VW – ZS2DH

What used to be called the VW Rally, is now the Bay West Mall National Rally – still organised by the smart folk at the Algoa Motorsport Club.

I have done radio marshalling at the rally for a number of years now and there are posts you can read about all the trips, some mobile and some stationary. This year it took place on teh weekend of 19-20 July.

I am always impressed with the motor vehicles. A number of “classic” cars and some friendly drivers/navigators – people you might not expect were capable of the speeds and terrain this event requires.

This year I got to “ride with the boss”. I was with the Clerk of the Course. Unfortunately, though, in what I regard as a rather gutsy call, the rally was abandoned on day 2. A lot of rain and worse weather on the way, I believe it was the correct choice. Calling off a rally where many have invested a lot of time and effort – and money – is never going to be a popular choice, but it was done.

This year teams came from Zambia, Nigeria, and of course South Africa.

Below are some photos – including the display in the mall, some of the vehicles at the start of the first stage, and a video clip of a car pulling away at stage one.

Possibly the last VW rally as we know it, but an event well worth the effort. A firm favourite with the Eastern Cape Hamnet team and the members of the PEARS.

Months of planning go into these events and as Tony Allen ZR2TX (EC Hamnet deputy director) will attest, the radio communications take a lot of planning too. Tony gets involved early in the process and plans the deployment based on the stage routes, potential dangers, mobile support required, and terrain.

In short, use was made of the clubs Lady’s Slipper and Longmore repeaters for general VHF coverage. JOC was for the most part inside the Bay West Mall and using UHF cross-banding to a vehicle in the parking lot. Due to the general coverage of the repeaters very little relaying was required.

The rally this year was Friday 15 and Saturday 16 July and based in and around the Bay West Mall with 12 stages ranging from a few kilometres around Bay West Mall (a crowd pleaser) to a 43Km stage in the Longmore forest.

Mobile stations included Clerk of the Course, Deputy and Assistant Clerk of the Course, the Chief Marshal and his deputy, the equipment logistics coordinator, Car 0, Car 00, Medics, crowd control, sweep, and the PA van. All these functions are vital and constant communications are required throughout the event. These radio operators had to get their rigs installed into the marshal’s vehicle prior to the start of the rally, and retrieve them again after the event.

In addition to the mobile radio operators, PEARS members also manned the start and end point of each stage and even manned mid points on the longer stages. This made for a massive deployment involving some 30 hams and their friends. Most hams covering more than one stage during the weekend.

Tony operated the JOC with Patsy ZS2PTY and as usual kept all the balls in the air. Stage operators were responsible for notifying the JOC of asset movements (such as Medics), car start/end times and any team withdrawals. Emergency traffic was given priority.

Once again the organisers thanked EC Hamnet and PEARS for our continued support over the years – this being our 34^th year!

A special note should be made that Bill Hodges, ZS2ABZ, has provided communications support for all the VW rallies with the exception of last year when he was ill.

As part of our growth and sustainability practice, some of the hams deployed were new hams, having passed the RAE earlier this year.

A point worth mentioning is that the final stage was at the Oval race track and done ona course – racing two at a time. This was the only stage where there was more than one at a time. It made for some dust I can assure you! Below are some pics and a video of some of the dust at the final stage.