Conrad Rautenbach

Conrad Rautenbach
Conrad Rautenbach
Born	Conrad Rautenbach
Occupation	Rally Driver
Known for	He won the African Rally Championship twice, in 2007 and 2011
Parent(s)	Billy Rautenbach (father);

Conrad Rautenbach is a rally driver from Zimbabwe who competed in the World Rally Championship for the Citroën Junior Team along with his co-driver Daniel Barritt. He won the African Rally Championship twice, in 2007 and 2011.

Background

Conrad was born on 12 November 1984 and his father is a well known businessman in Zimbabwe, Billy Rautenbach. His father is also a former rally driver.

Career

He drove for the privately run PH Sport team with Urmo Aava in a Citroën C4 WRC for the 2008 season, where he achieved points finishes on two occasions, an 8th at Rally Turkey and a best result of 4th at the Rally Argentina. However, he also had some bizarre moments in 2008, not least of which the now infamous collision with Sébastien Loeb at Jordan Rally where both cars managed to collide head-on forcing both to retire instantly.

Rautenbach at the 2009 Rally Finland. For 2009 Rautenbach joined the Citroën Junior Team where he continued to campaign in a Citroën C4 WRC. On Rally Ireland, the first event of the season, Rautenbach had a promising first day, setting stage times consistently in the top eight, and ended the day in fifth place. However an off early on day two saw him slip down the standings, eventually finishing 18th on the rally. 2009 continued to be an inconsistent season for Rautenbach, with retirements in Rally Norway, Rally Portugal and Rally Argentina, however, he did achieve points finishes at the Cyprus Rally and the Acropolis Rally, finishing 6th and 5th respectively. He did not get a seat for next season and has not competed in WRC since. Due to a lack of funding in 2010, Rautenbach only competed in the South African National Rally Championship with a Ford Fiesta S2000. He returned to the African championship in 2011, winning it for the second time.

Rautenbach has been in top form this year and finished second behind the three-time Dakar Rally champion Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar in the SSV category at the Merzouga Rally in Morocco last year. The two-time African Rally champion said although he was expecting a tough race in his second Dakar Rally appearance, he was nonetheless aiming for what would be a historic win. Rautenbach, who has over 50 WRC rallies under the belt as part of the PH Sport-run Citroën Junior Team, is hoping to tap from the experience he gained from both from his WRC experience and his previous appearance in the Dakar Rally.^[1]