Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson (S2000 BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo) drove to a comfortable 23.7 second win on the Osram Rally, breaking the deadlock at the head of the 2010 Sasol South African Rally Championship leader board.
Kuun fended off a strong challenge from his BP VW team mate Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries, while the Castrol Toyota challenge for rally honours was in tatters as early as the first stage. Three championships were decided in the unusually warm Barkly East region of the Eastern Cape which saw 25 of the original 30 starters complete the compact, 164km event.
Stage honours were evenly spread with Kuun and Fekken taking the fastest time on two stages apiece, while the Toyota pairings of championship contenders Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock and teammates Mark Cronjé/Robert Paisley were quickest on one stage each, as was Zimbabweans Conrad Rautenbach/Peter Marsh (S2000 Ford Fiesta).
Kuun was wide awake as the cars entered the first 30km long stage, scorching through the challenging stage 1.6 seconds faster than Fekken/Arries, while Rautenbach/Marsh and the third BP Polo of Jan Habig and stand-in co-driver Douglas Judd were embroiled in their own fight for 3rd and 4th, finishing the stage a tenth of a second apart.
Gemmell’s Castrol Toyota Auris picked up a puncture in stage 1 with 12km to go and dropped 30 seconds, leaving them 10th overall, while Mark Cronjé broke a wheel in the opening few kilometers of the first stage, forcing them to stop and change the wheel, which cost 4 minutes and left them 25th overall.
Fekken and Arries, the current rally champions, fought back in stage 2, snatching the rally lead by 2.6 seconds while Habig made it a VW 1-2-3 after beating Rautenbach, these four top runners holding station through stage 3.
The leader board saw its third leader in four stages when Kuun blitzed the field in stage four, opening up a 5.6 second lead. Fekken made a wrong tyre choice for the longest stage, Wartrail, and dropped an unrecoverable 24 seconds, leaving Kuun with a comfortable 19 second lead, which he steadily increased over the remaining two stages.
After three consecutive non-finishes, Fekken settled for 2nd, comfortably ahead of the Rautenbach/Habig battle, which Rautenbach took control of in stage 5 and held to the end after Habig gave up the struggle to keep the back end of his VW Polo under his direct control.
In the Toyota camp, Hein Lategan/Johan vd Merwe (S2000 Pirtek Toyota Auris) and Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman in an identical Pirtek Auris, kept the Japanese marque’s chances alive with strong performances from both. The fast-recovering Gemmell was up into 6th by stage three and 5th overall in the following stage, where the title challenger remained after suffering another mysterious misfire, leaving Kuun with a nine point championship lead with another 50 to play for over the remaining two rounds. Cronjé and Paisley got up to 10th overall but slipped back to 11th, ending a miserable weekend for the second Castrol Toyota pair.
Lategan and Du Plessis kept it clean to end 6th and 7th respectively, while Team Total’s Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Carolyn Swan brought their S20000 Toyota RunX home 8th overall after also suffering a misfire under the bonnet.
Theuns Joubert/Carl Peskin (S2000 Salom Group Volkswagen Polo) had a steady run to 9th overall, while Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin, in a second Team Total Toyota RunX S2000, brought up the rear of the top 10. The Tzaneen businessman had a puncture in stage 2, costing half a minute.
Evan Hutchison and Elvéne Coetzee (S2000 Motorite VW Polo) ended a disappointed 12th overall after picking up a flat tyre 10km into the 31km long third stage. The tyre flailed about and as a consequence, caused the power steering to fail in the next stage.
Nicholas Ryan and new co-driver Armand du Toit (S2000 Jonnesway Volkswagen Polo) ended a frustrated 17th overall after bending the Polo’s suspension on a rock in stage 3; the damage was carried into stage 4 as there was no service between the stages. Ryan lost 4 minutes in stage 4 alone.
Japie van Niekerk/Robin Houghton (S2000 New Africa Developments/Ctrack Toyota Auris) rolled in stage two, the car landing on its wheels. After losing 90 seconds trying to three-point turn on the narrow road, the Auris’s electrics failed 400 metres from the start of stage 3.
Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich retired their S2000 Basil Read/Bizhub Ford Fiesta at the end of the first stage with a broken gearbox.
The worst incident befell Namibian Jaco van Dyk and co-driver Des de Fortier, who rolled heavily in stage 2. The stage was stopped for an hour as the crew was extracted, with Van Dyk airlifted to hospital as a precaution. The crew escaped with minor bruises, more than can be said for their S2000 VW Polo.
Leeroy Poulter and Henry Dearlove clinched the Class A6 championship in their Imperial Toyota RunX, ending the Osram Rally as the top two-wheel car for the third time, beating the more powerful A7 cars in what is a power rally. Poulter completed the first two stages without rear brakes, causing the crew a few hairy moments along the way.
Their major A6 championship challengers, Tjaart Conradie/Rikus Fourie (Silverton Engineering/Hencom Toyota Auris) rolled out of the event in the first stage.
Gugu Zulu/Cindi Harding won class A7 in their BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo after being awarded the fastest class time when the rally was stopped for the van Dyk incident. The fastest class time belonged to an unusually slow Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (Automark Toyota RunX), who drove a ‘rusty’ rally to 3rd in class at the end of the day.
Between them, Gavin Cronjé/Van Aardt Schoeman brought their Seasons in Africa VW Polo home 2nd in class after a rally of delays following the accident scene.
Joos and Danie Stassen (N4 Top Gear Subaru Impreza STI) brought their car home to their third class win in as many rallies, and clinched the class title.
Megan/Oliver Verlaque (N3 Toyota RunX) took their second class win on the trot after a solid drive in trying conditions, with Stefanie/Willem Hugo (N3 Wiel Tydskrif Toyota RunX) making it a 1-2 for the fairer sex. Robson Maganezi/Shaun Visser (N3 Linking Africa Ford Fiesta ST) ended third in class, while Abduraghman Amlay/Yusuf Ganief were forced to retire their RunX.
Ashley Haigh Smith became the youngest ever class champion in SA Rally history, wrapping up the class A5 title with co-driver Hilton Auffrey. With their main rival Andre Cleenwerck non-starting, they had to win the class in their React Toyota Yaris to take the big trophy home, and set about the task at hand with gusto.
Morné Janse van Rensburg/Derek Jacobs (GC Diesel/BP Volkswagen Citi Golf) lost 3 minutes in stage 1 with a puncture, ending their challenge before it began They also had to stop to secure a loose fire extinguisher, losing more time in the process.
The penultimate round of the Sasol South African Rally Championship is the Swartland Rally in the Western Cape on 17 and 18 September.
– Credit: Sasol Racing.
