The 49th edition of the Tara Rally will take place tomorrow and on Saturday, kicking off at the Tony Rust Race Track in Windhoek, with stages in and around the capital. The Tara is Namibia’s longest-running international rally event, which originally started back in 1969. 17 teams have entered into this year’s rally that will be held at the Tony Rust race track and on the outskirts of Windhoek. The rally gets underway at 15h00 at the Tony Rust Race Track tomorrow afternoon when the cars will start off the ramp, to be followed by the first two stages at Rocky Crest and Prosperita. From here the competitors return to the Tony Rust Race Track where four stages will be tackled, including two special stages that will see two drivers competing against each other at the same time. The rally continues at 07h00 on Saturday morning with Stage 7 and 8 at Rocky Crest and Prosperita, from where the drivers head to the vicinity of Aris as well as at Harmony and Omeya. The race is set to consist of 17 stages this year instead of the 21 stages last year, with the aim to make it more competitive and interesting for the drivers and fans. Six drivers from the coast will be competing in the 49th Tara rally, and top coastal driver, Alan Martin in his 7th Tara Rally stated that he is looking forward to the toughest rally in Namibia. “There will be tough competition. I prepared my car to the best of my abbilities and hope it will last the whole rally. I have my job cut out to see if i can run with the top guys,” Another driver from the coast, Jan Everson, believes that despite all the car problems he had thougout the year, he and his team are ready for the rally. “This will be our 5th Tara. We are looking forward to the race and going to take it slow. The Tara is always good to us, we always won trophies at the Tara for 1st and second place and we will try that again.” Everson told NBC. This year's Tara rally will be a trial run for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Tara in 2018.