Can anyone beat Cronje and Houghton to the title of South African Rally Champions in 2011? That’s the question being asked by the fans as the high-speed world of gravel special stage rallying focuses on the Western Cape this weekend, 23 and 24 September, for the penultimate round of what has been a tightly contested competition.
The answer is a definite “Yes!”, but their rivals are going to have to raise their game considerably in the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally, which starts at McCarthy Toyota in Table View at 13h00.
Although Pretoria residents Cronje and Houghton have won the last three rounds of the Championship in their Sasol Ford Fiesta and racked up more stage wins than any other combination – 24 so far, 14 in the last three events – Cronje leads the Drivers’ Championship by a slim four points from Zimbabwe’s Conrad Rautenbach (Green Fuel Ford Fiesta S2000) while just 11 points cover the top four drivers. Cronje has 104 points, Rautenbach 100, defending champion Enzo Kuun (BP Volkswagen Polo S2000) 95 and 2010 runner-up Johnny Gemmell (Castrol Toyota Auris S2000) 93.
Houghton leads the Co-Drivers’ Championship with 106 points as Rautenbach’s team-mate Nicolas Klinger competes on a French license. The South African has a seven-point lead over fellow countryman and defending co-drivers’ champion Guy Hodgson, with Gemmell’s Scottish co-driver Drew Sturrock third on 96 points.
Any one of the top four contenders, as well as at least another four, all competing in the premier S2000 Class for four-wheel drive cars, are capable of winning one of the season’s most popular and enjoyable events run in the picturesque wheat and canola fields around Malmesbury and Hopefield.
Gemmell, a former kart champion, and Sturrock, have proved to be Cronje and Houghton’s strongest rivals and have three second places and a third to their credit together with seven stage wins. A maiden win for the factory pair is very much on the cards.
Castrol Toyota team-mates Leeroy Poulter/Elvéne Coetzee have already scored a win, in the Sasol Rally in April, in their first season together in the premier Class. The rookie driver has eight stage wins to his credit to date, but will be looking for a lot more and consistent results in the last two rounds to improve his current ninth place in the points standings.
Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich (Basil Read/bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000) are also potential winners after two second place finishes and 13 stage wins, but two successive non-finishes have hurt their championship chances and they are down in eighth place.
Kuun leads a strong four-car factory BP Volkswagen challenge that includes former champions Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries, currently sixth and fourth in the championship, who rather surprisingly have not finished higher than fourth to date, but who should not be discounted. Former champions Jan Habig/Robert Paisley in the third BP Volkswagen Polo are out of contention for the Championship in an unfamiliar 13th place after failing to finish three of the events. They, too, are capable of pulling off an upset victory.
Former national circuit and off-road champion and 2009 Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers, in his first season of national championship rallying and co-driven by fellow Dakar veteran and former off-road champion Ralph Pitchford, are tenth in the fourth BP Volkswagen Polo S2000.
Making up the top ten among the drivers are Nicholas Ryan (GrandMark International Volkswagen Polo S2000) in fifth place and Jon Williams (Sasol Ford Fiesta S2000) with four stage wins in seventh place.
The Two Wheel Drive Championship for the S1600 and S1400 Classes is building up to an equally exciting climax with 19 points covering the top four drivers. Topping the log are brother and sister Christoff and Celeste Snyders (S1600 Sabertek Volkswagen Polo), who enjoy a slim six-point lead over former champions Craig Trott/Robbie Coetzee (Total Toyota RunX S1600).
Both these crews can expect strong competition from Guy Botterill/Schalk van Heerden (S1600 Yato Tools Toyota RunX) and Ashley Haigh-Smith and non-scoring British co-driver James Aldridge (S1600 React Ford Fiesta). Botterill and Haigh-Smith are joint fourth in the Championship on 84 points and are not yet out of contention.
The battle for Class S1400 honours is expected to be between championship leader Megan Verlaque and new co-driver Hilton Auffray (BP Volkswagen Polo S1400) and Henk Lategan (Q8 Oils Volkswagen Polo S1400), who is just two points in arrears.
Lategan’s co-driver, Pierre Jordaan, leads the Co-Drivers’ Championship by a single point from Verlaque’s original co-driver, Lirene du Plessis, who is not competing this weekend. In another change, Lategan will this weekend be partnered by Barry White.
The Toyota Cape Dealer Rally will cover a route of some 198km of special stages over the two days. There will be two gravel stages in the Hopefield area on Friday 23 September covering about 50km and two tar stages at Killarney (14km and 5km). The event restarts on Saturday 24 September at 08h00 and there will be four gravel stages in the Malmesbury area plus a final 14km tar stage at Killarney.
