Champions ready to defend their title in 2009 rally season

The BP Volkswagen rally team enters the 2009 national rally season as the defending champions thanks to their spectacular successes last year. While their performance in 2008 will be a hard act to follow, no other team is more qualified to do so than the BP Volkswagen crew.

The pressure will be on the team right from the start considering their 1, 2, 3 national rally championship victory last season. With such an historic victory to their name, the BP Volkswagen team now mount a challenge to repeat this performance in 2009.

Round one of the Sasol SA National Rally Championships takes place in Kwa-Zulu Natal on Friday and Saturday (13 and 14 March). Here three BP Volkswagen S2000 Polo rally cars, piloted by Hergen Fekken, Jan Habig and Enzo Kuun will take to the stages in search of their first points for this season.

Aiding in this search are their experienced navigators, and trusted right-hand men, Pierre Arries, Douglas Judd and Guy Hodgson. Between these three teams each driver and navigator pairing has amassed a great deal of experience and more than a few championships over the years.

The latest championship winners are Fekken and Arries who claimed the S2000 title last season. The duo now steps up to show their skills in defense of this title.

The Tour Natal is the first opportunity for the pair to compete as defending champions and there are 165.5 km divided into 15 stages waiting for them and the rest of the BP Volkswagen team.

Habig and Judd were the runners-up in 2008, relinquishing their title to Fekken and Arries last year. This will certainly create an interesting dynamic as Habig and Judd, the local favourites in KZN, will not be taking a back seat on their home turf.

Throw into this mix the fact that Kuun and Hodgson are always in the thick of the action and the BP Volkswagen team are certain to be the focus of the first national rally event this season. The team have won every S2000 championship since the inception of the class, the question this year is “Which driver/navigator pairing wants to win it the most in 2009?”

While the focus of the team’s efforts remain firmly fixed on the premier S2000 class, there is more to the BP Volkswagen team’s efforts than just this top-flight competition. In class A5 there are two BP Volkswagen Citi Golf entries piloted by Andre Cleenwerck and Gugu Zulu.

Each of these drivers is assisted in their rallying efforts by their able navigators, Des de Fortier and Carl Peskin. De Fortier is the navigating force for Cleenwerck while Peskin focuses the efforts of Zulu out on the stages.

The pairing of Cleenwerck and De Fortier ensured the teamed claimed the A5 championship in the 2008 season. Zulu and Peskin performed this same feat in 2007 and it will certainly be interesting this year as both of these class champions set their sights on claiming the same title in 2009.

Rallying in KZN offers a unique set of challenges to the teams and this year will be no different. High humidity levels and the limited visibility offered by rallying through the cane fields makes this event unique amongst rallies in South Africa.

For the BP Volkswagen team the first event of 2009 serves as a challenge to be overcome and the opportunity to score their first points in another action-packed season of national rally competition.

Photographs courtesy of www.motorpics.co.za