Day 2 and Final Results of the Garden Route Rally…
Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (S2000 Sasol Ford Fiesta) completed a dominant performance in the inaugural two-day Garden Route Rally, which ended in Knysna this afternoon, winning four of the nine special stages to take their third consecutive victory in the South African Rally Championship. In the process they also moved to the top of the points standings with two rounds remaining.
Their overall time for the 168-km of gravel special stages in the George and Knysna forest areas was 2 hr 16 min 29,8 sec. Second, 1 min 31,1 sec in arrears, was the S2000 factory Castrol Team Toyota Auris of Johnny Gemmell and Scottish co-driver Drew Sturrock.
Defending champions Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson were fourth and first of the four S2000 factory BP Volkswagen Polos, 3 min 17,9 sec behind the winners. Red Bull athlete and 2009 Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers, competing in his first season of South African rallying, scored his best result of the season so far when he and co-driver Ralph Pitchford finished a creditable fifth, three minutes behind Kuun and Hodgson.
Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach and French co-driver Nicolas Klinger (S2000 Green Fuel Ford Fiesta) lost their championship lead after a subdued performance which saw them finish sixth, 4 min 6 sec behind Cronje’s Ford. “I wasn’t confident behind the wheel all weekend,” said Rautenbach. “We’re not quite sure what the problem is, but the car just hasn’t felt right for the last two events.”
Making up the top 10 places were the S2000 cars of Jon Williams/Cobus Vrey (Sasol Ford Fiesta) in seventh, Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Carolyn Swan (Team Total Toyota Auris), Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin (Team Total Toyota Auris) and Nicolas Ryan/Armand du Toit (GrandMark International VW Polo).
In a tough event run in varying weather conditions – Friday was rainy with very slippery roads, while the sun shone on Saturday and conditions were a lot firmer – a tight and challenging route with mostly forest stages reduced the original 32 entries to 17 at the finish.
Significant retirements in the four-wheel drive top class were the BP VW Polos of former champions Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries (who went out with a blown engine while lying third after completing Friday’s stage three) and former champions Jan Habig and Robert Paisley (who ripped off a front wheel after hitting a log on Saturday’s stage nine while lying seventh).
Also forced out of the event, on the final stage, were top S2000 contenders Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich (Basil Read/bizhub Ford Fiesta) with overheating problems. They had struggled with rear diff problems throughout the two days and were well down in the placings when they retired with electrical problems.
First car home in the Two Wheel Drive Championship was the S1600 React Ford Fiesta of Ashley Haigh Smith and James Aldridge, who were gifted the win when the Team Total Toyota RunX of championship leaders Craig Trott and Robbie Coetzee retired on the final stage with a broken gearbox. They finished an impressive 11th overall. Second and 12th overall were Tjaart Conradie and Kes Naidoo (Silverton Engineering Toyota Auris), 35,6 sec in arrears and 19,6 sec ahead of third-placed brother and sister combination Christoff and Celeste Snyders (Sabertek VW Polo).
Megan Verlaque and Hilton Auffray (BP VW Polo) emerged victorious in S1400 after a rally-long battle with the similar Q8 Oils car of 17-year-old rising star Henk Lategan and Pierre Jordaan.
The pair traded positions and, in a great show of sportsmanship, Lategan stopped to rescue Verlaque when she got stuck in mud on Friday. A total of four minutes’ penalties for lateness, two on Friday and two on Saturday, was the undoing of Lategan and Jordaan and they eventually finished second in class and 16th overall, 43,6 sec and one place behind Verlaque and Auffray.
The next round of the championship is the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally in the Western Cape on September 23 and 24.
Article: handbrakeshairpins.wordpress.com
Photos: Francois Germishuys