Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Paul Munyuki
16 November 2006
Harare — ZIMBABWE have pulled out of the Bandama Rally of Cote d'Ivoire in the African Rally Championship owing to financial constraints.
Rally hotshot Conrad Rautenbach has confirmed that he will not be taking part in the final leg of the series that would have seen him grabbing a podium position had he participated.
"Championship contenders Conrad Rautenbach and Riyaz Kurji (Kenya) will not travel to Cote d'Ivoire. This in effect makes Patrick Emontspool the de facto 2006 African Rally Champion," read a statement from ARC.
The rally is set for November 24-26.
"It is very expensive to ship, go and take part in the Cote d'Ivoire rally because that would mean that one would have to take his car to Durban.
"From there they would have to ship the car to Cote d'Ivoire and take the same process when bringing the car back and that requires a lot of money," said Richard Robinson, a senior Zimbabwe Motorsport Federation official.
This could also be the same reason why the West Africans do not take part in the Zimbabwe Dunlop Challenge.
On the current ARC standings, Zimbabwe are dominating top five of the series as they are holding most of the positions in the top five as Rautenbach, Robinson and Jamie White have booked their slots.
This means that Belgian Patrick Emontspool becomes the new African Rally champion and this also confirms him as the third man from outside the continent to win.
Emontspool follows Walter Rohrl of Germany (Opel-1982) and Aldo Riva of Italy (Audi-1992).
Emontspool has 30 points while Rautenbach and his English co-driver David Senior are second together with Robinson and Kurji as they all managed to collect 20 points each.
White completes the third Zimbabwean slot and the top five as he has 17 points.
In the TT Jialing Rally that is part of the Zim-Zam Rally Series held at the weekend, Jess Watson and his co-driver Sasha Watson came out tops.
Watson -- who was co-driven by his wife - pushed his Mitsubushi Evo 4 home in 1 hour 21 minutes and 32 seconds, 4 minutes 50 seconds faster than the second placed duo of Zambians Paul Monge and Ray Thornicroft.
Rammy Singh and his co-driver Gary Ishmail like their Zambian counterparts who were driving a Subaru Impreza completed the top three.
Seventeen teams took to the starting ramp but six of the teams -- all from Zimbabwe -- either faced mechanical problems or rolled out of the race.
Zimbabwean Jammie White was leading by 12 seconds in the third round but his engine turbo burst and was unable to continue with the rally.
Past ARC winners
2005: Muna Singh (Zambia)
2004: Muna Singh (Zambia)
2003: Fernando Rueda (South Africa)
2002: John Gemmel (South Africa)
2001: Schalk Burger (South Africa)
2000: Satwant Singh (Zambia)
1999: Charles Muhangi (Uganda).
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