adminThe Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally, which dusts off tomorrow and ends on Sunday, is the penultimate round of the eight-event 2011 FIA African Rally Championship series in which Rautenbach in currently leading in the title chase with 105 points.
Fellow Zimbabwean and reigning African champion Jamie Whyte is lying in second place with 94 points and the two Zimbabwean motor racing “Gladiators” were set to resume their rivalry in this year’s ARC series in this weekend’s Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally in the Central African country.
But Rautenbach told The Herald yesterday that he has decided to withdraw from this event as a sign of respect for his rival Whyte who lost his mother last Thursday.
After the untimely death of his mother – Meta – Jamie Whyte indicated last Friday that he had no option but to pull out of this weekend’s Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally.
And this also forced his African championship rival Rautenbach to withdraw from the same event.
“We have decided not to go to Rwanda to compete in the Mountain Gorilla Rally as a sign of respect for Jamie Whyte who is still mourning the death of his mother.
“In fact, we are very close to the Whyte family and the death of Jamie’s mother has also affected us and it was going to be unfair for me to go and compete in Rwanda while he is not there.
“I was going to get an unfair advantage if I was going to go ahead and compete in this event in the absence of Jamie who also has a chance of winning this year’s African motor rally title,” Rautenbach said yesterday.
He, however, said that he was likely to compete in the eighth and final round of the 2011 ARC series in Madagascar towards the end of November.
“If Jamie (Whyte) decides to go to Madagascar, then I will also go there as this event will be the title decider for this year’s African Rally Championship series.
“So, I’m just hoping and praying that he (Jamie Whyte) will decide to go and compete in Madagascar where this year’s African champion will be crowned,” Rautenbach said.
Rautenbach has competed in five of the first six rounds of this year’s ARC series, emerging the overall winner in the first three races in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia.
He failed to finish in the top three twice in Kenya and most recently in Tanzania.
In Kenya in June, the talented 26-year-old Zimbabwean driver came sixth before settling for a fourth-place finish in the Kobil Rally of Tanzania at the beginning of this month.
Rautenbach has also lost twice to his nearest rival Whyte in this year’s ARC series in Kenya and Tanzania where the latter came fourth and second respectively.
This saw Whyte closing the gap on Rautenbach at the top of the ARC Drivers’ Standings where he is now 11 points adrift of the leader with two rounds remaining in the tough continental championship race in Rwanda this weekend and Madagascar in November.
Online Reporter