The 2012 Total Rally, taking place on 23 and 24 March, promises to be one of the most exciting stagings of its impressive 54-year history as contesting teams compete against each other over a distance of 753km on KZN’s central and south coast.
Renamed the Total Rally from the Total Tour Natal Rally, this year’s event will comprise 16 technical stages, including 203km of racing stages and 549km of open sections. There will also be two Super Special stages, which could be a world rallying first.
This year’s route will include central Durban, around Kings Park as well as the area around the Moses Mabhida Stadium, Suncoast Casino, and sugar cane territory on the south coast near Scottburgh.
Super Special stages will see two cars competing against each other and will take place in the heart of Durban on Friday, 23 March at around 7.15PM and on Saturday, March 24 at around 5pm. 15 000 to 20 000 spectators are expected to watch these stages. Motorcycle stunts by Brian Capper, sky-divers, fire-eaters, live music and food stalls will create a festival atmosphere for spectators.
“As far as we know, these super special stages are a world first, pitting cars against each other on a course that runs in the same direction,” said Richard Vaughan, spokesman for the Natal Motorcycle and Car Club, which is arranging the rally.
“We’re expecting around 42 cars to take part in this year’s rally, which will have two classes of vehicles competing, S1 600 and S2 000.”
Commenting on Total South Africa’s sponsorship of this year’s rally, which is the first event in the official South African rallying season, Nadia Vosloo, the company’s Brand and Communications Manager, said:
“We wanted to add super stages on tarmac to the rally to enable more spectators to enjoy the spectacle and, to do that, we needed space. The Suncoast Casino and the area around the Moses Mabhida Stadium provided just that and we are looking forward to a fantastic, crowd-pleasing event with three times as many stands as last year.”
“Special thanks must go to the eThekweni Municipality for enabling this motorsport spectacle to be partly staged in central Durban. It will definitely be a major attraction for the city’s residents and visitors,” said Vosloo.
Heading this year’s Team Total challenge at the Total Rally will be the driver and navigator partnership of JP Damseaux and Grant Martin and the duo of Mohammed Moosa and André Vermeulen.
Total South Africa is one of the country’s leading motorsport sponsors and has been involved in sponsoring local rallies since 1957. Apart from the Total Rally, it also sponsors the well-known Total Economy Run (which this year will take place from July 26-29) and the Blind Navigator Series.