Dippenaar, Kritzinger conquer Tara rally
Wilro Dippenaar and Rian Kritzinger won the car and off-road sections, respectively, of the 2023 M&Z Motors Tara Rally on Saturday afternoon.Dippenaar and his navigator, Carolyn Swan, finished 50 seconds ahead of Allan Martin and Maretha Olivier (S4 J&P Hydraulics 4x4-Skoda R5 1.6T) on Friday evening after 12 stages with his S4 class PZN Panel Beaters 4x4-Ford Fiesta R5 1.6T.
On Saturday, Dippenaar widened the gap to 3 minutes, 19 seconds between him and Martin to clock in at 1 hour, 39 minutes, and 18 seconds. Martin in 1:42:37, Zachary Martin and Jannie Coetzee in 1:54:59 (S2 J&P Hydraulics 2x4-VW Golf) took second and third positions overall.
Eight of the original ten entries completed the rally. Berto Mostert and Chané Havenga (S2), as well as Pierre Röhm and Pieter Steyn (S1), unfortunately had to throw in the towel.
Off-road challenge (CR1/CR2)
Rian Kritzinger and Ian Stander took first place in 1:53:41, with Ekko Eisenberg and Rassie Rietz second in 2:18:12, while Marius van Zyl and Jacky van Zyl took third place in 3:09:32.
Kritzinger's 2x4 Nissan NP300 V8 4.0 litre ran flawlessly. Eisenberg's newly built 2x4-JAC V8 4.0 was carefully put through its paces by the rookie, while Van Zyls' 2x4-Ford Ranger V6 3.0 showed its mettle.
Loic Bathfield and Johan Steyn, as well as Werner Bartsch and Christel Fourie, were able to complete the rally according to super rally rules. Bathfield's African Gas Solutions CR1 class 2x4-Century Racing CR6 V8 7.0 had a wheel hub break on the first stage on Friday but was able to re-enter on Friday evening after repairs.
Gert Liebenberg/Johan Thiart (CR1-class 2x4-Tata V8 4.7) and Ewald Bisschoff/Hein Bisschoff (CR1-class 2x4-Toyota Hilux V8 4.0) fell out of the rally on Friday.
Results
Overall: 1 Dippenaar/Swan, 2 Martin/Olivier, 3 Martin/Coetzee, 4 Pieter Greeff/JP Robinson, 5 Rolf Pretorius/Katja Pretorius, 6 Wido Bartsch/Raymond Fourie, 7 Michael Kotze/Wayne Rust.
Results (S1-4 Classes):
S4: 1 Dippenaar/Swan, 2 Martin/Olivier.
S3: 1 Pretorius/Pretorius, 2 Kotze/Rust.
S2: 1 Martin/Coetzee, 2 Bartsch/Fourie.
S1: 1 Greeff/Robinson.
CR classes overall:
1 Kritzinger/Stander, 2 Eisenberg/Rietz, 3 Van Zyl/Van Zyl (also 1, 2 and 3 in the CR1 class).
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