Fiesta time for Ford at Sasol Rally
Reigning champions Cronje and Houghton take another win
REIGNING SA champions Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton, in an all-wheel drive Ford Dealer Team Fiesta, won last weekend’s extremely wet and muddy Sasol Rally for the second year in succession.
This increased Cronje’s lead in the 2013 driver’s championship after his victory in the season-opening Total Rally in Mpumalanga in March.
Second, after 13 special stages on Friday and Saturday in the Sabie, Graskop, White River and Nelspruit areas, were British former World Rally Championship contenders, Matthew Wilson and Chris Patterson, who revelled in the rain and mist that challenged the 44-car field throughout the rally.
Driving a second Ford Dealer Team Fiesta borrowed from Cronje, Wilson had led the rally from Cronje after Friday’s five gravel and two tarmac stages, all of which were won by the two Fords.
Cronje added five stage wins on Saturday to the four he accumulated on Friday on his way to a 1 min 11-sec victory over Wilson. Third, a further 1 min 15 sec back, were Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee, who gave the brand new Castrol Team Toyota Yaris its first podium finish in only its second rally.
Henk Lategan and co-driver Barry White were fourth in a Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo, arriving at the final control in the Lowveld Showgrounds in Nelspruit on Saturday afternoon 2 min 26 sec behind the winners. The 18-year-old Lategan, one of the rising stars of SA rallying, scored his first stage win in the premier class with victory in the last of the day’s gravel stages.
Fifth were Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan in a second Castrol Toyota Yaris, who had lost a lot of time on Friday after hitting a tree stump and damaging their radiator. Some consolation was winning the first gravel stage on Saturday.
Making up the top ten were Jan Habig and Robert Paisley (Basil Read Ford Fiesta) in sixth place, Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin in the leading S2000 Challenge VW Sasolracing Polo, Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Hilton Auffray (S2000 Challenge Team Total Toyota Auris), Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries (S2000 VW Sasolracing Polo) and Japie van Niekerk/Gerhard Snyman (S2000 Challenge New Africa Developments VW Polo), who won the final stage of the rally in Nelspruit.
Winners of the two-wheel drive S1600 class were Clint Weston and Christoff Snyders (Reef Tankers Citroën C2 R2B), who finished 12th overall.
The Sasol Rally was also the second round of the FIA African Rally Championship, which attracted three entries from outside South Africa.
Current ARC champions Mohammed Essa of Zambia and Greg Stead of Zimbabwe (N4 Subaru Impreza WRX) retired after an oil pipe broke just five kilometres into the first special stage.
Jassey Singh and Dave Sihoka of Zambia (N4 Subaru Impreza WRX) and Giancarlo Davite and Sylvia Windevogel of Rwanda (N4 Mitsubishi Evo 10) struggled in the unfamiliar misty conditions and finished 15th and 21st overall respectively.
The next round of the championship is the Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally on May 31 and June 1.