In a dramatic event that saw the top three finishers swop places in each of the last three special stages, Zimbabwe’s Conrad Rautenbach and French co-driver Nicolas Klinger (class S2000 G-Fuel Ford Fiesta) won the HMC Hencom Autobody Rally, round three of the South African Rally Championship, which finished in Emalahleni (Mpumalanga) this afternoon.
The gap to second-placed Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich, who had led in their class S2000 Basil Read/bizhub Ford Fiesta right up to the ninth of the 11 special stages, was just 2,5 sec after 172 km of high speed gravel racing. Third, 35,2 seconds behind the winners was the factory Team Castrol Toyota Auris of Johnny Gemmell and Scottish co-driver Drew Sturrock.Wilken and Godrich won two of Friday’s three stages to lead the rally at the overnight halt in Emalahleni from Rautenbach (who won the opening stage) and Leeroy Poulter/Elvéne Coetzee in the second factory Team Castrol Toyota Auris. Gemmell and Sturrock were only sixth after being slightly off the pace, but were confident their start position would be a benefit as the cars ahead swept roads of loose stones.
While the top three held station for the first two stages on Saturday (stages four and five), which were won by Jon Williams/Cobus Vrey (Sasol Ford Fiesta) and Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries (BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo) respectively, Gemmell had already moved up to fourth ahead of the factory BP Volkswagens of Jan Habig and Fekken.
Gemmell then won stage seven to move into second place behind Wilken and ahead of Rautenbach, Poulter, Habig and Fekken. Poulter had experienced gearbox problems on stage seven (he’d lost first gear) and the team’s technicians heroically changed the gearbox in the service park in a record 25 minutes between stages seven and eight.
Unfortunately a wire on the alternator was apparently pulled loose during the gearbox change and Poulter was stranded in stage eight with a flat battery. He managed to make running repairs, but lost 12 minutes and any chance he had of emulating his maiden win in the Sasol Rally a month ago.
More drama on stage eight, which was won by Rautenbach, saw Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Carolyn Swan roll their Team Total Toyota Auris within sight of the flying finish but retain their eighth place.
The pace at the front was picking up and all the contenders were pushing their cars to the limit in a rally that was characterised by fast stages and dusty conditions, with several hairpin bends catching out a number of competitors.
On stage 10 Gemmell wrong-slotted and lost a crippling 30 seconds to drop him to fourth behind stage winner Rautenbach, who took the lead from Wilken by 3,8 sec with the short 4,67-km final stage in Emalahleni remaining. Fekken moved up to third, 2,3 sec ahead of Gemmell.
Wilken responded by winning stage 11 and reduced the final deficit to just 2,5 sec. Gemmell put in a final big effort to snatch the last podium position by just seven tenths of a second from Habig.
Fekken finished fifth behind team-mate Habig and ahead of the Ford of Williams. Making up the top 10 were the factory VW of Giniel de Villiers and Ralph Pitchford (BP VW Polo Vivo), the Sasol Ford Fiesta of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (without a clutch for the whole of Saturday), defending champions Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson, who had a subdued outing in their factory VW, and the privateer VW Polo of Nicolas Ryan and Geoff Tyrer in 10th.
Class A7 was won by Schalk Burger junior and Armand du Toit (Powerline Africa/Cars to Rent Toyota Corolla), making a rare appearance in the championship between rounds of the FIA African Rally Championship (in which they are lying second behind Rautenbach and Klinger). Second and the only other entrant was the Hencom Autobody VW Polo of event sponsor Rocky Reyneke and Christo Ackerman.
Winner of class S1600 was the brother and sister combination of Christoff and Celeste Snyders (Sabertek VW Polo) with Ashley Haigh Smith and Hilton Auffray (React Ford Fiesta) second and the former champion Craig Trott and Robbie Coetzee (Team Total Toyota RunX) third.
Henk Lategan and Pierre Jordaan completed a successful weekend with first place in class S1400 in their Q8 Oils VW Polo, where they were the only finishers. A total of 27 out of the 40 cars that started the final day completed the event.
The next round of the championship is the Toyota Dealer Rally in Gauteng on June 10 and 11. – Credit: www.sarallying.co.za