Extremely hot, dry and dusty conditions greeted the 19 entries at the 2022 Porterville Rally, round 2 of the Western Cape Club Rally Championship.
The event delivered great entertainment to those who dared to spectate in the heat. A completely different scenario to what Porterville presents in June as the beautiful countryside turned harsh, but retained its challenges.
Owen Jones and Aden Bredenkamp will forever consider the 2021 event a brilliant highlight, and they must have started this year’s event wondering whether they could improve on their debut rally victory. Well, they found the only solution to the problem by simply romping to another overall victory in their 454 CPMCC S4 Subaru Impreza WRX STi 4×4 Turbo 2.0.
To sweeten the moment even further they beat dad, Shaun Jones, and Jason Thorpe in their Advanced Asphalt 424 CPMCC S5 Subaru Impreza WRX STi 4×4 2.0 Turbo by a full 1 min 22 seconds over eight special stages covering 119,52 km. In the seniors’ defence they had to complete the first two stages in “limp” mode and certainly turned up the pace to dominate the final four stages.
However, based on straight stage times, it was Inus du Plessis (Stellenbosch) and Piet Carinus (Somerset West) that made everyone sit up and take notice in their striking Coastal Tool Hire 461 WBMK S4 BMW E36 328i by being twenty seconds faster. They unfortunately had a water-hose tear and the sheer heat and position of the problem resulted in 24-minute lateness (10 seconds per minute = 4 minutes), which dropped them back into third spot overall.
Johann Zülch and Tania Vermaak (Strand) brought a touch of nostalgia to the event in the Ceres Toyota supported 439 WBMK S2 Ford Escort 1600 Sport. In 1997, Zülch and Patrick Vermaak closed seven years of competing as a team in a ditch shortly after the start of the first stage, but now 25 years later Zülch and Tania celebrated with a fine seventh position overall in the latest incarnation of the Ford. With the MkII Escorts rather sought-after it is a real privilege still to have one rallying in such pristine condition.
A thank you to the Porterville community for the great support at the showgrounds, with many vendors present.
Whether it was a result of the extreme heat or the fact that it was a long weekend, spectator numbers did not live up to expectations and possibly spread their presence to various spectator points.
Having various aircraft overhead added further interest to the day and of course the valued support of Subaru Somerset West, Polyplastix, CEJ Plant Hire, Amandla Construction, Wilries Snacks, Marshal Delicious Minerals and Dynamic Plant Solutions who eased the task at hand for Billy Thorpe and his CPMCC team of officials.
The next round of the Western Cape Club Rally Championship will be organised by the CCMCC on the weekend of 22-23 April. The national rally, to curb travelling costs, will have two rounds of both the SA and Western Cape championship.
