Never, never, never, never give up!

Super1600 Snyders siblings SASOL Rally review

So after sitting out the Natal event we felt so miserable we reconsidered if we really needed savings, a retirement fund or only 20 years to pay off a bond.

After quickly correcting a momentary glitch in our priorities (have a controlled panic and throw a party!), Christoff rounded up months of prep on the car and we made our way to Sabie for the recce on Wednesday. First we had to get a rental car in Nelspruit because my brother enjoyed his little VW Polo rental at the PE rally so much last year, he promptly went and swapped his Landrover for said VW and this is not the car to take on the SASOL Rally recce with. But in a rental it’s OK. Obviously.

Or not. We got two punctures in two stages. Along with almost every other rally crew present. So we all ended up queuing for a month of Sundays at SupaQuick in Sabie. They LOVE this time of year. Ladies of Sandton take note. You might think you provide enough stimulation for your beloved 4x4 driving through 50 potholes en route to work every day, but every night when you park them in their spotless tiled garages with under floor heating, the SASOL Rally is what they dream of!

On Thursday we could take the actual rally cars out for testing on section of the fabulous Stage 9 (great for spectators and such fun in the car – thank you organisers and York Timbers for creating awesome sauce stages for us!). You might wonder why it’s necessary for teams to do this as most of the professional guys test their cars every single day… it is a well-known fact that any rally car performs perfectly fine until the day before the rally when you slap on the event sponsor decals. Then suddenly all the wheels come off (see what I did there).

So our alternator belt came off on the shakedown stage. We managed to get a new one back on just in time for scrutineering back in Sabiewood (because the kids make us feel like celebs asking for autographs. We secretly love you guys!). And made off for the start of the rally on Friday with a new addition to my navbag: the Mother’s stockings. Just in cases.

We posted a respectable 2^nd in class stage time for stage 1. I use the term respectable loosely as we were up against the fastest, most advanced and expensive R2 ever built in the woooorld. And we no longer drive a lean, mean orange machine. Thanks to new regulations that only make sense to the individuals who creatively, as opposed to scientifically, made said regulations, they “allow” us to continue driving our car but only with an extra 60kg’s penalty! (which of course will increase the closer we get to my wedding date).

Towards the end of stage 1 the alternator belt came off again (what-the-bleep) and once out the stage, we stopped to put the mother’s stocking to the test. Unfortunately there was no service between stage 1 and 2 so we had to make due with stockings, cable ties and the like. Many blisters and cuts (Christoff’s) and precious minutes (I’m the navigator, they’re mine) later, we realized we’re going to have to attempt stage 2 sans alternator belt. For my girlfriends reading this, that meant that the car’s battery wasn’t charging and the car might very well just retire to a corner to roll up and die. 

Which it did. Just as the clock was counting down to start of stage 2. So we pushed our car (not the last time on this event) over the starting line into a safe spot where Christoff’s MacGyver brain continued to make interesting plans to try to fix. Midway through alternator belt changing palava, I’m calculating our “lateness”, eating dust of every single crew passing by and making plans to go sightseeing in the Kruger the next day. But have you met my brother? He doesn’t give up! 31 minutes later, the Sweep comes through and my brother finally concedes that the alternator has seized and there was just no way we were going to get back to the service park. At which point one reconsiders all the considerations that one had to consider to get there in the first place and one wants to bash ones head into a brick wall repeatedly. Gutted.

But stick with me, this story gets better. This year SA got on the WRC bandwagon (so last century) and the rules now state that if you continue with Superrally, you get a five minute penalty for each stage you didn’t complete on the first section, but you can still earn points! Earning points with a 25min penalty seemed utterly ridiculous but have you met my brother? He doesn’t give up. So the team worked to get everything fixed and we entered to continue again on Saturday. There goes my gamedrive.

Saturday kicked off with the world famous in India spaghetti junction stage in Nelspruit. The Snyders family set lightning times and broke all sorts of world records. Off the stage that is. I forgot my fire retardant balaclava and Dad did a new personal best to get it to me in time. We actually set the 2^nd best time in class for that stage. Sweet as. As was the case in Stage 9, which after stage 11, was my favourite stage of the rally. So we went ahead and won it on the repeat, Stage 13. But not before we got a puncture in Stage 12 and caught up with Stef & Ang in the previous stages and the dust was so thick we just had to focus on finishing and NOT dying. They had all sorts of fuel pump problems but man, these chicks deserve some sort of award for trying to get to the finish of this rally! We truly wish you gals a gremlin-free rally on the next event!

In the meantime the bleeping rocking SASOL Rally was taking its toll and crews were falling by the wayside. We were right at the start of the last stage when we realized after all that drama, we were 550m away from a podium position! Followed by the next shocking realization. The. Car. Was. Dead.

So our mighty fine competitors (Clint, Herman, Nick – THANK YOU!) helped me push. Because that’s how we roll in class Super1600! And then the car came to life! We finished 3^rd in class. How awesome is that? So awesome.

Congrats also to Morne & Rikus (1^st) and Megan & Hilton (2^nd). We made Volkswagen history!

Anyway, the point of this post was to inspire you to keep trying. Ol’ Churchill was onto something there. There will always be people with a lot of money and big ego’s that will tell you, you can’t. But don’t listen to them. Work hard. Keep dreaming.

Somewhere along the line someone will notice what you’re doing.

[Insert big sponsor name] are you picking up what I’m putting down here…

A huge thank you to SASOL and York Timbers for making the event possible. It was the first National Rally that we ever won (2011) and finishing it gives such an immense sense of achievement.

To the organisers and especially Henriette and her team for a superbly run rally. Thank you Leon for great notes.

Thanks so much to Sabertek (doht co doht za) for giving all the moola for the entry fees.

Thank you VW Motorsport and BP for fuel and support.

Follow us on Twitter (@Cloxshox) and Facebook (Clox, Shox & Two Smokin’ Sideshafts) for live updates, photos and the inside scoop!

Next Rally is in Gauteng! Plan your sick leave now and be there! Friday 8 and Saturday 9 June 2012. Spectator guides and maps on www.rallyworld.net