A lesson in rallying from Conrad Rautenbach

Written by Evan Rothman

Pictures courtesy of Motorpics

I’ve a confession to make. Before his appearance on the World Rally Championship stages in the J-WRC in 2006 and 2007, I never paid much attention to this Zimbabwean rally driver. Even clinching the FIA African Rally Championship title in 2007 didn’t exactly set the rally world alight (without taking away the credibility of this important Championship), but this young talent surprised me when it was announced he would drive for the new Citroen Junior Team in 2008 and 2009. This driver surprised the rally world with his impressive pace and skill so early in his WRC career. This is Conrad Rautenbach.

With the World Rally Championship set to undergo far-reaching rule changes for 2011 and beyond, he now finds himself taming the mighty M-Sport-built Ford Fiesta S2000 in the South African Rally Championship this year.

Meeting the shy driver in March of this year at the Toyota Dealer Cape Rally in the Western Cape, I was struck by his reserved nature when out of the car. Watching YouTube videos of this Zimbabwean in action in WRC Rally Finland, it is difficult to imagine this calm and relaxed person so aggressive in a rally car at breathtaking speeds on the twists and turns of a stage. Casual and calm is Conrad in jeans and t-shirt, but when he slips into his racing suit and dons his carbon-fibre Stilo helmet, the racer in him is awakened.

This first meeting was also my first glimpse of the M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000, and it immediately bewitched me with its brilliant craftsmanship and design innovation. It also sounded like no other rally car I had ever heard scream through a rally stage, writing this article the thought of it blasting through the open valley to a ninety left gives me goose bumps.

In its white body with blue and black strips a la Mikko Hirvonen’s IRC Monte Carlo Fiesta S2000, Conrad’s Ford was quick. In fact, Conrad blitzed the field in his car’s first competitive outing, and it ushered in a new era for South African rallying. The new kid on the block set the pace and the rest of the field had to up their game to keep with the faster pace. The season, since that second round of eight, has been a ding-dong battle between Conrad and defending Champion Hergen Fekken (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000). As they have been pushing their cars to their limits, both these crews have suffered a string of DNFs as they seek to outgun the other.

Fast forward to the shakedown for the Volkswagen Rally 2010 held at the end of June 2010 in Port Elizabeth. A run of two non-finishes from the Zimbabwean and his fellow countryman co-driver Peter Marsh, Conrad was hungry for another South African Rally Championship victory, aiming to right his Championship title hopes.

“Have you ever been in one of these?” pointed Conrad to his Fiesta S2000 while chatting about the weather, as one does when standing next to a (former) WRC driver. My short two-lettered answer was followed by a big grin. I seized the opportunity I stumbled upon: “If you make another shakedown run this morning, any chance you could take me for a drive?”

A lesson in rallying from Conrad Rautenbach

“Yes, sure. Let’s set things up.”

With that response I was now about to be taken for a test drive in not only arguably the best S2000 machine in the world, but also to be chauffeured by none other than THE Conrad Rautenbach. A driver who wowed rally fans with his Citroen C4 WRC through rallies such as Acropolis, Finland, Wales, Spain and Germany. What a crazy treat!

The shakedown stage for the Volkswagen Rally is a quick blast through a quarry’s grounds, with a long straight to stretch the car’s legs and a number of left-right flicks and zigzags. Having completed a number of morning runs and having adjusted his car’s setup to suit the conditions, Conrad handed me a helmet and told me to jump in. Quicker than you can pronounce the name of the Polish president elect, I was in the car and being buckled up by his helpful mechanic. The intercom was attached to “my” helmet and I was immediately comfortable in “my” seat. (Sorry Peter, you’ll need to be wary of me when you hop out of the car in future as you might find an uninvited and hefty South African bloke sitting in your seat waiting for a drive again.)

Watching this driver complete a few runs while sitting at one of the tight bends and hearing the other Class S2000 drivers and co-drivers assembled sigh and whistle their admiration at his previous stage times that morning, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous at this point. This is, after all, going to be a very fast drive.

Noticing now the sheer genius of the car’s design, which one can only understand once inside the cockpit. This car is worth every single Pound Sterling it retails for, and then some. And, we hadn’t even left the service park yet.

As the stage marshal signalled to us to start the stage, Conrad launches the car down the long straight gravel stretch. Through the gears he flicks the gear lever, with this right foot firmly pressed to the floorboard I hear the car’s engine singing as it hits the rev limiter in top gear. Yes, in top gear in about as quick as it took for you to read that last sentence.

Don’t be too stressed in the car. Let your body be relaxed. Those were Conrad’s words of advice. My response was a very primitive and (now) an embarrassing “Uh huh” is all I mustered.

With the nose seemingly digging into the ground, and then pointing in another direction, we rocket out of what was a first gear left hand corner. I don’t know whether to keep looking at the horizon and out of the windscreen or to watch the master at work with the levers and pedals. I decide to rather gawp at the driver’s hand and footwork as we tear through the scenery while the Ford’s exhaust note provides the most cacophonously addictive soundtrack to our drive in the countryside.

With his experience from the pinnacle of the sport, it is no surprise that Conrad has learnt a few tricks from the Masters of the sport we love. One of the many little differences I’ve spotted between South African rally driver and Conrad is their different cockpit setups. Of course each driver has their car set up differently; it’s akin to lacing up sneakers: there is no set way of doing it, but each has their own comfortable method of wearing sneakers. None are wrong. But, the way Conrad has his cockpit set up is just so right…

A lesson in rallying from Conrad Rautenbach

In this left-hand drive car, his right foot is clearly visible to me from the “my” seat. Interestingly, his foot is pinned to the accelerator in “default” mode at full throttle. In order to lift off the power he has to move his toes (not foot) off the pedal. In a more conventional set up this process is distinctly different: to send the rev to its stopper at max revs, one needs to push down the accelerator pedal. To slack off, a simple lifting of the boot is required. Conrad’s style makes sense and his stages times prove its intuition. This is rallying, proper rallying.

With a total of 27 starts in the Citroen Xsara WRC and C4 WRC in 2008 and 2009 (alongside such names as Sebastien Ogier, Dani Sordo and Sebastien Loeb in similar machinery), Conrad posted impressive results. His highest finish came in 2008 at the WRC Rally Argentina, when he narrowly missed a podium when he finished fourth overall. Another highlight in his first full WRC season was finishing in eighth overall in WRC Rally Turkey.

The twelve rounds of the 2009 WRC fared better with five top ten results bagged. In Greece he came home with fifth, sixth from Cyprus, eighth in Poland and Britain, and ninth in Sardinia. Not too shabby for a lad from Africa, eh?

With those stats on my mind before I climbed into the Fiesta S2000 with the 26-year-old, the only thoughts in my mind during the ride were of his deft inputs on the steering wheel. There were no elbows and arms a-twisting in this cockpit, but just neat, quick and very direct movements; where Conrad pointed the car, it followed without questions. At those hairy speeds, the last thing a driver wants to doubt is his car’s brakes and steering.

Like a knife-blade, this car was cutting through the corners. It looked almost easy from my side of the car, but a quick glance at the electronic dashboard and those thoughts quickly evaporated with my sweat beads now forming on my hands. The only thing quicker than the Fiesta’s acceleration on this dirt road I have experienced: the deceleration of the Fiesta on this dirt road. It is so violent that I could hear my three brain cells rattling about in my pip and trying to force their way out past my eyeballs whenever Conrad stood on the brakes. The thing is, is that he braked only for a few short seconds at a time but the deceleration was unbelievably fierce. The brake pedal is used with as much precision as the accelerator pedal: Conrad seemed to tiptoe the car into the corners with such alacrity with the brake power equalling that of the accelerator pedal. Balance is oftentimes heard when talk turns to rally and race cars, but for the first time I truly understood it when experiencing this black magic being practised next to me in a car.

With a final zigzag attacked with the precision of a brain surgeon, and then a short blast with the right foot pinned to the floor, we come to the end of our shakedown run and trundle into the service park.

My time in the co-driver’s seat came to an end all to quickly. Standing about the service crew, with my jelly-like legs wobbly, Conrad moaned that the car felt as if it had a puncture. He said the front end felt too soft when pressing into the corners, but I never once suspected it judging that from where I was sitting.

Is Conrad forgotten by overseas teams? No. Evidence of this: after our shakedown run, he logs his data with his technicians and is on his phone. With Malcolm, he tells me. That would be Malcolm Wilson, the Boss at M-Sport. The reason for the call was because Conrad tried new shocks M-Sport asked him to test.

Two rounds of the South African Rally Championship 2010 remain. With technically challenging routes to tackle, watch as this Zimbabwean pushes his Ford Fiesta S2000 to its limits once more. It is a sight not to be missed!

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