JAPIE van Niekerk made history on Saturday when he became the first driver to win the Tara Rally three times.
The South African rider had previously won the title in 2013 and 2014 and on Saturday won it for a third time with his navigator Robin Houghton in their Ford Fiesta.
Van Niekerk was however pushed all the way by Namibia’s Wilro Dippenaar and his navigator Riaan van der Westhuizen, who finished a mere 28 seconds behind in second place in their Toyota RunX.
Van Niekerk completed the 21-stage race in a combined time of 2 hours 5 minutes and 7 seconds, with Dippenaar second in 2:05:33.
Jaco Redelinghuys and Cecil Koorts finished more than 10 minutes behind in third place in 2:16:10, while Allan Martin and Melvin Gous came fourth in 2:21:47, and Willem Hugo and Mandi Hugo fifth in 2:26:15.
There was drama before the race even started after Dippenaar obtained a court interdict allowing him to race.
He had earlier been banned for seven races by the Namibia Motorsport Federation after misconduct at the Tsumeb rally in October.
Dippenaar appealed the outcome but after that was dismissed, he obtained a court interdict which allowed him to participate at the last minute.
Dippenaar, who won the rally in 2011 as an 18-year-old school boy, gave a great account of himself and was involved in a titanic battle with Van Niekerk from the start.
Van Niekerk took a two second lead after the first stage but nothing much separated them and by the fifth stage, Dippenaar had taken the lead.
The lead continued to change hands and by the end of the 12th stage on Friday evening, Dippenaar was in the lead by a mere second.
Van Niekerk however regained the lead on Saturday morning but not much separated the top two drivers and by the time they finished the last stage at the Tony Rust Race Track on Saturday afternoon, the result was still in the balance.
After the results were calculated and verified, Van Niekerk was finally adjudged the winner, much to his delight.
“I’m ecstatic. To win it three times, it’s the first time it’s ever been done, it’s a new record and I’m very proud that the record is behind my name. It’s been hard, we had problems, but we overcame them all and today we can finally claim the victory and I’m really happy, for my team and all involved – we worked so hard and planned so well for this rally and it all worked out,” he said after the rally.
“The record stood for 48 years and to up it by a notch is really something special. I’d just like to thank my team and all the support we had from the people in Namibia as well, I feel very special about it,” he added.
The rally meant so much to Van Niekerk that he travelled to Namibia on his own cost to participate, while he hadn’t competed for a whole year.
“I haven’t rallied for a year – the last rally I did was the Tara Rally last year, so for me it was almost impossible to be on the pace from the start. So we had to get into the rally again, to find our feet and our focus, but when I woke up this morning everything felt good,” he said.
The tally was once again tough, with only 13 of the 20 starters managing to complete the rally.
Dick Cornellisen and Jaco Wiese already withdrew on the second stage, while, some of the other withdrawals included last year’s winners Richard Slamet and Wietz Coetzee. The complete results are attached.
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