After a relatively low-key campaign in 2012, Volkswagen is back with new cars, new drivers and a more youth-orientated focus for the 2012 SA Rally championship.
Since VW took its first S2000 championship title in 2005, there has been a huge shift in the technology used in rally cars, which is reflected in the latest Polo S2000 - but technology and design can only go so far.
The team in the car - driver and navigator - and the team responsible for running the vehicles are vital components for rally success.
The foundation for this team work remains rally stalwarts Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson (who finished fourth in 2011) and Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries (eighth overall last year).
These four veterans have been part of VW's rally squad since before S2000 was invented and have taken four national championships between them, with back-to-back titles for Fekken and Arries in 2008 and 2009.
“We need to fast-track youngsters.”
But, as Volkswagen Motorsport boss Mike Rowe pointed out: “Look at the current average age of the S2000 starting line-up and you will see it's older than the WRC grid.
“We need to fast-track youngsters in the sport to guarantee the future.”
So the third new Polo S2000 in the “works” line-up will be crewed by
Dutch youngsters Hans Weijs Jr and Bjorn Degandt, who will fly out to South Africa for each round of the SA Rally series.
Weijs entered a motorsport talent search in 2004, when he was only 17, and has since become one of Holland's biggest names in rallying - in 2008 he became the first Dutch driver to claim a point in the WRC.
S2000 CHALLENGE
But there's also a new class, the S2000 Challenge, for previous-generation S2000 cars. Rowe explained: “South Africa hasn't focused its attention on nurturing young talent so, from this season, we'll be keeping our old cars in service and using them to develop young crews.”
The first of the proven S2000 Challenge Polo Vivo cars will be campaigned by Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin, who have done well previously in the A7 and S1600 classes, with another two in the hands of private entries.
VW will also field a factory entry - a Polo Vivo that's been upgraded to R2 spec with a sequential gearbox - in the S1600 class,for Megan Verlaque and Hilton Auffray.
Verlaque is now in her second year of the VW Motorsport development programme that sees competitors nurtured for a two-season period before moving on to their own rally careers - which means this is crunch time for Verlaque to prove she has what it takes and pull down a major sponsor for 2013.