Conrad sets pace in Africa

his second FIA African Rally Championship title after finishing third overall in the Sasol Rally in Nelspruit, South Africa, at the weekend.
Rautenbach, the 2007 African champion, has now opened a 17-point lead at the top of the 2011 FIA ARC Drivers’ Standings after shepherding his G-Fuel G85 ethanol-powered Ford Fiesta S2000 to an impressive third place finish in the 20th Sasol Rally.
This year saw the Sasol Rally acting as the second round of both the 2011 FIA ARC and the South African National Rally Championship series in which Rautenbach is one of Zimbabwe’s flagbearers.
And the 26-year-old soft-spoken driver and his French co-driver Nicolas Klinger moved further ahead in both the FIA African and South African Rally Championships after powering their G-Fuel Ford Fiesta S2000 to third overall in the tough 17-stage Sasol Rally and claimed the top step of the podium in the ARC encounter.
According to the well-respected South African motor rallying website, Rallyworld.net, Rautenbach’s G-Fuel team heads the ARC points log with 50 points and the SARC table with 33 points, a lead of 17 and 11 points in the respective championships.
Rautenbach and Klinger’s winning ARC margin was 11½ minutes over the South African pairing of Schalk Burger (Jnr)/Armand du Toit in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
Second overall in the ARC division was Burger Jr/du Toit in their Powerlines Africa Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X in a time of 151:39.7, opening their score with 18 points after a steady drive on wet roads following persistent pre-rally rains.
Zimbabweans Jamie Whyte and Phil Archenoul, the defending ARC Drivers’ and Co-drivers’ champions, swapped their Subaru Impreza for a class S2000 Toyota Auris with Toyota Zimbabwe backing, ended third overall and earned enough points to take second in the title chase, 17 behind Rautenbach.
Muna Singh and David Sihoka from Zambia were fourth overall and move into third in the African championship race after a steady run in their N4 Madison Insurance Subaru Impreza.
Singh was third after Friday’s eight stages.
Rwanda’s Giancarlo Davite and his female co-driver Sylvia Vindevogel retired their Subaru Impreza in the popular town stage through the streets of Nelspruit after hitting a kerb on Saturday’s first stage.
The Sasol Rally debutants found the tarmac stages difficult, as they were not included on the recce route.
Zambia’s Mohammed Essa and Moses Matovu of Tanzania retired their Madison Subaru on Friday, as did Zimbabweans Craig Green/Michael Exton (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX).
All these ARC-registered drivers were outshone by Rautenbach who was just a joy to watch during the gruelling two-day Sasol Rally.
Running the opening day’s eight stages first on the road as the South African Rally Championship leader, Rautenbach found the going tough as he swept the forest roads clear of debris and took a cautious approach to the roads made treacherous by pre-rally rains.
Competing against the South African factory teams, Rautenbach needed to balance the sprint speed required against the top South African factory outfits and the endurance of his African title rivals – a contradictory requirement!
“I thought it would rain which would have neutralised the effect of running first on the road, but it didn’t”, said Rautenbach.
“The roads were quite rough in places and I was conscious of damaging my car, which I would have to pay for, whereas the factory guys don’t. That’s the difficulty of a privateer competing against works teams.
“During the recce, we marked stage five as one with a lot of bumps and dips so we lost 40 seconds in that stage alone, and another 20 seconds when we repeated the stage. If you take that time loss alone, we would have been much closer to the leaders and fighting for victory”, Nicolas added at the end of the Sasol Rally at the Nelspruit Showgrounds on Saturday afternoon.
Rautenbach took on the might of Volkswagen and Toyota in stage 11 and emerged from the 17km run with his only scratch time of the rally, two seconds ahead of VW’s Jan Habig, at the time the overall leader, leaving the young Zimbabwean/French pairing with some satisfaction of a job well done.
The Sasol Rally, on the other hand, proved that it is the best rally in the South African Rally series and was run over 17 stages totalling 200.64km starting from Sabie, 60km north of Nelspruit, in the Mpumalanga (Mbombela) province in South Africa.
The roads used were in the forests managed by York Timber.
Forty-four cars started this ARC rally and 27 cars eventually finished the tough event.
The third round of the South African Rally Championship is planned for May 13 and 14, with the third round of the FIA African Rally Championship taking place in Zambia from May 20 – 22.
2011 ARC DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 – After South Africa Round Two
1.Conrad Rautenbach (Zimbabwe) 50 points
2.Jamie Whyte (Zimbabwe) 33 points
3.Muna Singh (Zambia) 24 points
4.Schalk Burger (Jnr) (South Africa) 18 points
5.Giancarlo Davite (Rwanda) 15 points
ARC NAVIGATORS CHAMPIONSHIP
1.Nicolas Klinger (France) 50 points
2.Phil Archenoul (Zimbabwe) 33 points
3.David Sihoka (Zambia) 24 points
4.Armand du Toit (South Africa) 18 points
5.Sylvia Vindevogel (Rwanda) 15 points
MANUFACTURERS
1.Ford 50 points
2.Subaru 30 points
3.Mitsubishi 18 points
4.Toyota 15 points