adminattack mode when the second half of the South African Rally Championship starts with the Volkswagen Rally in the Eastern Cape region this Friday and Saturday.
The privateer Green Fuel Ford Fiesta pair has claimed two wins, a podium place and crucially, a non-finish last time out.
Rautenbach and Klinger also have a 17-point lead in the FIA African Rally Championship – which the pair is tackling simultaneously with the South African series – with three consecutive wins and a runner-up placing under their belts.
The Green Fuel team provisionally leads the South African series by two points; Rautenbach knows he needs to increase his points cushion over his fellow privateer Ford and factory Toyota and VW rivals following a mechanical problem on the last round that saw the Fiesta record its first non-finish in both championships.
“It was a devastating blow but it happened and we have to move on,” Rautenbach.
“The Kenyan Rally was exceptionally rough and in spite of driving as slowly as I could get away with, the car took a pounding.”
The Green Fuel Ford team has worked hard to re-build their Ford Fiesta S2000 and Rautenbach is confident of a good showing in the VW Rally this weekend.
Following the (as yet unresolved) controversy of short-cutting on the last event, Rautenbach said: “The Volkswagen Rally was my favourite event last year.
“If anyone thinks of taking a short cut here, they will be in a tree or off the side of a mountain. It is one event where a driver can make a difference and make up time if there was problem.
“It’s a real driver’s rally where I can go hard and get rewarded with a competitive time.”
“Running first on the road goes with leading the championship.
“The stages are quite loose and slippery although there has been a lot of rain in the area; a bit more would help bind the surface though and minimise my time loss.”
Rautenbach also said that he not thinking about the championship just yet but rather taking each rally one at a time with the aim of winning every time they start.
“The team is well prepared and I’m quite confident we’ll be there or thereabout, and I’m really looking forward to it,” Rautenbach added.
While the Green Fuel Ford team is burning up the forest stages in South Africa, it will be in the back of their minds that their FIA ARC lead is under threat in Uganda, which hosts the KCB Pearl of Africa Uganda Rally which takes place over the same weekend.
Rautenbach leads his fellow countryman Jamie Whyte by 17 points in the ARC race and the latter will be out to cut that lead in Uganda at the weekend.
Whyte and his seasoned co-pilot Phil Archenoul were scheduled to fly out to Uganda yesterday to take part in the three-day event, which runs from Friday to Sunday in the East African country.
The reigning African champion’s rally car – a Subaru Impreza – and service van are still on the road and should be getting to Uganda in the next day or two.
Online Reporter