Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey top-scored for Team Sasol on the 3rd round of the SA Rally Championship, claiming their best result since returning to the sport behind the wheel of their Sasol Ford Fiesta S2000. It was a frustrating event for Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton, who ended two places further back in the twin Team Sasol Ford Fiesta, hampered by clutch problems throughout the 170 km route.A superb stage four win – by just 0.2 second – helped Williams to 6th overall on the final timesheets and lifted him to 7th in the championship ranks, just 1 point behind the defending factory Volkswagen champion Enzo Kuun.
“I’m very happy with the result. It was a good drive and the team made real progress. I had a clean day on Friday and decided to have a push early on Saturday to see what would happen. The second Saturday stage was very rough over the second half and I lost a lot of time there because I backed off over the jumps which were harsh. We dropped to 8th after that stage and I need to learn how hard I can push the car in similar conditions”, Jon related at the Emalahleni finish.
“I was rattled by Hergen’s accident (the VW crew hit a photographer). We were the next car to arrive and the stage was stopped, leaving us standing around for nearly an hour. We had a wrong slot in stage 10 which cost us 25 seconds but I was able to fight with and hold off people like Enzo (Kuun) and Giniel (de Villiers) which is very encouraging for me”, Jon added.
Jon’s 6th place helped Ford take the Manufacturer’s prize on the event.
Mark and Robin had a steady start to the rally, setting competitive times well inside the top 10 until the clutch started to slip as the Fiesta headed to the overnight parc ferme.
Faced with a probable 130 second penalty for service lateness if they opted to change the component, or race on knowing they would not be at their peak and lose time to their rivals, Mark and Robin chose the latter option. “We figured that half an hour was too much to ask of a new crew”, said Robin.
“On Saturday morning, the clutch pedal went to the floor” Robin explained. “We bled the clutch before the start of every stage. We could only start on half throttle and over the last five stages; we used the started button to get going. There were a lot of hairpins and we couldn’t use the handbrake to flick the car around. I would call it a scrappy rally”.
“It was difficult to commit to corners knowing that if we ran wide we could be out of the rally. It’s one of those things I must take on the chin. We have a lot of work to do but we’re headed in the right direction. We’ll get there”, said the disappointed driver, who led both the previous two rallies.
The next outing for the Team Sasol Ford Fiesta team is the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng on June 10 and 11.
– Credit: Sasol