Of the previous 26 editions of this event, Toyota had notched up 13 victories in Volkswagen’s backyard. Last year’s historic one-two-three podium sweep by the factory BP Volkswagen Polo S2000s seemed to have righted this record. For this year, all eyes were on the young charger Conrad Rautenbach and his M-Sport Ford Fiesta S2000.
This event, with six of the rally’s 11 stages run in the fast yet treacherous Longmore Forest near Port Elizabeth, boasts of the best rally roads in the country. Uphills, fast bends and slippery surfaces played in the favour of Rautenbach, but with years of experience from the chasing Toyota and Volkswagen crews a win here would always be challenging.
Speaking ahead of the rally, Rautenbach was relaxed and calm, but was focused on the task at hand. It didn’t take the driver and his co-driver Peter Marsh long to adjust to these fast conditions. Rautenbach set the fastest stage time through SS1, a blisteringly quick 12,3sec quicker than his rivals over the 19,25km-long gravel stage. The young Zimbabwean’s pace was visibly quicker through the stage as the former Citroen Junior Team driver tackled the Longmore Forest for the first time. His rivals were blowing off the cobwebs from their long break after Round Four of the South African Rally Championship in May, but Rautenbach’s speed proved to be no flash-in-the-pan.
However, things didn’t go according to plan on SS2 for Rautenbach as he ploughed through a fence and lost 10sec getting his Fiesta S2000 back onto the road. Through the remaining four stages of the opening day of the Volkswagen Rally, the Ford Fiesta S2000 driver was more cautious but still fast. A slow time through the final stage of the day at Scribante Raceway saw him lose 20sec to his rivals. This resulted in him finishing the day in sixth place overall and 32,5sec off the leaders.
Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock (Castrol Toyota Auris S200) found themselves with some breathing space at the head of the pack, but had two very quick BP Volkswagen Polo S2000s fast gaining on them. Gemmell attacked through SS2, 3 and 4, yet was only able to eke out 5,3sec over Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000) after Day One’s 80-odd km of rally action. This hard charge proved vital in the closing stages of the rally for this crew.
Hein Lategan, in a Pirtek Toyota Auris S2000, was looking confident in third place throughout Day One but slowly dropped down the leaderboard. Unfortunately, he became stuck in the forest in SS8 and that was the end of the rally for him.
Day One’s three forest stages were repeated on Saturday morning. With the road’s lines swept clean, rally crews pushed harder through the second run. SS7 was won by Rautenbach (who managed to best his Day One time by 8sec) and this moved him into fifth place ahead of Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley (Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000), to be 27,3sec off the leaders Gemmell/Sturrock. The BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 of Jan Habig/Ralph Pitchford, who had steadily climbed the leaderboard on Day One, moved into second place ahead of teammates Kuun/Hodgson.
The defending Drivers’ Champion Hergen Fekken and co-driver Pierre Arries unfortunately stopped in SS1 to retire their BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 in what is their third DNF in as many rallies. Also ruled out on the first stage was the BP Volkswagen Polo A7 of Gugu Zulu/Cindi Harding, as well as the BP Volkswagen CitiGolf of Andre Cleenwerck who suffered a massive crash. Megan and Oliver Verlaque (Toyota RunX N3) retired in SS1 after a fuel line burst.
SS8 proved another scratch time from the young Zimbabwean, beating his Day One time of the same stage by some 45sec! Rautenbach was on a charge, and a podium place was now within his grasp as he closed to only 7,2sec behind the leader. Gemmell was the second quickest through the stage, albeit it 13,9sec adrift. His lead of the Volkswagen Rally looked shaky now, but the Castrol Team Toyota factory driver was still posting mighty impressive stage times in a bid to remain at the front of the field to the finish line.
Gemmell dug deep in SS9 to post the second quickest stage time in the final Longmore Forest stage. Flying through the stage, the driver pinned his right foot to the floor to edge out all the time he could over his rivals. Behind Gemmell, the two BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 crews were both in maximum attack mode to reel in Gemmell, and were in a ding-dong battle for second and third place. Kuun claimed second place overall, demoting multiple South African Rally Champion Jan Habig to third position (and this was the way the final order remained to the finish). With Rautenbach within reach of the winners’ trophy, a puncture cost him over 30sec in this fast stage to effectively rule him out of the podium positions. He now found himself in fourth place and 31,6sec adrift of Gemmell and enjoyed a gap of over 01min 35sec over the Basil Read/bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000 of Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich.
Two stages remained for the competitors, a 9,84km blast around the PE Oval track and then a 1,73km stage at Kings Beach parking lot. All eyes now shifted to Gemmell, as he deftly manoeuvred his Toyota Auris through the flicks of SS10. Rautenbach set the quickest stage time, and should he have not suffered a puncture in SS9 he would have undoubtedly stolen the rally lead…
With a gap of 5,7sec over Kuun/Hodgson, Gegmmell and Sturrock took to the tight and twisty parking lot stage looking to seal their first win on this event. Kuun somehow managed to pull out 4,2sec from Gemmell in this short 1,73km stage to finish just 1,5sec behind the leader, but Gemmell/Sturrock popped the corks on the winners’ champagne after the rally finish.
After a hard-fought rally win, Gemmell and Sturrock celebrated their second win of the season. Gemmell is now equal with Kuun at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings with 86 points and with three rallies remaining on the calendar will have a great opportunity to claim his first South African Rally Championship title. Toyota has now claimed 14 wins on the Volkswagen Rally, a statistic Volkswagen will aim to remedy in 2011.
Class A7 saw no finishers reach the final stage, but Leeroy Poulter/Henry Dearlove (Toyota RunX A6) once again proved quicker than their more powerful 2WD rivals in Class A7. Poulter, who has shone in Class A6 in his debut rally season, won his class by a comfortable 02min 1,1sec over Tjaart Conradie/Riaan Erasmus (Toyota Auris A6).
Ashley Haigh-Smith and Hilton Auffray (Team React Toyota Yaris A5) dominated Class A5 with a brilliant performance on this gruelling event. He beat off rivals Chad Lambert/Herman Groenewald (Toyota Yaris A5) by a whopping 10min 1,8sec.
Class N3 was claimed by Stefanie and Willem Hugo (Toyota RunX N3), after a battle to reach the finish in her new car.
Only 21 of the original 40 starters finished the final stage. The South African Rally Championship next moves to Barkly East next month for the Osram Mountain Trial.
