The 2010 South African Rally Championship (SARC) comprised eight hard-fought rounds for this the 50th anniversary year. Proving itself as thrilling as any international rally championship, 2010 was a year of high-speed action like no other.
Determination, bravery and a cool head brought Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson (BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo S2000) overall victory this season ahead of Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock (Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000) by the narrowest of margins. End-over-end crashes, helicopter emergency rescues and burning cars combined with the electrifying pace in every Class of the Championship made for an unforgettable year. The overall Championship became a three-horse race between Enzo Kuun, Johnny Gemmell and Conrad Rautenbach (Ford Fiesta S2000), with each of the drivers won an event, traded fastest stage times and were awe-inspiring to witness as they threw caution to the wind to extract an extra tenth of a second from their war machines. It was, however, the consistency of Kuun that netted him his second SARC title crown. This season was the most competitive ever with no less than eight potential winners on each event and saw the closest ever win, Gemmell’s 0.7sec victory over Habig on the Rally of South Africa; on the same event, Drew Sturrock, Gemmell’s co-driver, became the youngest ever overall rally winner, while 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. This is HADNBRAKES & HAIRPINS’ 2010 season in review.
After a nearly five-month-long off-season, KwaZulu-Natal’s sweeping and slippery gravel roads opened the season in dramatic fashion. New crews and cars (including a total of 17 S2000 cars, which is the largest number in a national championship in the world) were debuted at this first round with the action taking up where it left off at the end of 2009: it was the BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo S2000 crews scrapping for the overall victory. This first event was also remembered for its lucky-to-be-alive crashes and fire.
Reigning champions Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries (BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo S2000) started their title defence in the best possible manner with a sure-footed victory in KwaZulu-Natal. They were chased by win-hungry teammates Kuun/Hodgson all-weekend long, giving Volkswagen a one-two podium result. Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley (Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000) finished third as the fastest of the Toyota crews while teammates Gemmell/Sturrock rolled out of the rally on SS4 while hounding the leaders. With no team orders in place in the factory-backed Volkswagen, it was each driver fending for himself.
The biggest surprise amongst the frontrunners was World Rally Championship (WRC) sensation Conrad Rautenbach and co-driver Peter Marsh piloting a Subaru Impreza N2010 in Class N4. In his first foray in three years in a Class N4 car, Rautenbach finished fourth overall to upstage the many faster and lighter S2000 machines and showcased his talent behind the steering wheel.
This event also provided the biggest drama: Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin (Team Total Toyota RunX S2000) rolled and landed upside down in a river just 20m away from Schalk Burger Jr/Armand du Toit (Automark Toyota RunX S2000) who had crashed in the same fashion just two minutes earlier. Fortunately, alert spectators extricated both crews from their cars without any serious injuries. Early on Day Two the new Basil Read/bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000 of Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich caught fire on an open section. The fire proved terminal for their car, rendering it a rather expensive heap of molten steel and ash.
Class A7, which this season seemed to suffer much the same situation as the beleaguered Class N4, only registered a handful of competitors for 2010. In KwaZulu-Natal the first of the two-wheel drive cars home was Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (Automark Toyota RunX A7) to win this ailing Class in dominant fashion, but De Wit was to appear only at selected events.
As competitive as Class S2000 was Class A6. Rookie Leeroy Poulter and experienced co-driver Henry Dearlove (Imperial Toyota RunX A6) dominated the Class in his debut rally season, but at the first event it was Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe (Silverton Engineering/Hencom Autobody Toyota Auris A6) who claimed the Class A6 win over veterans Craig Trott/Robbie Coetzee (Team Total Toyota RunX A6).
Andre Cleenwerck/Kesevan Naidoo (BP Ultimate Volkswagen CitiGolf A5) romped to success in Class A5 after teammate Gugu Zulu crashed out in SS6. Ashley Haigh-Smith/Hilton Auffray (React Toyota Yaris A5) showcased their speed, and signalled to the rest of the service park their intentions of victory in 2010.
From KwaZulu-Natal the rally circus moved to the Western Cape. Known as the “Overberg Grand Prix”, the Toyota Dealer Cape Rally proved highly entertaining thanks to yet another brave showing of driving skill from competitors. Day One saw three drivers lead the rally and four topped the timesheets on Day Two. It was, however, the Zimbabwean crew of Rautenbach/Marsh in their newly acquired M-Sport-developed Ford Fiesta S2000 who claimed victory with the BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo S2000 crews of Kuun/Hodgson and Fekken/Arries only a handful of seconds adrift.
The pace at the head of the rally at the end of Day One was such that the top five crews were separated by only a handful of seconds. Gaining in momentum and confidence were the factory Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000 crews of Gemmell/Sturrock and Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley who found themselves at the front of the rally leader board on Day Two’s morning stages after Jan Habig/Ralph Pitchford (BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo S2000) retired due to mechanical failure. Gemmell, with a lead of 21sec over his teammate, suffered a puncture that cost him 01min 14sec and dropped him to fifth overall. In the very next stage, Cronje’s car’s propshaft popped and lost him 01min 50sec and dropped him to sixth overall.
In penultimate stage of the event, Rautenbach, now in second place behind Kuun, sniffed a win. With his WRC experience he attacked for the lead and set the fastest stage time to take the rally lead by 6.5sec. Kuun responded in the final stage to beat Rautenbach by 2,8sec, but it was only good enough to narrow Rautenbach’s winning margin to 4.6sec.
Gemmell recovered to finish fourth, the unfortunate Hein Lategan/Johan van der Merwe (Pirtek Toyota Auris S2000) claimed fifth after four controls arms, three shocks and two alternators were replaced while Cronje came home in sixth overall.
Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak (privateers in a Toyota RunX A7 and in their debut national outing in this car and class) claimed Class A7 honours on their home turf. Leeroy Poulter/Henry Dearlove (Toyota RunX A6) stole the limelight in only their second rally to win Class A6, while Ashley Haigh-Smith/Hilton Auffray (Team React Toyota Yaris A5) also impressed all to record their first national class win. Megan Verlaque/Oliver Verlaque (Toyota RunX N3) proved too fast for their class rivals to claim the Class N3 win.
Round three of the season played out in the Mpumalanga Lowveld. Event organisers mapped out 16 stages through the fast and daunting forests and gravel roads, with a handful of asphalt super special stages added to the mix. Kuun/Hodgson positioned themselves as Championship title contenders by winning this event, but Gemmell and stand-in co-driver Phil Archenoul and Habig/Pitchford chased for the leader all the way to the end of the final stage.
A head-to-head battle between Fekken/Arries and Rautenbach/Marsh shaped the opening stages of the rally and the morning leg of Day Two. This battle was much anticipated by all spectators and competitors alike and the two crews did not disappoint as they traded fastest stage times and pulled out a handy cushion over the rest of the field. In an attempt to outdrive the other, both crashed in the same stage and were ruled out of the event to prematurely end an enthralling blow-for-blow fight.
Kuun inherited the rally lead with a healthy 30sec advantage over teammate Habig and the two Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000 crews. Gemmell inched closer to Habig and pounced in the afternoon loop of stages to claim second place overall. The second of the factory Toyota Auris S2000 of Cronje/Paisley claimed fourth overall.
Joos and Danie Stassen finished the event in an impressive tenth overall in their Subaru Impreza WRX STi N4 to also win Class N4. Poulter/Dearlove dominated Class A6 and even outpaced Class A7 teams, and Michael Otto/Tommy du Toit (Toyota Corolla A7) won Class A7 despite finishing behind Poulter/Dearlove in the muddy and wet conditions. Chad Lambert/Nic Prinsloo (Toyota Yaris A5) won Class A5 after a closely fought battle with Haigh-Smith (Toyota Yaris A5). Abduraghman Amlay/Garth Ritsch (Toyota RunX N3) won Class N3 after the Verlaques’ Toyota RunX quit in SS14.
It was only 0.7sec that stood between Gemmell/Sturrock and Habig/Pitchford (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000) after 13 stages and 187km of hard, bruising forest gravel racing that made up the Rally of South Africa. The highlight of this rally, the monstrous Jessievale Stage (56km long) claimed a number of top contenders early in the rally (including Kuun/Hodgson, Fekken/Arries and Rautenbach/Marsh), making the leader board rather scant. However, Gemmell’s first win of the season was anything but straight-forward for he saw a comfortable lead whittled away by some bizarre incidents on Day Two. The most bizarre of these happened in SS8 when a seat-anchoring bolt sheared off after hitting a jump very hard. Gemmell lost consciousness for a brief moment and has no recollection of how the car stayed on the road nor cleared the stage. Sturrock said: “It was so close to going off into the trees; I didn’t know what had happened to Johnny – very scary moment, that.”
Habig steered clear of any further disaster to finish the event second overall and J-P. Damseaux/Carolyn Swan (Team Total Toyota RunX S2000) ended in third.
Rautenbach/Marsh stamped their presence on this event despite having retired on Day One and restarting on Day Two under SupeRally rules: of Day Two’s nine stages, Rautenbach set the fastest time on five of them. Cronje/Paisely retired early on Day Two, ending Toyota’s 1-2-3 hold on the rally. This also meant none of the top four on the Sasol South African Rally Championship log took any points away from the weekend.
Poulter/Dearlove once again put in the drive of the rally, bringing their Toyota RunX A6 home seventh overall and the first front-wheel drive car home, as well as winning the 1600cc championship category. Gugu Zulu/Cindi Harding (BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo A7) won Class A7 after their rivals all fell off the road. Joos and Danie Stassen took the Class N4 championship lead after winning the class in their Top Gear Motors Subaru Impreza STI, and Megan and Oliver Verlaque brought their Toyota RunX N3 home to another Class win. Andre Cleenwerck/Kesevan Naidoo (BP Ultimate Volkswagen CitiGolf A5) won Class A5 with a rough sounding car, ending 01m 37sec ahead of the Championship Class leaders Haigh-Smith/Auffrey.
Rally crews anxiously awaited their chance to tackle the fast yet treacherous gravel roads of the Longmore Forest of Port Elizabeth (HANDBRAKES & HAIRPINS’ home town) for the Volkswagen Rally, and with four different winners from the previous four rounds a battle royale shook through the forests.
Rautenbach/Marsh set the tone in SS1, going 12.3sec quicker than anyone else over the 19.25km stage. His pace was slowed when he went through a fence in SS2 and lost 10sec, and the Zimbabwean driver chose to be more cautious through the day’s remaining stages. Dropping off the lead, Rautenbach lost even more time on an all-asphalt stage to finish Day One some 32sec off the lead pace. Gemmell/Sturrock took over from Rautenbach’s hot pace and charged through Day One battling with Kuun/Hodgson to end the day only 5.3sec apart. Through SS8 in Longmore Forest on Day Two, Rautenbach proved to be the man on a mission: he blitzed this stage to finish it 45sec quicker than his Day One effort and a whopping 17sec quicker than his rivals could muster. This push allowed him to close to within 7.2sec of the lead and move into second place overall. Kuun upped his rhythm too and leapfrogged both Rautenbach and teammates Habig/Pitchford to claim second place overall. Rautenbach’s efforts for a podium finish went up in smoke when he picked up a puncture that set him back 30sec and dropped him to fourth overall. The final two stages saw Gemmell and Kuun punish their cars in a bid to eke out an extra tenth of a second, but at the end of the rally it was Gemmel who claimed the overall honours with Kuun just 1.5sec behind. Habig finished third and Rautenbach took fourth.
Class A7 saw no finishers reach the finish, but Poulter/Dearlove once again proved quickest 2WD and Class A6 competitor. Haigh-Smith/Auffray dominated Class A5 with a brilliant performance, to 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.
Kuun/Hodgson drove to a comfortable 23.7sec win on the Osram Rally, the sixth round of the series, breaking the deadlock at the head of the SARC leader board. To add to the festivities in the service park, three Championship Class titles were also decided on this event.
Over the opening 30km-long stage Kuun was only 1.6sec faster than teammates Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries, and this was the start of the rally-long battle for the overall lead. Sadly, this battle did not feature the Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000s as they both dropped off the lead pace due to mechanical woes. Gemmell/Sturrock were, however, able to climb back into the top ten and work their way up to fifth at the end of this one-day event, but for Cronje/Paisley a lowly 11th was all they could muster. This proved to be Cronje’s last outing for the team, suddenly retiring from the sport.
Jaco van Dyk/Des de Fortier (Volkswagen Polo S2000) crashed heavily in SS2, with the crew being flown to hospital. Both were cleared with minor bruises, but the same could not be said of their Polo S2000.
Poulter/Dearlove clinched the Class A6 Championship, ending the Osram Rally as the top 2WD car for the third time and claiming their fourth class win of the season. Also, Zulu/Harding won the Class A7 title in their BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo. Joos and Danie Stassen brought their car home to their third Class N4 win in as many rallies to clinch the Class title too. Megan/Oliver Verlaque (Toyota RunX N3) notched their second Class N3 win after a solid drive in trying conditions, with Stefanie/Willem Hugo (Wiel Tydskrif Toyota RunX N3) making it a one-two for the fairer sex. Haigh-Smith became the youngest ever Class champion in SARC history and also wrapping up the Class A5 title with co-driver Hilton Auffrey.
Playing out in the scenic Malmesbury and Milnerton areas of the Western Cape, nine high-speed stages tested the mettle of Soiuth Africa’s top rally crews for the demanding Swartland Rally. Championship leaders Kuun/Hodgson once again proved too quick and too determined for their rivals romping home to what was an easy 40.3sec win. The podium was an all-Volkswagen affair, with their second-ever one-two-three result. It was Habig and stand-in co-driver Judd in second with Fekken/Arries in third. The pace of the resurgent Ford Fiesta S2000 of Wilken/Godrich on Day One did not deter the Volkswagen parade as they showcased their pace on the opening test of Day Two to set about dominating the top slots on the timesheets.
It was, however, the ever-present threat of Rautenbach/Marsh that rattled the factory Volkswagen crews, as the former WRC driver was running as high as second overall until a persistent power steering pump problem cost them valuable time, relegating them to fourth overall.
Once again the Pirtek Toyota Auris S2000 crews were robbed of top five overall positions due to mechanical woes. Should this team rectify their cars’ mechanical troubles, these drivers will be harassing the factory crews in 2011.
Bad luck has also not been too far from the factory Castrol Toyota Auris S2000 team, with Gemmell/Sturrock suffering a bent steering arm in one stage and then a mysterious power-sapping misfire all through Day Two. Replacing Mark Cronje for the remainder of the season, Poulter and Robert Paisley made an indelible mark in their debut together in Class S2000 to finish.
Class N4 saw only one finisher in the taxing Swartland and that was local entry of Mike Nathan/Etienne Lourens (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), who ended the event in a creditable 13th overall. Class A7 saw no finishers as Gugu Zulu/Harding and Gavin Cronje/Van Aardt Schoeman (Easylife Kitchens Faerie Glen Volkswagen Polo A7) retire all before Day One was even completed. Class A6 once again proved as thrilling as Class S2000. It was the Team Total Toyota RunX A6 of Craig Trott/Robbie Coetzee who claimed Class honours after Haigh-Smith/Auffray retired from their home event in SS5 and it was another fine performance from Megan and Oliver Verlaque as they powered to an unchallenged third victory in Class N3.
At the Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally, Kuun/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 event with a 21-point advantage over his only rivals Gemmell/Sturrock; Gemmell had to win whatever happened to Kuun, but could do no better than fourth place in the rally dominated by Wilken/Godrich.
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 Day One’s all-tarmac stages. It was an easily defendable lead over Saturday’s 78km of seven gravel stages in spite of a hard-charging Rautenbach/Marsh. The Zimbabwean tried hard to close the gap to Wilken by winning four stages, but after two punctures, including one on the very last stage, he eventually ended 01min 24,8sec behind Wilken. They did, however, clinch the inaugural Privateer’s Championship.
The drive of the rally came from Castrol Team Toyota’s Poulter/Paisley in their Auris S2000. In the driver’s second-ever rally in a S2000 machine, Poulter ended third overall to claim his first podium and capping a remarkable debut rally season.
Gemmell, the Championship runner-up for the second year, and co-driver Drew Sturrock, pushed their Castrol Toyota Auris S2000 as hard as they could, but after ending the first day 01min 27sec behind the leader in fourth place overall, it was game over as far as the Championship was concerned. Toyota did, however, clinch an unprecedented 20th Manufacturer’s Championship title.
Heading the two-wheel drive contingent was Zulu/Harding. Already the 2010 Class A7 Champions, the pair had a down-on-power engine on Day One but came back strongly on Day Two’s dirt stages to take their third class win of the year. Trott/Coetzee claimed the Class A6 win to take the new-for-2010 1600cc Championship in the process. Trott was shadowed all the way by teenager and 2010 Class A5 champion Haigh-Smith and co-driver Auffray. Morne Janse Van Rensburg/Rikus Fourie brought their Class A5 Volkswagen Polo Vivo home to its second Class win. The Class N3 title fight between Megan/Oliver Verlaque 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, 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.
