Zim to crown Challenge Rally champBy Collin Matiza

NEXT weekend will see the crowning of the 40th Zimbabwe Challenge Rally champion after the staging of the country’s premier motorsport event at the Rainbow Towers in Harare.
The Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally will, for the first time this year, act as the opening round of the eight-legged 2011 FIA African Rally Championship series and will be held in and around Harare.
The rally, first run in 1962 and is celebrating its 49th anniversary this year, is now one of Africa’s most respected rallies and has attracted a good number of local and foreign entries over the past years.
Since its inception in 1962, the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally has had 27 different winners and among them are 15 Zimbabweans and 12 foreigners.
Henk Veenendaaal holds the record of being the local driver who has won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally title more than any other competitor as he won it four times in 1967, 1968, 1971 and 1972.
He is closely followed by the Rautenbachs – Billy and his son Conrad – who have each won it three times.
Local motor rallying legend Billy Rautenbach won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally title in 1991 with John Mitchell as his co-driver, in 1993 with Zambian navigator Surinder Thathi and 1995 with John Seiling.
Conrad Rautenbach followed in his father’s footsteps by scoring a hat-trick of victories in this tough three-day race, winning it three times on the trot in 2005 (with Peter Marsh), 2006 (with David Senior) and 2007 (with Marsh).
Apart from Veneendaal and the Rautenbachs, the other Zimbabwean drivers who have won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally since the inaugural race in 1962 are Don Grant (1962), Mossie Clements (1963), John Thompson (1964), Don McDonald (1965 and 1973), Ziggy Berkau (1969), Clive Mawson (1981), Bob Bentley (1982), Nick Holm (1994), James Browell (1997), Hannes Cruger (1998), Chase Attwell (2009) and Jamie Whyte (2010).
Meanwhile, of the 12 foreigners who have won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally, legendary Zambian motor rallying driver Satwant Singh won it more than any other foreigner – four times.
Nicknamed “The Flying Sikh”, Satwant Singh clinched the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally title in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990, and most of these times he was involved in close duels with Zimbabwe’s Billy Rautenbach.
The other foreign drivers who have won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally are Alain Ambrosio of Ivory Coast (1983), Kenyan David Horsey (1984), Greg Critcos of Kenya (1986), Italian Aldo Riva (1992), Charles Muhangi of Uganda (1999), the South African quartet of Serge Damseaux (1996), Schalk Burger (Snr) (2001), Johnny Gemmel (2002) and Fernandoi Rueda (2003), Zambia’s Muna Singh (2004) and Hideaki Miyoshi of Japan (2008).
In fact, Ambrosio of Ivory Coast was the first foreign driver to win the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in 1983 driving a Peugeot 505 while Japan’s Miyoshi is the last foreigner to win it three years ago on the way to winning the coveted African Rally Championship Drivers’ title.
Interestingly, Miyoshi won the 2008 ARC title during the last round of the series – the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally – in August of the same year, pipping Zimbabwe’s Jamie Whyte for the overall continental championship crown.
Unfortunately, there will be no entries from overseas for this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge which has so far attracted more than five competitors from Zimbabwe’s fellow African countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia.
And among the foreign entries for this year’s race is Zambia’s Muna Singh, who won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in 2004.
Muna Singh will be joined in the starting line-up for this year’s Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally at the Rainbow Towers next Friday afternoon by Schalk Burger (Jnr) of South Africa.
Schalk Burger (Jnr) will be out to emulate his father, Schalk Burger (Snr), who won the Zimbabwe Challenge Rally in 2001, becoming the second South African to achieve this feat after Damseaux who drove to victory in 1996 in a Toyota Conquest.
Schalk Burger (Jnr) is also set to compete in this year’s ARC series exactly 10 years after his dad won the title.
In fact, the young South African driver is making his debut appearance in the tough ARC series in which he will first have to do battle with seasoned continental campaigners such as Jamie Whyte and Conrad Rautenbach, both of Zimbabwe, and Zambia’s Muna Singh in the opening round of the competition – the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally – in Harare next weekend.
Jamie Whyte is the reigning ARC champion after winning the coveted title for two years on the trot in 2009 and 2010, and he is once again the man to beat in this year’s series.
The bubbly 50-year-old Zimbabwean driver will be out for a hat-trick of victories in this year’s series and will be looking to open his campaign on a winning note next week.
But Jamie Whyte is likely to have his hands full in next weekend’s event as he will also have to do battle with former African champion Conrad Rautenbach.
Conrad Rautenbach won the ARC Drivers’ title in 2007, becoming the second Zimbabwean after Abe Smit (1994) to be crowned as the African champion.
The young driver and Smit were later joined in this “elite club” by Jamie Whyte who clinched the ARC Drivers’ title in 2009 before repeating this feat in 2010.
And Jamie Whyte is once again back for this year’s ARC series in which he opens his campaign for his third title on the trot at the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally next weekend.
Jamie Whyte will also be out to win the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally for the second year in a row after winning it last year ahead of Zambia’s Muna Singh and Kenya’s Quentin Mitchell.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo Davite is on his way from Rwanda to attend the Toyota Zimbabwe Challenge Rally, according to one of the event’s organisers Temba Mazvimba-kupa.
Davite took part in last year’s event where he failed to last the distance and will be hoping for a change of fortune this time around.