Shell V-Power National Rally Championship

Rudi Bowe

The Shell V-Power Rally Championship held in the Swakopmund area on Friday, 20 and Saturday, 21 November 2020 respectively was won by Allan Martin and his navigator, Maretha Olivier in the J&P Hydraulics 4×4 Skoda R5.

The event formed the third and fourth rounds of the Shell V-Power rally series, the last two decisive rounds of the 2020 national rally championship. Walvis Bay Motor Club, which organized and hosted the two events, has once again shown where their hearts and passion for this sports code lie.
A line-up of an impressive 19 vehicles made it to the start, with some world-class rally cars in the mix taking on the champion-ship race, of which only four out of ten cars completed Friday’s particularly tough event.
Allan Martin and his navigator, Maretha Olivier, dominated the S4 class on Friday with his J&P Hydraulics 4×4 Skoda R5 by completing the nine stages in 46 minutes 44 seconds.  His son Zachary Martin with Mandi Olivier as his navigator was only 2 minutes 37 seconds slower in the second position (first in S3 class) with 49:21 in Groen-mamba, their J&P Hy-draulics 4×4 VW Polo S2000. Paul Oosthuizen and Johan du Plessis (Toyota Corolla, third overall in 57:22) win the S1 class, followed by Pieter Greeff and JP Robinson (Team Mohatu) in his Seal Consulting Engineers 4×2 Toyota Corolla which leaves the stopwatch at 1:04:48 stand it.
The Challenge class (CR1) saw only three retire for the day with six of nine teams successfully completed the day.
Bertie Smit (BS) and Dewald Venter took first place with his BS Contracting Services Mazda Magnum (58:05) fol-lowed by Morné Oosthuizen and Etienne van der Heever (1:01:23) with their LMO Paints Zarco.
Jacques Kruger and Roche Louw finished third in 1:04:55 (Team Crazy Gecko) in a Toyota Hilux Revo.
The teams that had to retire on Friday due to mechanical adversity were: S4 class: Oswaldo Mendes and Cecil Koortz (Subaru), De Wet du Plessis / Willem Hugo (BMW E36), Wilro Dippenaar/Carolyn Swan (Ford Fiesta). S2 class: Jan Everson/Fanie Botes (VW Polo). S1 class: Gino Meyer/Riaan Hennop (Toyota Corolla) and Steven Marnewick/Jodine van Zyl (BMW). CR1 class: Joao Coimbra/ Hugo Arangies (Ford Courier), Rolf Pretorius/ Katja Pretorius (Sandmaster) and Wido Bartch/ Raymond Fourie (Ford Courier).
The service teams struggled through the night to repair the vehicles and on Saturday morning, nine cars in the Rally class at the starting line were ready for action, while eight teams reported for the CR1 class.
Allan Martin/Maretha Olivier (S4) dominated the scene again and finished the eight stages in a time of 54:39 with Oswaldo Mendes and Cecil Koortz (S4) second in a time of 1:02:27 followed by Zachary Martin/ Mandi Hugo (first S3 class) in 1:03:09.
Jan Everson/Fanie Botes is the only finisher of the S2 teams (VW Polo, fourth overall in 1:04:24) followed by Pieter Greeff /JP Robinson (S1 class first and fifth overall) in 1:09:16 and Paul Oosthuizen/Johan du Plessis (S1 second and overall, sixth) in 1:11:46.
The CR1 class’ results: 1 Morné Oosthuizen/ Etienne van der Heever (1:01:48), 2 Bertie Smit/ Dewald Venter (1:12:16), 3 Jacques Kruger/Roche Louw (1:12:22) , 4 Gert Liebenberg/Johan Thiart (V8 Tata-bakkie, 1:12:35), 5 Ewald Bisschoff/ Hein Bisschoff (Nissan NP300, 1:14:27).
The teams that did not finished the rally on Saturday: S4 class: Wilro Dippenaar/Carolyn Swan, S1 class: Steven Marnewick/Jodine van Zyl, CR1 class: Joao Coimbra /Hugo Arangies, Wener Bartsch / Kobus Mulder and Rolf Pretorius / Katja Pretorius.
Because Covid-19 sport in Namibia came to a standstill, Windhoek Motor Club was forced to cancel the iconic Tara rally that had to take place this month.
Walvis Bay Motor Club thanked Shell V-Power, Vivo Energy Namibia, Ocean View Shell, Sky-way, J&P Hydraulics, Seal Consulting Engineers, Swakopmund Go Karts, Hardap Freight Services as well as Malan’s Meat Market and Safeware for their excellent support and sponsors who contribute generously to rallies through-out to host events successfully.
“The driving force behind everything is the members of Walvis Bay Motor Club who do not shy away from sacrificing their time for arranging rallies.
Special thanks to people like Oswaldo Mendes, Allan Martin and Tinus Malan for the arrangements, route planning and route notes and all the hours of time they put into making the two events possible and Geraldine Naude, our top-class route clerk, and André Everts, our club representative at the NMSF (Namibian Motorsports Federation), for their help and input”.