Sasol/Konica Minolta Team in No-Man’s Land for Osram Rally

22 August 2009

With the 2009 overall Production Car and class N4 Championships firmly in the Sasol/Konica Minolta Rally Team camp, the squad finds itself in no-man’s land for the Osram Rally, round six of the Sasol South African Rally Championship.

Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich have nothing to prove in the unique, one-day rally run high in the southern reaches of the Drakensberg mountains in the northern parts of the Eastern Cape province, where Wilken acknowledges the team’s Prodrive N14 will not be at its competitive best.

“Our car really isn’t suited to ultra-fast flowing types of stages so I doubt we will be able to challenge for a podium on this event.  With the championships over, I want to see just how far up the order and at what level the car performs with the bigger restrictor but I think I’ll have to wait until the Swartland Rally in September for that one”, said Wilken. 

With the bigger 33mm restrictor allowed on turbo-charged production cars, Wilken found there was a lot more power available and led the Volkswagen Rally overall after the first four stages last month.  “There is a wider power band which helps with the tighter stages but there aren’t any on the Osram Rally!  The pressure is on everyone to perform from the first stage as there are only seven stages and stage 1, for example, is fully 25% of the route, so you cannot ease into the rally and build up speed as you go along”.

“The grip levels are fairly high because the roads used are public mountain pass gravel roads and the daily useage means there isn’t really a big build up of gravel on the surface.  We’ll be starting 7th on the road which could help us a bit in terms of grip levels.  One key element to doing well is to have complete confidence in your route notes and navigator reading them at the right pace.  Greg is one of the best co-drivers in the country and we have been together a long time”.

On the future of the Osram Rally, previously known as the Mountain Trial, Wilken is adamant it doesn’t have a place in a modern rally championship. “There is no marketing value to the event or team sponsors.  There are no spectators and it is an expensive event to attend.  Having said that, the rally runs on real driver’s roads which requires a lot of bravery – it’s the fastest rally in the championship”

Champion Co-Driver Greg Godrich added: “Charl and I have built up a trust factor over many years which is crucial.  It’s a very nice rally.  The minimal servicing may play into our hands because Charl tends to keep it clean in the stages and not hammer the car”.

Challenging for a production car podium place is Tjaart Coetzee and Etienne Lourens in their Diesel Technic Impreza.  Coetzee is undergoing a steep learning curve as he tackles his maiden national rally championship campaign, and boasts a podium finish on the Sasol Rally as his best result to date.  With a reduced field competing this season, another podium should be a real possibility.

Capetonian Mike Nathan and co-driver Derek Jacobs will rejoin the national series after focusing their resources on the Western Cape Regional Championship, where the pair is second overall in the standings.

The AWI Mitsubishi Lancer crew has targeted a second place in the class N4 championship and will drive accordingly.  Nathan scored top ten finishes on the opening two rounds of the series which he competed in.

Dave Compton and Pierre Jordaan are set to clinch the class N3 championship on the Osram Rally after taking four class wins from the opening five rounds.  The Sasol Toyota RunX suffered a rare engine failure last time out which put their championship aspirations on ice for another month.

The Osram Rally starts from Lady Grey at 8am on Saturday, 22nd August and heads into the longest stage of the event, the 42km Joubert’s Pass stage, which was last used over a decade ago.  The rally concludes with the popular 1.4km Barkly East Showgrounds stage later in the day.