And whilst the veteran of seven seasons in the top class of local rallying (and the only privateer) is not easily over-awed, there is one very significant change in the offing which makes 2015 unusual: he will start the season with a new voice alongside him, having signed top UK navigator Gordon Noble to read the notes. Noble comes to South African rallying with an impeccable pedigree, having competed extensively in the World Rally Championship, and also has a 100 percent winning record in local rallying: when he was last here in 2006 he won the Zulu Rally when it was a WRC candidate round, co-driving for Alastair McRae.
“We’re hoping that Gordon’s perfect record in local rallying will remain intact,” grinned Van Niekerk. “Having said that, we’re not out there to make up the numbers, we’re there to try and win. We’re in with as good a chance as anyone else in S2000 and the New Africa Developments Fiesta is as fast as any other car. I’ve put in some good testing recently – including as the Zero Car for a portion of Classic Rally South Africa last month – and can’t wait to drive in anger again.”
With Noble’s experience at the highest level there’s a good chance that the two will gel immediately in the car, and the Ulsterman lands on February 22 to give them a few days to acclimatise to each other. Noble will also want to familiarise himself with the cockpit of the S2000 Fiesta, and start to feel at home with the hardware on which both he and Van Niekerk will depend this year.
“This is an exciting new chapter in my career and I can’t wait to join up with Japie and get a couple of practice stages behind us,” said the traffic engineer from Omagh, Northern Ireland. “The language spoken between driver and co-driver is an international one, but there is obviously quite a lot of fine-tuning that we want to do so that we can go all-out from the opening stage.”
The first day of the event comprises six stages and 71 kilometres of driving, with the meat of the event on the second day: 107 km of racing split amongst a further five stages, most of which take place in the well-used cane fields of the province’s South coast.
Come the start, the Fiesta will be resplendent in a striking new colour scheme, and the crew in new fireproof kit, for a thoroughly professional look which is indicative of the approach taken by NAD Rally.
