Kuun takes sixth Sasol rally win

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Author: Lance Branquinho

South Africa’s most popular rally lived up to its dramatic billing courtesy of treacherous weather and the Lowveld’s legendarily challenging forest special stages.

In its 19th rendition, the Sasol rally (run around Sabie and Nelspruit) made up round three of the local rally championship.

Although Thursday afternoon’s shakedown session was run in stunning 38 degree Lowveld weather, the prediction for the event’s two days of rallying was rain, mud and fog.


When Enzo Kuun is running this wide turning-in with his all-wheel drive Polo, you know you're dealing with some choice muddy conditions.

Challenging conditions

As the 38 starters lined up for action on Friday in Sabie one could hardly foresee only 22 reaching the Nelspruit sport grounds on Saturday afternoon. Attrition though, was the constant factor which punished the brazen and decided the outcome of this year’s Sasol rally.

The first few stages on Friday were marred by rapidly changing weather conditions as a cold front swept down across the Lowveld. Temperatures plummeted and the area’s characteristically treacherous fog bedded down between tree plantations lining the special stages.

Visibility was severely reduced and it was clear even the most experienced S2000 class chargers were way off their pace notes, trying to avoid disaster in the perilous conditions.

Initial pacemakers were reigning rally champion Hergen Fekken and former WRC campaigner, Conrad Rautenbach. The young Zimbabwean undoubtedly has the best car in the entire local S2000 field and his UK prepped Ford Fiesta effortlessly reeled in Fekken’s negligible lead (gained on stage three) throughout the Friday’s gravel special stages.


The Sasol Rally's night stages in Sabie and White River saw massive crowds treated to some outstanding car control.

A night to remember

By the time the teams' attached their heavy-duty illumination kits to the front of the S2000 cars for the Friday evening’s tarmac stages in Sabie and White River, Rautenbach had reduced Fekken’s stage three lead of 0.1 seconds into 15 second trailing second place.

Friday’s tarmac night stages saw the day’s light drizzle abate and cloud cover mercifully lift, where after the Sasol rally faithful were treated to some excellent tarmac rally driving.

Despite the White River stage being a bit of a Mickey Mouse construction (devised around a simple junction without any natural asphalt corners) it did offer a full field of view for most spectators.

Rautenbach and Fekken took a cautious approach to the night’s tarmac stages (conscious of the rally ending-damage a pavement incident could render) and left wins to Toyota’s Mark Cronje and Enzo Kuun.


As is the case each year, the Sasol Rally's weather was indifferent yet the crowd support was huge.

The Fekken and Rautenbach show

Although Rautenbach started the second day of the rally with a slender lead (due to his cautious approach during the previous evening’s night stages) he quickly established Ford’s dominance yet again by besting the Fekken’s VW Polo by 8.9 seconds on Saturday morning’s first stage, thereby effortlessly opening up a lead of 5.9 seconds.

As the teams navigated their way through the epic forest stages on Saturday morning the 2010 Sasol rally was essentially a two-way race.

Fekken was desperately drawing on every last bit of his considerable driving experience to make up for the technological discrepancies between his Polo and Rautenbach’s Fiesta. To put things into perspective Enzo Kuun, driving consistently quickly, was 32 second adrift of the Fekken.

For all the world it looked like Rautenbach would notch up his second victory of the year quite easily, with Fekken in a well deserved second place and Kuun rounding off the podium.


Rautenbach was well on his way to victory in his Fiesta until severe damage on stage 11 put him and current champion Hergen Fekken out of contention.

When the going get rough, the leaders self-destruct?

In rallying each stage is a kingmaker of its own discretion and on this year’s Sasol it was stage 11 which decided the rally’s outcome.

Retrospectively Rautenbach would have been better served with Ford’s diesel-powered racing Ranger and Fekken with Giniel’s Race Touareg, as stage 11’s terrain was more akin to a full-blooded off-road race instead of a high-speed rally special stage.

Rautenbach ran first and bounced the Fiesta onto its nose after miscalculating a jump. The impact reconfigured his car’s cooling system and put him out of the rally. It was an unfortunate end to the hard-charging privateer’s rally.

Fekken saw a piece of Rautenbach’s sump guard on the stage and before the sense of foreboding had fully manifested itself the VW Polo driver clipped a rock apexing a corner. The impact tested Fekken’s transmission past it mechanical tolerance and put him out of the rally a scant few minutes after Rautenbach.

With five stages to go the two most dominant drivers were out and the rain returned. Kuun’s experience and effortless pace saw him lead an epic three way struggle with team mate Jan Habig and Toyota’s Johnny Gemmell.

After incurring a 10 second time penalty for clocking in late for a stage on Friday (after falling from some classic rally gamesmanship from Kuun’s wily navigator Guy Hodgson) Gemmell, who won last year’s Sasol, was a man on a mission.

Kuun’s mastery in the increasingly muddy conditions was peerless though. He won stages 11, 14 and 15 on his way to victory, with Gemmell taking stage 13.

The final stage was a short run in to the Nelspruit sports grounds and despite the extremely tight layout Kuun, Gemmell and Habig gave the capacity crown well deserved entertainment as they four-wheel drifted their way to the finish.


Hein Lategan was home fifth, first of the privateers.

Poulter simply superb

Final classification saw Kuun take his sixth Sasol rally victory with Gemmell second and Habig in third.

Toyota’s Mark Conje was hamstrung by power steering issues on Friday yet drove superbly to finish fourth. He is now second in the championship, 16 points adrift of Kuun. Enzo’s consistent pace had now marked him as the man to watch in this year’s championship.

The first privateer home was Hein Lategan, who brought his Toyota Auris home in fifth place – a neat achievement in only his third rally. This year’s Sasol rally claimed a stunning number of S2000 cars, with only eight S2000s finishing from a starting field of 14.

Driver of the rally was track racing star Leeroy Poulter who finished eighth in his front-wheel drive Toyota RunX. As most front-wheel competitors fell well off the pace when encountering increasingly muddy conditions during the last five stages of the rally, Poulter showed his class in only his third ever rally.


The front-wheel drive cars struggled terribly in the muddy conditions. Didn’t seem to bother Leeroy Pouler though...

Ermelo next

The Rally circus now prepares for the fourth round of the local championship which is the Rally of South Africa, run during the last weekend of May around Ermelo. Rautenbach’s replacement engine is on its way from the UK and Charl Wilken should have (finally) his new Fiesta by the start of the next round.  

Rautenbach’s Fiesta is plainly the best car in the field locally. Specifically designed for Ford’s global assault on rallying, it is thoroughly advanced in a way the locally developed Auris and Polo S2000s simply aren’t. Cronje, Gemmell, Habig and especially Fekken are probably quicker in local conditions and fine pilots all, yet effectively they’re driving "Class B" cars against Rautenbach’s Fiesta.

Along the way though, Kuun and Hodgson’s experience have them leading the championship.