Rally stars ready for Gauteng test
But can anyone stop Mark Cronje or Johnny Gemmell from stealing the show?
ITH the third round of the South African Rally Championship, the Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally, taking place Saturday and Sunday, the question being asked in rally circles is “Can anyone stop Mark Cronje or Johnny Gemmell from running away with the drivers’ championship?”
While it’s a bit early to start making predictions after just two rounds of the eight-event championship, Cronje in the Sasol Ford Fiesta and Gemmell (Castrol Toyota Auris) have dominated, finishing first and second respectively in both rallies held so far.
Cronje and his co-driver Robin Houghton lead the point standings with 50 points, eight ahead of the Toyota pair and 16 in front of joint third-placed Jan Habig/Robert Paisley (Basil Read Ford Fiesta) and Hans Weijs/Bjorn Degandt (BP Volkswagen Polo).
Surprisingly, both Cronje and Gemmell are yet to win a championship while Habig (six times) and Paisley (twice) have tasted the champagne as title holders.
The veteran Habig, who won his first championship in 1997 and has amassed 36 rally victories in a distinguished career, is showing signs of rejuvenation after back-to-back fourth places in the two events held
Wso far. He and Paisley moved from the factory Volkswagen team, with whom they finished a lowly 12th in the 2011 championship, to the privateer Basil Read Ford team and they have taken to the left-hand drive Ford like ducks to water.
The Dutch/Belgian pairing of Weijs and Degandt, which is the most successful to date of the three factory Volkswagen crews in the allnew Polo Vivo, has introduced some European flair to the championship and once they temper their impressive pace with greater experience of South African conditions, they will be a force to be reckoned with. Team-mates and former champions Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson and Hergen Fekken/ Pierre Arries are not to be discounted once they get to grips with their new machines.
Megan Verlaque is the leader in the S1600 Two Wheel Drive Championship class
Strong performances on the Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally can also be expected from Team Total’s Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Grant Martin, Jon Williams/Cobus Vrey (Sasol Ford Fiesta) and Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich (Basil Read Ford Fiesta).
Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin will be hoping to maintain their fast start to the season in their older spec BP Volkswagen Polo, in which they are leading the new S2000 Challenge.
Megan Verlaque and Hilton Auffray (BP Volkswagen Polo), thanks to two good showings in the opening rounds, are the leaders in the Two Wheel Drive Championship for S1600 cars with 37 points.
The Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally will get underway with a ceremonial start from McCarthy Toyota in Lynnwood, Pretoria at 9am on Saturday. Competitors will then drive an open section to the start of the first of the day’s five special stages around the RallyStar Motor- sport Academy near Bapsfontein. Day one’s action will finish at RallyStar from around 4.30pm.
The Sunday restart is at 7am at
The event is being run on Saturday and Sunday in order to make it family friendly
RallyStar and will finish after another four gravel special stages and a final 16km tarmac special stage at the Zwartkops Raceway west of Pretoria from around 1.30pm. A podium prize-giving is scheduled for approximately 4pm.
In a break with tradition, the event is being held on a Saturday and a Sunday, instead of Friday-Saturday. This will give the province’s rally fans the opportunity to make it a family weekend and enjoy an event that has built a reputation for being very spectator-friendly.
The popular Super Special, where the cars race each other in pairs, has been redesigned and this year will be faster and more spectacular. It is the final stage on Saturday and is repeated on Sunday morning.
All the gravel stages are centred around and within easy reach of RallyStar. For directions on how to get there visit the www.rallystar.co.za website or contact them on 012 347 8532.