SWARTLAND RALLY – SUBARU TRIPLE PODIUM

Carl Peskin celebrated his birthday “in style” with the Swartland Rally starting at De Werf N7 on Saturday 24 May 2025. Being the birthday of John Wayne some big guns would have been welcomed for a duel in the Swartland and though the heat was limited the accuracy of the temperature on the stages was never in doubt as Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, born 24 May, removed all doubt with his invention of the thermometer.

The event was short in distance (just 60.46km over five gravel special stages) but it certainly enjoyed very good public support with an impressive number of spectators present). The encouraging 16 strong entry suffered from two withdrawals but those present certainly gave their best on the day.

Owen Jones and Aden Bredenkamp drove like defending champions, winning four special stages enroute to overall victory by 53 seconds in their 454 CPMCC WC1 Subaru Impreza WRX 2.0 Turbo 4×4. Clean and committed they had the Scoobie running on rails and never really looked threatened by anyone.

Warren Scholtz and David Stigling showed that they are finding pace and reliability and they were faster than they appeared, netting a stage win enroute to second overall in the 444 CPMCC WC1 Subaru Impreza WRX 2.0 Turbo 4×4. Shaun Jones and Jason Thorpe looked quite serious on stage and potentially had the bit between their teeth but the 424 CPMCC WC1 Subaru Impreza WRX 2.0 Turbo 4×4 struggled without fourth gear and had to settle for third overall.

Rupert van Zyl and Justin Gay felt the itch to go rallying again and fourth overall in their 405 CPMCC WC3 VW Polo 2.0 may just have been the medicine required to keep going for the balance of the year and beyond as the car ran like clockwork.
Trevor Hodges and Ian Thebus simply had to finish, and finish well, in their 421 CCMCC WC3 VW Polo 2.0. Fifth overall good enough to keep the internal family challenge tipped in their favour.

Sixth overall could so easily have been fourth overall had the 445 CCMCC WC3 Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6 20v of Justin Engle and Ryan Pey not decided to be sporting by spluttering to a stop for more than two minutes in a wet special stage three. Jip, rallies always deliver on the topic of “if”, but it not how many times you fall that counts. They will be back.

Brother and sister Juneyed and Reyanah Edas enjoyed a consistent outing in their 466 CCMCC WC3 Toyota Conquest RSi 1600 to finish seventh overall on their home event. The Malmesbury based combination pipping eighth placed Jacques du Plessis and Adriaan van Zyl in their 453 CPMCC WC3 Toyota Conquest RSi 1.8. The latter combination simply pleased to gain experience by finishing the event and though the Conquest sounded rather rough on SS5 the Cres combination will be coming back stronger.

Final classified finishers on the day was Dane Sasman and Logan Hodges in the 481 CCMCC WC3 VW Golf GTi A3 2.0. Danie van Niekerk and Franco Zwanepoel initially withdrew their 490 WPMC WC2 BMW 130 with differential maladies but persisted and eventually completed four stages. Like most new cars do it fell apart, but they are positive about making this car succeed and nobody doubts that it will find reliability to match it’s obvious pace.

Inus du Plessis and Pieter Carinus was back in their 461 CPMCC WC2 BMW E36 3.0 and pacing themselves in third spot when a broken driveshaft ended their rally in SS4. Possibly the only real threat to the Subaru supremacy this combination will welcome the support of Danie in his 130 and the return of Werner Koekemoer later in the season.

Cobus Edas and Carl Peskin was running well in their 464 CCMCC WC3 Toyota Corolla RXi 1.6 20v until they unfortunately slid off the road after the Flying Finish of SS4. Not the way this Malmesbury based team wanted to complete their rally.
The always immaculately prepared 439 WPMC WC3 Ford Escort 1600 Sport of Ceres based husband and wife, Johann and Petra Zulch, added a brief detour to their SS1 effort but then real bad luck struck in the very wet SS3 when a colling fan blade struck the radiator and overheating forcing them to retire from the event.

Another to rarely withdraw team hit bad luck when Julian Calvert and Nicholas Knights were forced to withdraw from the event in SS3 when the 409 CPMCC WC3 VW Golf GTi A3 2.0 broke an inner CV in the tricky wet conditions.

Compliments to the organiser with the event running in time, allowing spectators to enjoy the great sunshine weather in a great atmosphere. Was great to have the farmers getting involved by not only allowing the event to run on their property but actually enjoying the action in person.

Michiel Smuts had the company of Lise Swart, Olivier de Bouver, Wiele (no idea what his real name is) and Karin Bester. And of course Lolla and Bakkies!

In fact a great big thank you to each of the property owners for making “our” sport possible. Behind the scenes there are many, rarely seen or acknowledged, without whom no motorsport event could ever take place – thank you! O Car had Ridwaan Nordien and Yusuf Ganief in command whilst Gareth Vernon and Marius Rudolph were in the Sweep car.
Thank you to De Werf N7 and Liebenberg Primary School Malmesbury as well as The Agents Garage, Coastal Hire, Ramlay Builders, Sully’s Detailing, R Waan Signs and Amagunya Suppliers.

Published by: Patrick Vermaak

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