Zim Challenge Rally entries swell

This year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally will be staged from March 16 to 18 in Harare and the surrounding areas of Ruwa and Norton.
This event will, for the second year running, act as the opening leg of the tough eight-event 2012 FIA African Rally Championship series, which attracts the cream of the continent’s motor rally drivers.
And according to Temba Mazvimbakupa, a member of the Zimbabwe Motorsport Federation, two more foreign entries have been received for this year’s event.
He said one of Kenya’s top motor rally drivers Don Smith and Pilusa Pieter of South Africa have thrown their hats into the ring and will be among the starting line-up when the 2012 Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally dusts off at the Cresta Lodge in the eastern part of Harare on March 16.
Mazvimbakupa said Pieter will be having Zimbabwean George Chitepo as his co-driver in this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
Chitepo used to navigate for local driver Ronald Parsell.
But it is the news that Kenya’s Smith will be making his way to Harare compete in this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally that should come as sweet music into the ears of the event’s organisers.
Smith once entered for this event last year, but he pulled out at the last minute after one of his service cars was hijacked somewhere in the East African region.
The organisers of the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally have in the past years struggled to attract top motor rallying drivers from fellow African countries, especially those from the “eastern bloc”.
But this year they have managed to attract not only one entry from East Africa, but two as crack Ugandan motor rallying driver Jas Mangat has also confirmed his participation in this event.
Mangat, just like Kenya’s Smith, will be making his maiden appearance in the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally this year.
Apart from Smith, Mangat and Pieter, three other foreign drivers — Giancarlo Davite of Rwanda, South Africa’s Zimbabwe-born Robson Maganezi and Zambia’s Mohammed Essa — have also officially entered for this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
Last year, the same event attracted only four foreign entries and they came from Rwanda’s Davite, Schalk Burger (Junior) of South Africa and the Zambian duo of Muna Singh and Essa.
In fact, last year’s event attracted a field of 16 cars which was made up of 12 Zimbabwean and four foreign entries.
But the organisers of this year’s Zimbabwe Challenge Rally are expecting this year’s event to attract more foreign entries with the large chunk of them coming from neighbours South Africa.
But popular Tanzanian navigator Moses Matovu has decided to give this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally a miss and will not be part of the proceedings from March 16 to 18.
Meanwhile, former Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally champion Jamie Whyte has secured the services of Gareth Dawe to read the notes for him in this year’s event.
Whyte, who won the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in 2010 before surrendering the title to fellow top Zimbabwean driver Conrad Rautenbach last year, lost the services of his long-time partner Phil Archenoul who retired from the sport at the beginning of this year.
And Whyte, who is also a two-time African motor rally champion, yesterday said that he has taken Dawe on board and the latter will be his co-driver in this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally.
“I’ve enlisted the services of Gareth Dawe and he will be my navigator during this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally and I’m quite confident that we’ll form a formidable team,” Whyte said.
Dawe used to navigate for Whyte’s young brother Shaun and the latter is also convinced that that the former will help his brother to win this year’s Challenge Rally.
“I’ve used Gareth (Dawe) for about two years of rallying and he’s very good. He (Jamie) will have no problems with him and I’m quite sure they’ll click during this year’s Challenge Rally,” Shaun Whyte said.