Frustration for TGRSA as rally gremlins strike during tough Algoa Rally weekend

ROUNDS three and four of the National Rally Championship were hosted by the Algoa Rally Club at the weekend. Round three took place in freezing conditions in and around Kariega (Uitenhage ) and Despatch, with round four playing out in the Longmore Forest. 

But before we get there, allow me to say that you can learn a lot by being observant. And sometimes, having your radar up and your blinkers off can spare you much anguish; more than if you hadn’t been alert.

For example, your friends are in the water and they tell you to jump in and join them because the water is “fine”. Do you comply? Or do you first study their bottom lip to see if it’s either blue or quivering? One tremor, and you know that the water is freezing, and you’re better off chilling out of the water in your Speedo than having your “Speedo-bits” chilled inside the frigid waters.

As weird as it may seem, this is one of the reasons why I enjoy motorsport; you see, the flashy adverts, the clever slogans and the sleek vehicles you observe on the roads in your city may cause your heart to flutter with desire, but what if all of that is just trimmings? 

How would you know if that car, that model, that make is any good? A test drive gives you a few minutes behind the wheel, and the smell of fresh upholstery has the ability to derail your better judgment.

And if you should invest in a lemon, your driving experience for years to come will be pretty sour.

Which is why watching and following motorsport helps.

Watching cars do what they promise

Take the sport of touring car races or the rallying circuit; here we have cars that you and I would drive being put through their paces and high revs for sustained periods, and under extreme stress.

Here’s where the men are separated from the boys, or more accurately, the machines from the moegoes!

So this weekend, Jono van Wyk, dubbed the ‘Swazi Cowboy’, and his navigator, Nico Swartz, pushed their Mazda 2 1.6-litre turbocharged four-wheel drive to its limits to win both rounds three and four at the weekend.

In Friday’s third round action, Benjamin Habig and Barry White pushed hard, winning two of the stages with Nico and Juandre Nienaber taking the final stage win … after having rolled their Hyundai i20 during Thursday afternoon’s qualifying run.

Not so good a race for TGRSA

However, at the other end of the weekend’s racing, the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) team endured a nightmare. 

The team fielded their Toyota Starlet, driven by Mandla Mdakane and supported by returning co-driver Simon Vacy-Lyle.

For the TGRSA team, Friday’s opening leg started with promise after a cautious but clean first stage, but things took a turn for the worse when the car unexpectedly cut out at the marshal point and had to be manually restarted. 

The problems didn’t end there, because this was followed by the car suffering a broken driveshaft in Stage 2, forcing the crew to back off and preserve the car for the remaining stages. 

Yet, the dogged determination of the team ensured that despite the setbacks, they made it to the end of the day and were classified 10th overall, with a 10-second penalty added to their time.

TGRSA team pitch in

In a race against time, the technical crew worked late into the night to replace both driveshafts, the alternator and battery, and to resolve a suspected issue with the engine mount — they managed to do all of this without removing the engine. With these repairs completed, the Starlet was prepped and ready for Saturday’s four long and demanding gravel stages.

But things didn’t go as planned, and the bad luck continued. 

Just a few hundred metres into Stage 1, a misfire developed, cutting the Starlet’s power significantly. The crew managed to complete the stage cleanly but were forced to miss Stage 2 while the service team worked to diagnose the problem. They eventually ended up replacing faulty injectors. 

As a result, they were time-barred and could no longer be classified in the overall standings.

Valuable seat time

Yet despite this cascade of mechanical and electrical setbacks, Mdakane and Vacy-Lyle rejoined the rally for Stages 3 and 4, using the opportunity to gather valuable seat time in wet and tricky conditions. Despite a minor braking issue and lack of power, the team completed the stages without incident — underscoring the pace and potential of the package when running cleanly.

The team didn’t shy away from admitting that they did not perform well at all.

“This wasn’t the weekend we were hoping for,” said TGRSA Rally Team Manager, Guy Botterill. “We had the pace and a strong car, but some unexpected technical issues cost us valuable running time. 

“That said, the crew pushed through, the team worked relentlessly, and we’ll come back stronger for the next one.”

No team can be counted out yet

It would do the reader well to do some research into the proud reputation and pedigree of this team. Yes, the other teams did amazingly well, but one can be sure that TGRSA will not be content with having observers believe that their cars are, as we said earlier, “moegoes”. 

The race weekend may have been disappointing for the team, and the car may have had an extremely bad run, but the season is not yet over, and one can be sure that plans are already in place to make a statement, or several statements, in the season ahead.

And this may be as early as the end of next month, when the next round of the 2025 NRC season takes the teams to the Ermelo Rally, set to take place on August 29 and 30 in the Mpumalanga town. 

The event will represent Rounds 5 and 6 of the championship. And you can be sure, the racing will be something to behold.