The Total Tara Rally gets underway for the 47th year on Thursday when 20 teams from Namibia and South Africa will battle it out to take the honours in one of Africa’s toughest rallies.
The South African pair of Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman will be out to make history by winning the title for three years in a row and should once again start as the favourites in their Ford Fiesta.
No rider has ever won the Total Tara more than twice and Van Niekerk is keen to take up the challenge.
“It would be fantastic to make it a hat-trick on the Tara, and the event is always a great way to end the year,” he told sarallying.co.za.
Van Niekerk, who has a special affinity for Namibia since his father was born here, said the rally is tough and cannot be underestimated.
“The rally cannot be underestimated and you really need to pace yourself. The locals are always very friendly and are impeccable hosts but the rallying is serious,” he said.
“A number of South Africa drivers – including the likes of Sarel van der Merwe, Geoff Mortimer and Serge Damseaux – have won the Total Tara twice, but no one – locals included – has ever won it three times, never mind three times in a row. There’s a lot to play for this weekend,” Van Niekerk concluded.
Of the local riders, Wilro Dippenaar and his co-driver Riaan van der Westhuizen are expected to provide the strongest challenge in their Ford Fiesta.
Dippenaar won the rally as an 18-year-old schoolboy in 2011, while he came second in 2013 and third last year.
Dippenaar could well have won last year’s rally after taking an early lead, but several mechanical setbacks saw him relinquishing his lead and dropping down to third position overall.
Other drivers who can make an impact include Allan Martin and Kes Naidoo in a VW Polo, Stefanie Botha and Willem Hugo in a Subaro Imprezza, and Richard Slamet and Wiets Coetzee in a Toyota RunX.
This year’s Total Tara Rally will consist of 25 stages over a distance of 560km of which almost 260km will consist of special stages.
The rally gets underway with a ceremonial start at SKW on Thursday evening, followed by four night stages in Windhoek, with the popular ‘stadium stage’ being the first and fourth stages.
On Friday, the rally moves to Okahandja where eight stages will be held, before returning to the Tony Rust Race Track for the highlight of the day.
On Saturday, the crews will travel some 50km south to complete three stages before returning to Windhoek for the final three stages, with the first cars expected to arrive by 16h00.
The Tara Rally started in 1969 and later became known as the Total Tara Rally after the French fuel company Total became a sponsor of the event in 1985. This year, Total will be sponsoring the event for the 31st successive year with an amount of N$500 000.
Several other sponsors have also come on board for this year’s event, namely Cymot, which recently announced a sponsorship of N$60 000, Windhoek Country Club and Resort, Satcom Namibia, Chubb Fire, Battery Centre, IS Freight Services, Radio Kosmos and One FM.
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