Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) is off to Nelson Mandela Bay this weekend (25–26 September) for the Algoa National Rally, which runs as two separate rounds. Friday's Round 6 takes place in the fast, mountainous Longmore Forest, while Saturday's Round 7 moves to the softer farmland gravel around Kariega and Despatch. Both count towards the 2026 South African National Rally Championship.
For motoring journalist Mark Jones and navigator Kes Naidoo, it will be their first taste of the well-known Longmore stages, including one run after dark on Friday evening. Rain forecast for the week has already left some roads muddy ahead of the 12-stage, 177-kilometre weekend.
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Jones has been drawing on the experience of TGRSA Team Manager Leeroy Poulter, a two-time Algoa winner. "I've never done a forest and never done Longmore, but I'm looking forward to it because it's so iconic," said Jones. "His advice is to hug everything and stay on the inside of whatever you can – in the forest you do not want to run wide, because it's either a solid piece of wood or a ride down the side of the mountain."
TGRSA will again field its Toyota GR Yaris for Jones and Naidoo in the NRC2 class. The pair head into the weekend sixth in the overall championship on 96 points and third in NRC2, 30 points behind second-placed Ismaeel Davids and 58 adrift of class leader Bruce Swatton, after retiring from both the GR Legends Rally and the Ermelo Rally.
The weather is a concern as well. "The weather app is predicting lots of rain this week, and the roads they've done the recce on are already pretty flooded and muddy," Jones explained. "So we're hoping firstly that the rally doesn't get cancelled, and then, if it does stay on the calendar, that we can get through some of the stages, because it's quite hectic."
"If rally has taught me anything, it's to expect the unexpected," said Jones. "I'm hoping to go to Algoa and learn a whole lot again, and go fast where I can and go slow where I need to."
Colin Windell for Colin-on-Cars in association with
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