Rallying in Longmore Forest presents unique challenges to rally crews and cars alike. Slippery forestry roads, frightening drop-offs, fallen trees and tyre-sized rocks lining the tracks with hundreds of hairpins and switchbacks thrown in, it comes as no surprise that drivers relish the opportunity to take on the Volkswagen Rally.
“It is actually a technical rally, but one that sees us going flat-out,” said Mark Cronje. “To be quick here, one needs to fully commit to the notes, the car and the grip. The stages for this Volkswagen Rally will be tricky, but we’ll be pushing hard from the first stage. This rally suits me and my driving style.”
Indeed it does. Cronje claimed the top step of the podium at this event in 2009, his first full season in the Castrol Team Toyota S2000 squad. That year he overcame especially tough competition on his way to victory, beating the three formidable factory BP Ultimate Volkswagen S2000 crews on their home event.
For this year Mark Cronje pilots a Ford Fiesta S2000 for Team SASOL. A two-car team, Cronje is teammate with Jon Williams and Cobus Very in their similar Fiesta S2000 while Robin Houghton reads the pace notes for Cronje. This pairing is brimming with confidence coming off a win in the last rally, the Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally in June where they won by over 01min 30sec. It is, however, not the first event that they have been at the forefront of this season, as this crew has snatched the second most stage wins thus far in 2011.
Seat time is vitally important to success, to learn the new car’s characteristics and abilities. With each session completed, Cronje grows in knowledge and experience. It was 24 June, a typically cold and overcast Port Elizabeth Friday that Cronje, Houghton and his service crew blew into town. Heading directly to Longmore Forest for a test session, Cronje and his team were aiming to familiarize themselves with the conditions likely to be experienced at next weekend’s rally. The test sections were representative of the stages competitors will encounter over the six stages scheduled for the event. And, boy, were these shakedown sections fast!
Finding a setting where the driver felt comfortable with his car didn’t take too long: after three runs, Cronje was pinning his right foot flat on the accelerator pedal when attacking the inside line into sweeping bends. On his final “warm-up” run, yours truly heard the car screaming through the forest in sixth gear on the rev limiter for more than ten seconds. Only the wind was competing with that motor as it pushed the car to speeds in excess of 170km/h on the flowing and cambered bends.
“The car felt good in our shakedown stage here,” said Cronje. “It is behaving unbelievably well in Longmore Forest today, exactly as I wished. This car is phenomenal; the best I’ve ever driven.”
Shooting the breeze with the Johannesburg-based businessman, we chatted about all things rallying in South Africa. It was his comments on the car that I found to be most revealing of this talent: “The car reacts to my every input. There is no lag, just direct feedback. I tell this car what to do, and it reacts to me. It is not like other cars I have driven where I need to react to it in stages.”
This I experienced first hand when I was strapped into the co-driver’s seat, and we literally chased flat-out on the test stage. Attempting to read the pace notes, keep an eye on our position relative to those notes and to somehow keep my jaw shut long enough to not drown Cronje in my drool, I was treated to a true sample of rallying at full chat. Apart from being off the notes at times, Cronje had fortunately completed several runs to memorize the route despite his rookie co-driver’s smooth-talking delivery of the corners and change in conditions, I experienced what few outsider can lay claim to: in a rally car being driven very close to its limits in a very narrow, rocky, bumpy, and fast gravel road.
“The suspension soaks up everything, yet allows me to still feel exactly what the tyres are doing on the gravel,” commented Cronje through the in-car intercom. “Testing the car is important. We need to put in lots of effort if we want to see the results like we saw last time out. We’ve got the upgraded engine from M-Sport, and it gives us all the necessary grunt low down in the rev range. This is exactly where we’ll need it for this rally.
“The field is so very tight this season, and I have heard everyone else saying that just a hesitation can drop a place in a stage, and that is true. Saying that, I’m not too concerned about the other cars in this rally. I’m just going to drive my own rally. It is how I drive. We are feeling very confident at the moment; actually, from the first day in Durban already. We know we can win and we proved that in the last round. So, we will definitely be looking to repeat that here.”
Team SASOL is looking strongest to claim their second win of the season, and Cronje will be spearheading the Ford challenge on Volkswagen’s home event. This is one rally not to be missed!
