Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Tara rally can be described as the mother of all rallies since it is the oldest and definitely the toughest rally on the Namibian motor sport calendar.
Little did Dennis Kent know that when he drew up the very first Tara, as far back as 1969, it would still be relevant 54 years later and dominate rally drivers’ itinerary.
The Tara rally has its own vocabulary and terms like the “you conquer the Tara” or the cat – referring to Kent’s cat Tara from which the rally derived its name.
The dream of any rally driver is to conquer the Tara three times in a row, but no rally team has ever achieved that, hence the term “the cat bites.”
The only time a team won the Tara twice in a row was back in 1972 and 73 when Louis Cloete and his navigator Willem van Heerden won in a Ford Escort and an Opel Manta the next year.
The first Namibian team to win the Tara two times in a row was Gerhard Truter in an Audi Quattro during the 2003 and 2004 editions, with Tobie Barlow and Michael van Zyl as navigators respectively.
The only team ever to win the Tara more than three times was Japie van Niekerk from South Africa in a Ford Fiesta S2000 – a factory built rally car – in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
This year will see the 52nd WMC Tara Rally, supported by Quartz Oil. The first car to leave for the 20-stage rally will start at 09h00 this morning from the Tony Rust race track, west of Windhoek. The action will proceed to Okapuka, where the the second stage, and the eighth later the same day, awaits them.
Stage three and four will take place at Khan River and Wilhelmstal. The longest part of the race, namely the Okazize stage seven, stretches just over 43 kilometres next to the railway tracks between Okahandja and Okazize.
Thereafter, the competitors return to Windhoek where rally enthusiasts will be entertained with high world-class rally around the rugby stadium and Eros Airport before closing the day off at the Tony Rust race tracks.
The super special stages will see two rally cars battle it out on the tracks.
Day two is much shorter and will again include the Eros Airport stage at around 09h00. Most of the stages will take place at Aris and the surroundings.
After the four stages, the drivers head back to Tony Rust for the last and final stage.
Veteran driver Rolf Pretorius, whose first Tara Rally was way back in 1978, has solid advice for newcomers. “Just try to get to the end and finish the Tara,” he said.
Pretorius will take part in class S2 in a VW Polo. His navigator is Katja Pretorius.
His rookie son Kai Pretorius and navigator Dian van der Merwe, who entered their Toyota MR2, race in the Class S2 and “are nervous but determined to finish the course”.
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