Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson claimed the 2010 Sasol South African Rally Championship in spite of parking their BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 in the trees as early as 800 metres in SS3, their second ever accident in 100 rallies as a works driver.
Kuun started the Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally with a 21-point advantage over his only rivals Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock (Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000); Gemmell had to win whatever happened to Kuun, but could do no better than fourth place in a rally dominated by Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich (Basil Read/Bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000).
“I’m very happy. We’ve worked hard all year and taken our risks during the season,” said Kuun. “We had no incidents or punctures all year. I went into a left 7 two gears too fast. The car got airborne and touched down already off the road. It’s been harder than ever to win rallies this season, so this championship means it’s a significant achievement.”
Wilken/Godrich made the event their own, winning six of the 12 stages to open a commanding lead of over a minute by the end of Friday’s all-tarmac surfaced stages in spite of a spin and stall in SS2. It was an easily defendable lead over Saturday’s 78km of seven gravel stages in spite of a hard-charging Conrad Rautenbach/Peter Marsh (Ford Fiesta S2000). Wilken/Godrich won two gravel stages and were in the top three on all the others to storm to their maiden national rally win.
Rautenbach tried hard to close the gap to Wilken by winning four stages, but after two punctures, including one on the very last stage, eventually ended 01min 24,8sec behind Wilken. This team did, however, clinch the inaugural Privateer’s Championship.
The drive of the rally came from Castrol Team Toyota’s Leeroy Poulter/Robert Paisley in their Auris S2000. In the driver’s second-ever rally in a S2000 machine, Poulter – the 2010 Class A6 champion ended third overall to claim his first podium and capping a remarkable debut rally season.
Johnny Gemmell, the Championship runner-up for the second year, and co-driver Scotsman Drew Sturrock, pushed their Castrol Toyota Auris S2000 as hard as they could, but after ending the first day 01min 27sec behind the leader and it was game over as far as the Championship was concerned. This weekend Toyota clinched their 20th Manufacturer’s Championship title.
“The tarmac didn’t go well for us, said Gemmell. “Although we approached the rally in a positive frame of mind, realistically, we knew it was unlikely that we could win the title as Enzo needed only a 17th place finish.”
The outgoing champions Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000) had a subdued rally ending fifth overall.
Hein Lategan/Johan van der Merwe brought their Pirtek/Sasol Toyota Auris S2000 home sixth overall after starting with the second fastest time on the opening test and holding his own over the remaining stages of the day. Traction and gearbox problems left the Auris driver unable to defend their position and dropped down the order as the day wore on.
Japie van Niekerk/Robin Houghton ended the rally in seventh place in their New Africa Developments Toyota Auris S2000.
Jan Habig/Ralph Pitchford brought their BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 home eighth overall after completing two extra laps of the Zwartkops stage on Friday that left them 13th overall on the overnight leaderboard. A hard charge on Saturday saw them move quickly into ninth place and they inherited their final position after the Team Total Toyota RunX S2000 of JP Damseaux/Carolyn Swan retired on the penultimate stage with a blown motor.
Namibian Jaco van Dyk and Des de Fortier brought their S2000 Volkswagen Polo home ninth overall after a hard drive.
Theuns Joubert and Carl Peskin (Salom Group VW Polo) took a cautious approach to the mountain and tarmac stages, ending Friday’s stages 12th overall, some four minutes off the lead. A steady run on the gravel stages saw the Mokopane businessman edge up the order by a minute to end tenth overall.
Nicholas Ryan/Geoff Tyrer (Jonnesway/RCF Volkswagen Polo S2000) came home 11th overall, just one second behind Joubert.
Team Total’s Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin ended 12th overall, losing two places on the final stage after clipping a bank which caused a right rear puncture. He hated the tarmac stages, but returned to his element in the gravel and quickly rose up the order from an overnight 11th to ninth.
Fernando Rueda/Dave Lewkowicz (Team Total Toyota RunX S2000) ended their last rally 13th after a quiet run, savouring the last outing before the flamboyant Capetonian heads into retirement.
Evan Hutchison/Elvene Coetzee brought their Motorite Volkswagen Polo S2000 home 14th after incurring a 5min penalty to change the steering rack on Day One. The Motorite team completed the repair in the last minute of allowable time before being time barred. Without the penalty, the Motorite car would have finished seventh overall.
Visser du Plessis/Cobus Vrey retired their Pirtek/Sasol Toyota Auris S2000 in SS2 with another broken Sadev gearbox.
Heading the two-wheel drive contingent was Gugu Zulu/Cindi Harding (BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo A7). Already the 2010 Class A7 Champions, the pair had a down-on-power engine on Friday but came back strongly on Saturday’s dirt stages to take their third class win of the year.
Rivals Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (A7 Automark Toyota RunX) ended 22nd overall after De Wit suffered motion sickness in SS3 and cruised around the remaining stages after taking lateness to sleep off the effects.
Gavin Cronje/Henry Dearlove ended their season in the first stage when the Easy Life Kitchens Volkswagen Polo A7 stopped with a shock absorber that punched through the turret top, the second such incident in two events.
Craig Trott/Robbie Coetzee (Team Total Toyota RunX A6) claimed the Class A6 win, taking the new-for-2010 1600cc Championship in the process. Trott was shadowed all the way by teenager and 2010 Class A5 champion, Ashley Haigh Smith and co-driver Hilton Auffray (React Toyota Corolla A6). The pair traded fastest class stage times on Saturday, but with Trott’s 3min overnight lead, Trott was never under real pressure.
Morne Janse Van Rensburg/Rikus Fourie brought their Class A5 Volkswagen Polo Vivo home to its second class win in succession. The new junior class challenger from Volkswagen stopped in the first stage for 2min with a stuck throttle and suffered intermittent power steering failure. The pair took a minute off the overnight class leaders Piet Bakkes/Johan Aucamp (Sasol Komatipoort Volkswagen CitiGolf A5) in Saturday’s opening pair of stages and continued to erode their deficit until the penultimate stage when they took the lead with time to spare.
The Class N3 title fight between Megan/Oliver Verlaque (Toyota RunX N3) and the points leaders Robson Maganezi/Shaun Visser (Linking Africa Ford Fiesta ST N3) ended in a tie, with the title going to the Verlaques on a count back of wins. Verlaque ended the opening day with a solid 2min 30sec lead over her rival Stefanie/Willem Hugo (Wiel Toyota RunX N3), who lost 4min after completing two extra laps of SS3.
Verlaque, content to cruise to secure her title, saw the Hugos quickly eat into the deficit and take the class win by 25sec. Maganezi ended third in class and second in the Championship.
The 50th year of South African rallying was the most competitive ever with no less than 17 Class S2000 cars competing and a pool of eight potential winners on each event and saw the closest ever win, Johnny Gemmell’s 0.7sec victory over Jan Habig on the Rally of South Africa; on the same event, Drew Sturrock, Gemmell’s co-driver, became the youngest ever rally winner, while Ashley Haigh-Smith, at 18 years and 8 days, became the youngest ever Class Champion and Megan Verlaque became the first ever female Class Drivers’ Champion.
OVERALL CLASSIFICATION
01) C. Wilken/G. Godrich
Ford Fiesta S2000 – 01h 47m 25.6s
02) C. Rautenbach/P. Marsh
Ford Fiesta S2000 + 01m 24.8s
03) L. Poulter/R. Paisley
Toyota Auris S2000 + 01m 31.1s
04) J. Gemmell/D. Sturrock
Toyota Auris S2000 + 01m 46.2s
05) H. Fekken/P. Arries
Volkswagen Polo S2000 + 02m 32.1s
06) H. Lategan/J. Van der Merwe
Toyota Auris S2000 + 03m 59.2s
07) J. Van Niekerk/R. Houghton
Toyota Auris S2000 + 4m 12.6s
08) J. Habig/R. Pitchford
Volkswagen Polo S2000 + 04m 34.4s
09) J. Van Dyk/D. De Fortier
Volkswagen Polo S2000 + 05m 15.0s
10) T. Joubert/C. Peskin
Volkswagen Polo S2000 + 05m 19.4s
2010 Champions:
Driver’s Champion: Enzo Kuun
Co-Driver’s Champion: Guy Hodgson
Privateer Driver’s Champion: Conrad Rautenbach
Privateer Co-Driver’s Champion: Peter Marsh
1600cc Driver’s Champion: Craig Trott
1600cc Co-Driver’s Champion: Robbie Coetzee
Class S2000 Driver’s Champion: Enzo Kuun
Class S2000 Co-Driver’s Champion: Guy Hodgson
Class A7 Driver’s Champion: Gugu Zulu
Class A7 Co-Driver’s Champion: Cindi Harding
Class A6 Driver’s Champion: Leeroy Poulter
Class A6 Co-Driver’s Champion: Henry Dearlove
Class A5 Driver’s Champion: Ashley Haigh Smith
Class A5 Co-Driver’s Champion: Hilton Auffrey
Class N4 Driver’s Champion: Joos Stassen
Class N4 Co-Driver’s Champion: Danie Stassen
Class N3 Driver’s Champion: Megan Verlaque
Class N3 Co-Driver’s Champion: Oliver Verlaque
Manufacturer’s Champion: Toyota