Conrad tips Watson to lift Zim Challenge

this year to defend the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally title, which he won last year for a record equaling fourth time.
The 28-year-old talented driver won last year’s event on his way to winning the overall FIA African Rally Championship series Drivers’ crown.
Rautenbach also won the 2011 South African Rally Championship title to score a memorable double in one season in his illustrious motor rallying career.
And after “scoring a double” last year, Rautenbach decided to take a one-year sabbatical from motor rallying this year and will be among hundreds of local motorsport enthusiasts who are expected to follow and also watch this weekend’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
This year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally is once again coming in as the opening round of the tough annual eight-event FIA African Rally Championship series.
And Rautenbach yesterday said the smart money was on Jess Watson.
Rautenbach also revealed that his Green Fuel Team, which helped him to conquer Africa last year, will be out backing Watson, who will be driving a Mitsubishi Lancer.
A seasoned campaigner in the local motor rallying scene, Watson will be having his wife Sasha as his co-driver in one of the two husband-and-wife teams that will feature in this weekend’s three-day event.
The other husband-and-wife team that will be competing in this weekend’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally is that of the other top local driver Ronald Parsell and his wife Bronwyn Ebrahim. Parsell and his wife will be in a Mitsubishi Evo6 and, just like the Watsons, they will be competing in the N4 Class in this weekend’s rally.
The Watsons received a major boost ahead of this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally when Rautenbach’s Green Fuel Team decided to come in and back them in this event.
“We, the Green Fuel Team, are supporting Jess Watson. His car will be running on E-85, the ethanol fuel that we used during last year’s successful campaign in both the African Rally Championship and the South African Rally Championship series.
“So, I think with our full support or backing, he (Jess Watson) has got a good chance of winning this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
“The only down side for him is that he hasn’t rallied for a year and he will be a little bit rusty. But I personally think he will still have an edge over the other local and international competitors in this event,” Rautenbach said.
Rautenbach also tipped other top Zimbabwean drivers Chase Attwell and Jamie Whyte — both former champions of the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge  — to do well in this weekend’s event.
“Of the other local guys, I think Chase Attwell and Jamie Whyte also have a good chance of fighting for the first podium place in this race.”
Attwell won the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in 2009 before surrendering the title to Whyte the following year.
Attwell will this year be driving a powerful S2000 Toyota Auris while Whyte will be competing in his favourite Subaru Impreza and they are both expected to be among the top finishers, come the end of the race on Sunday afternoon at the Cresta Lodge.
But Rautenbach ruled out the chance of any of the five foreign drivers — Jas Mangat of Uganda, Don Smith of Kenya, Rwanda’s Giancarlo Davite, Mohammed Essa of Zambia and South African Pieter Pilusa — to pull off a surprise victory in this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
“I think our local guys are strong enough to beat the foreign drivers because of the home ground advantage and the support that they will receive from the local (motor racing) fans,” Rautenbach concluded.
The Zimbabwe Challenge Rally, first run in 1962, is now one of Africa’s most respected rallies and is the opening leg of the FIA African Rally Championship series.
This year’s rally will take place from this Friday to Sunday, beginning with a ceremonial start at the Cresta Lodge in the eastern part of Harare on Friday afternoon. This will give easy access to spectators wanting to pop along to see the competitors being flagged off ahead of competing in the spectator-friendly and famous “three-car” Super Special Stage at the home of local motorsport – Donnybrook.