| Conrad aiming for Cape Town win |
|
Conrad Rautenbach is upbeat about his chances of a maiden South African Rally Championship victory on next weekend’s Toyota Dealer Rally in Cape Town. The Zimbabwean driver will make his debut in his Ford Fiesta S2000 on the two-day event next week. He says his first round outing at the wheel of a Group N Subaru Impreza has given him plenty of confidence regarding his pace going into his first rally in a S2000 car. “In the Subaru we were about four tenths of a second off the lead pace,” he said, “and this car is reckoned to be about a second per kilometre quicker than the Subaru, so I’m looking forward to the event. I think we could be looking for the win, providing we get through this week and we get a good 100 or so kilometres of testing done. The car is definitely a big step in the right direction from the Group N car. I only drove it for a very short time in England, but straight away you could feel you really had to get in and push this car.” Rautenbach added that his second event in the South African Rally Championship will be a bit easier than the first. “I hadn’t done a rally with Pete [Marsh, co-driver] for three years or something like that,” said Rautenbach. “So we’re back into the grove after the first event in Natal. The pace notes will work better on this rally, we have one event under our belt working with the organisers’ notes so we know what’s coming. As well as that, this rally is quicker, with lots of straights and junctions, so the notes themselves should be more straightforward.” |