Conrad shifts focus to Natal

aiming to continue his bright start to the 2011 motor rallying season at the Total Tour Natal Rally in Durban, South Africa, this coming weekend.
The third Total Tour Natal Rally marks the official start of the 2011 South African Motor Rally Championship series and takes place in the Amanzimtoti and Scottburgh areas of the KwaZulu Natal South Coast this Friday and Saturday.
And young Zimbabwean motor rallying sensation Rautenbach will once again be carrying the country’s flag in the two-day event in which he will be taking on some of South Africa’s top rally drivers.
Rautenbach was scheduled to leave for Johannesburg last night and will connect to Durban on Wednesday for the weekend’s tough Total Tour Natal Rally.
The 25-year-old former African rally champion was yesterday convinced that he would do well in this event after he swept to victory in the 2011 Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in Harare two weeks ago.
Driving for the G-Fuel Team in a Ford Fiesta S2000, Rautenbach was just too good for the opposition in the three-day Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in which he led from start to finish to win it for a record equaling fourth time.
Rautenbach’s father, the legendary Zimbabwean motor rallying driver Billy, and Henk Veenendaal are the only other Zimbabwean drivers who have won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally four times since the inception of the prestigious event way back in 1962. Veenendaal won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in 1967, 1968, 1971 and 1972 and his record was equaled by Billy Rautenbach who was crowned the champion in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1994 before he passed on the baton of success to his son Conrad.
Conrad first won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally for three consecutive years from 2005 to 2007 before he notched up his fourth career victory at this year’s event two weeks ago.
And after joining the immortals of the local motor rallying world by winning the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally for the fourth time, young Conrad was yesterday oozing with confidence as he was preparing to leave for this coming weekend’s Total Tour Natal Rally.
With the mood in his camp buoyant after such an excellent start during the 2011 Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally, Conrad was yesterday confident of once again turning in an exciting performance when he competes in Durban this coming weekend.
His G-Fuel team also has high expectations of the Ford Fiesta S2000, which is now being powered by locally produced clean, renewable ethanol, the fuel which the car used during this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
In fact, it appears the G-Fuel G85 ethanol is more than capable of satisfying the challenging demands of the team during this year’s South African Motor Rally Championship series, starting with the Total Tour Natal Rally this weekend.
Conrad said yesterday: “I feel good heading to Durban after winning the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally (for the fourth time). The car is also working well with the G-Fuel ethanol and I’ve also struck a good combination with my new French navigator Nicolas Klinger.
“This year’s Zimbabwe Challenge Rally was a good test for us and we are quite confident of doing well in the Total Tour Natal Rally in Durban this coming weekend,” Conrad said.
This will be the second time that Conrad will be competing in the Total Tour Natal Rally event in which he finished a credible fourth in his debut appearance last year.
“It will be my second time there and I’m really looking forward to it although competition will be different from the one that I received during Zimbabwe Challenge Rally last weekend. But the stages in Durban are not that bad and they are a lot of fun to drive and this time I will be wanting to push a lot more as I already know the stages. I want to get closer to the top South African drivers at this rally so I’ll be looking to set some fast times from the outset and I’ll be aiming for another top-five finish,” Conrad said.
In fact, the first event of the 2011 South African Motor Rally Championship season in KwaZulu Natal promises to be an action-packed rally that will set the tone for the rest of the season. The S2000 class, in which Conrad will be competing in, is again going to grab the lion’s share of attention and with the competition now between the BP Volkswagen Polos, the Ford Fiestas, new Peugeot 207 entries and the traditional rivals to the champions, Toyota, it is going to be a highly competitive season.
There are 14 stages of competition that will take place in KwaZulu Natal and each of them will see the various teams jostling for position while Conrad Rautenbach’s G-Fuel Team seeks to stamp their domination on the 2011 South African national rally season from the outset.