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Collin Matiza

Sports Editor

FORMER Dakar Rally rookie winner and Top-10 finisher, Conrad Rautenbach, yesterday returned to the South African motor racing scene.

He took part in the opening day of the two-day South African Cross Country Auto Round 1 at Dullstroom in Mpumalanga.

Rautenbach was racing alongside Riaan Greyling in the Penta and Motul-branded Red-Lined VK56.

And, speaking to The Saturday Herald yesterday, just before the start of day one of racing, Rautenbach said he was very excited to be back racing in South Africa.

“We have had some quality testing, and development, over the past few weeks and I took my time to settle in at Barberspan.

“I’m really looking forward to racing this awesome car against a world-class field in South Africa this year!

“It’s the first race of the South African national off-road championship and we are in Dullstroom.

‘’It’s like a trout fishing area, very similar to Nyanga (in Zimbabwe), and it’s very beautiful but this weekend is all about racing.

“We are excited to start the season. I’m with the new team this year Red-Lined. They’ve done Dakar (Rally) a few times and they are running four cars and I’m excited to start the championship with them.

“There’s a big competition, there’s 25 of the top category cars so it is really, really good. It’s a big, big field with Toyotas and the Fords and the Century racing.

The competition is very strong, (there’re) a lot of guys and I think there are about five or six Dakar Rally finishers in this race alone so it’s a very strong competition and I’m looking forward to it and see how it goes with the new team.”

Rautenbach, a former African motor rally champion, will compete in all seven rounds, which make up the 2021 SACCS calendar.

The Red-Lined Motorsport Adventures in January partnered with former World Rally Championship driver Rautenbach for the 2021 South African Cross Country Championship.

A veteran of 56 World Rally Championship rallies, Rautenbach made his Junior World Rally Championship debut at the 2004 Monte Carlo and was a regular JWRC podium finisher over the following seasons.

He also won the 2007 FIA African Rally Championship, before stepping up for two seasons of top-class WRC, where he racked up several top-10 finishes in 2008 and 2009.

Rautenbach then won the 2010 South African Rally Championship and added a second African title in 2011.

He later drove with Toyota in the South African Cross Country series, winning the 2016 Gold 400.

Rautenbach delivered one of the best Dakar debut performances in recent years with ninth overall and won the Rookie of the Year award in 2017.

He returned to Dakar in 2020 and came home fourth in the prototype PH Zephyr Light Car.

Now Rautenbach returns to the wheel of a Red-Lined VK56 for the opening round of the South African Cross Country Series while also working on the development of the all-new Red-Lined Revo, which he will step up to in anger, once the team is satisfied with his race readiness later in the season.

Red-Lined Motorsport Adventures competes with premium strategic partners, the Penta Motor Group, BFGoodrich, Motul, Dragon Energy, Jonnesway Tools, Expand a Sign and Wheel Collision.

2021 SACCS calendar

26-27 March – Dullstroom 400 Dullstroom, Mpumalanga

21-22 May – Sugarbelt 400 Eston, KwaZulu-Natal

18-20 June – Toyota 1000 Desert Race Upington, Northern Cape

13 August – Vryburg 400    Vryburg, North West

14 August – Vryburg 400    Vryburg, North West

1-2 October – Nampo 400    Bothaville, Free State

13 November – Parys 400    Parys, Free Stat