in 1980.
Sasha Watson also became the first female co-driver to win this event since 1980 in a historic day for the Harare couple.
Her husband, Jess, on the other hand, also became the 16th Zimbabwean driver to win the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally since its inception in 1962.
He also made sure that the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally title stayed at home for the fourth consecutive year.
The other Zimbabwean drivers who bagged this title are Don Grant (1962), Mossie Clements (1963), John Thompson (1964), Don Mcdonald (1965 and 1973), Henk Veenendaal (1967, 1968, 1971 and 1972), Ziggy Berkau (1969), Clive Mawson (1981), Bob Bentley (1982), Billy Rautenbach (1989, 1991, 1993 and 1995), Nick Holm (1994), James Browell (1997), Hannes Cruger (1998), Conrad Rautenbach (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2011), Chase Attwell (2009) and Jamie Whyte (2010).
And Jess Watson joined this “elite club” at the weekend after he swept to victory in this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in a Mitsubishi Evo10 with a little help from Conrad Rautenbach’s Green Fuel Team.
Jess Watson clocked a total of 2 hours 40 minutes 17 seconds and was a good seven minutes ahead of second-placed fellow Zimbabwean Craig Green and his co-driver Mike Exton who were in a Mitsubishi Lancer.
Third place went to Zambia’s Mohammed Essa who had Zimbabwean Greg Stead as his co-pilot in a Subaru Impreza.
In fact, Essa was the first foreign driver home and was followed to the finish line by Rwanda’s Giancarlo Davite and his female co-driver Sylvia Vindevogel, who were also in a Subaru Impreza.
Fifth place went to promising young Zimbabwean driver Tyronne Carr, who was making his debut appearance in this event, while the husband-and-wife team of Ronald Parsell and Bronwyn Ebrahim came sixth.
Carr did extremely well in a Toyota Corolla while Parsell and his wife drove a Mitsubishi Evo6.
The last and seventh car home was a Nissan GX140 that belonged to South Africa’s Pieter Pilusa who was assisted by Zimbabwean navigator George Chitepo.