adminseries when he takes part in the Garden Route Rally this weekend.
The Garden Route Rally, round six of the eight-event 2011 South African Rally Championship, takes place between George and Knysna this weekend and sees national championship motorsport return to that region for the first time in 17 years.
The rally will start from the new Garden Route Mall near George airport at noon on Friday.
The first day will consist of four gravel special stages, three of which will be in the Outeniqua forests, and a short tar stage at the overnight stop in Knysna. Saturday’s action starts at 8am from Simola Estate in Knysna and the route will include a repeat of Friday’s three forest special stages plus an additional forest stage that will be run twice. The total distance of the 10 stages is 170 km.
A strong 18-car field will do battle in the premier Super 2000 class for four-wheel-drive cars and is headed by current overall and Super 2000 drivers’ championship leader Rautenbach of Zimbabwe.
Rautenbach will once again be accompanied by French co-driver Nicholas Klinger, who does not score points in this series because he competes with a French licence.
But Rautenbach will head into the battle at the weekend as the pre-race favourite after having already secured two victories and one third place finish in this year’s South African Rally Championship series.
The talented 26-year-old Zimbabwean driver first won the opening round of the series – the Natal Rally – in March before recording another victory in the third round – the Hencom Autobody Rally – in May.
Rautenbach also came third in the Sasol Rally in April and although he suffered two ‘did not finish-es’ in the Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally and the VW Rally in June and July respectively, the Zimbabwean is still sitting at the top of the pile in the South African Rally Championship leaderboard.
With two wins from the last two rallies, Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton of South Africa are in a fighting second place overall on the points log.
, with Cronje just six points behind leader Rautenbach and Houghton one point shy of the top step with three rounds to go, starting with the brand new Garden Route Rally.
Team Sasol’s second driver Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey are getting quicker by the rally, having won more stages so far than the defending champion Enzo Kuun and former champion Hergen Fekken.
Armed with M-Sport-built Ford Fiestas, Team Sasol has turned the establishment on its head this season with stunning performances out of the box.
Meanwhile, Rautenbach is expected to quickly fly out to Tanzania for the Kobil Rally after competing in this weekend’s Garden Route Rally in South Africa.
The Kobil Rally, set for September 2 to 4, is the sixth round of the 2011 FIA African Rally Championship series in which Rautenbach is also sitting pretty at the top of the competition’s Drivers’ Standings.
Online Reporter