adminThe Total Madagascar International Rally, which is set to run from November 25 to 27 in the Indian Ocean island, is the eighth and last round of this year’s ARC series in which Whyte and Rautenbach were involved in a two-way title fight.
Rautenbach of the Green Fuel Team is currently sitting at the top of the ARC leaderboard with 105 points, 11 ahead of his nearest rival, Jialing’s Whyte after the first seven rounds of the series which were held during the course of the year in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
And the two top Zimbabwean motor rally drivers were expected to cross swords again in the Total Madagascar International Rally, an event which was going to determine the overall winner of this year’s ARC Drivers’ crown.
But Whyte yesterday handed this year’s African title to Rautenbach “without a fight” after he indicated that he has decided not to go to Madagascar to compete in the last event of the ARC series in November.
“No, I’m not going to Madagascar (because of some financial constraints) and this basically means that Conrad has won this year’s African motor rallying title,” Whyte said.
Jean-Yves Ranarivelo of Madagascar is lying in third place in the 2011 ARC Drivers’ Standings with 65 points and will not topple Rautenbach at the top of the leaderboard even if he wins next month’s Total
Madagascar International Rally in his own backyard.
Whyte first withdrew from the penultimate round of this year’s ARC series — the Rwanda Mountain Gorilla Rally — which was staged towards the end of last month in the Central African country following the death of his mother — Meta.
This also forced Rautenbach to pull out of the same event as a sign of respect for Whyte who had lost his mother. And in announcing his decision to withdraw from the Total Madagascar International Rally yesterday, Whyte gave a strong indication that Rautenbach might also not travel to the Indian Ocean island for the same event next month.
“I don’t think that Conrad will be going to Madagascar since he has already won the African title. In fact, he will have nothing to fight for there as I, his main title rival, have pulled out of that event,” Whyte said.
Rautenbach is now a two-time African motor rally champion after having first won the ARC Drivers’ crown in 2007.
Whyte’s decision to withdraw from next month’s Total Madagascar International Rally has, on the other hand, jeopardised his chances of scoring a hat-trick of victories in the ARC series.
Sidumisile Mabena