Allan Martin and Jan Everson in action at the 49th Tara Rally
IT’s all systems go for Allan Martin and Jan Everson from Walvis Bay for the 49th Tara Rally which will gets underway today at 15:30 at the Tony Rust Race Track in Windhoek. The two harbour town drivers will compete against 14 other Namibian competitors.
The Rally has 17 stages in and around Windhoek. The first two stages will be at Rocky Crest and Prosperita and that back to the Tony Rust Race Track where the rest of the action will be for the first day of this two day motor sport event.
Two special stages will see drivers racing in pairs on the race track.
Saturday morning the 7th and 8th stages will again be in the vicinity of Rocky Crest and Prosperita and than the drivers will be in the vicinity of Aris, Harmony, Omeya and ODI for more stages.
The final stage will be held at the Tony Rust Race Track again at 14h30.
The prize giving ceremony is scheduled for 19:30 at Tony Rust.
Allan Martin and his navigator Derek Jacobs in their VW Polo are one of the favourites.
“For the past six years I have competed as a rally driver with Melvin Gous as my navigator in a Volkswagen Polo S2000. I competed in a total of 19 rallies, of which I had 5 retirements.
In 2012, I got 1st overall in the National Championship in Class S3. In 2013 I competed in the following Rallies: The Bay Rally, V-Power Swakopmund Rally, Bank Windhoek Azurite Tsumeb Rally, Cymot Rally Windhoek and Tara Rally.
In the Walvis Bay Rally, Swakopmund Rally I ended 2nd in my Class and 3rd overall, Bank Windhoek Azurite Tsumeb Rally, Shell cattle Country Rally ended 2nd overall and 2nd in Class S3, Cymot Automotive Windhoek Rally and 46th Total Tara. In 2015, I spread my wings and started competing in Western Cape South Africa. There I competed in the Ceres Toyota Rally as well as Swartland Rally and ended in second in the NRC.
At the Okahandja Shell V-Power Rally, Bank Windhoek Azurite Tsumeb Rally I finished 2nd overall and 1st in Class C4, Shell V-Power Cattle Country Rally I ended 2nd overall and 1st in Class S4, Hemco Windhoek Rally I ended 4th overall and 2nd in Class S4.
Walvis Bay Rally, Swakopmund Rally I finished 1st Overall and Tara Rally ending 3rd Overall. In 2017, I won the 1000 Dunes Rally Walvis Bay and this year I will be entering the 49th Tara Rally with Derek Jacobs as my Navigator.
Derek Jacobs has a long association with the Tara Rally as an organiser and official. This will be his 3rd attempt as navigator having finished 10th Overall on his first attempt back in 1996. He competed in South Africa with VW, Toyota and Team Total and comes with a wealth of experience. In 2017, he navigated for Richard Slamet and Oswaldo Mendes in the Western Cape, winning 2 rallies with Richard and 1 with Oswaldo. As this is his 3rd Namibian driver this year, let’s hope it will be a case of third time lucky.
Jan Everson (driver) and Fanie Botes (navigator) started their rally career as rookies together in 2012 in a Seal Consulting Engineers rebuilt Ford Ikon 1600i. The Ford Ikon was replaced by a purpose-built Riekus Schmidt VW Polo 1600i and their first class won came in 2013 when they won the Total Tara Rally in Class S1.
This success was repeated at the Total Tara Rally in 2014 by winning the S1 class again in the Seal Consulting Engineers VW Polo 1600i.
The 1600i engine was replaced in 2015 with a Dave Ingle 2 lt FSI 16V engine with a second place in the S2 class on both the Tsumeb- and Gobabis Rally respectively and a class win at the Total Tara Rally in 2015.
The 2016 and 2017 season was littered with mechanical failures with a lot of DNF (did not finish) and DNS (did not start). The team is looking forward to finish this Tara. Big thanks to my sponsor Seal Consulting Engineers that makes it possible for me to take part in the rally events.
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