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CULLINAN, Tshwane - It was a fascinating, exciting, yet tough duel between the leading championship contenders, yet in the end Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Toyota Yaris S2000) emerged victorious at the Tshwane Motor Rally.
The outcome of the rally, Round 6 in the SA National Rally Championship, was hanging in the balance until the penultimate stage when Mark Cronje/Robin Houghton fell by the wayside due to steering problems with their Fiesta.
Up to that point, with two stages to go, the championship leaders led their Toyota challengers by a margin of only 1.3seconds, and all was set for a nail-biting finale to the dusty rally in and around the town of Cullinan in Tshwane.
But it was not to be…
TOUGH BATTLE IN TSHWANE
After winning all four stages on Friday (August 14) Cronje/Houghton had a handy lead of 12.7 seconds over Poulter/Coetzee, but in the opening stage on Saturday (won by Henk Lategan/Barry White in their VW Polo racing under Superally rules) were eight seconds slower than the Toyota crew.
Cronje/Houghton duly made up the lost time in the next stage, winning it, but then lost 10 seconds to Poulter/Coetzee in stage eight, cutting their lead down to only 2.3 seconds. Poulter took another 0.4 seconds out of their lead, to then trail by only 1.9 seconds.
The Ford pair’s woes in the next stage saw Poulter/Coetzee take their third consecutive victory in the series – thereby level-pegging their championship chances.
It also secured a double podium for the Team Toyota with Giniel de Villiers/Carolyn Swan finishing runners-up – just under half a minute adrift of their team mates.
However, getting lost in the excitement of the battle for victory was the mighty tussle between De Villiers/Swan and the experienced VW crew of Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries. The two teams were trading virtually identical times in the stages, and at the finish the difference between them was only 7.3 seconds – while they were split by only 5.6 seconds after the first day of the event.
SURPRISE RESULT
While team mates Lategan and White were making hay under Superally rules, winning three special stages on Day 2, Gugu Zulu/Hilton Auffray (VW Polo S2000) drove a steady race to secure fourth. They were followed by team mates Thilo Himmel/Armand du Toit, scoring a rare race finish in fifth, followed by Ernie van der Walt/Greg Godrich (Yaris) in sixth, in the process also winning the Northern Championship regional rally overall.
Theuns Joubert and Mari van der Walt (Toyota Auris) drove a measured race to finish seventh overall and win the NRC4 challenge after the Namibians Wilro Dippenaar/Kes Naidoo (Auris) had to withdraw just before the final stage. This effort also saw Joubert/Van der Walt finish second in the regional event.
HECTIC CRASH
The battle royal in the S1600 class was highlighted by the spectacular crash of log leaders Matthew Vacy-Lyle/ Schalk van Heerden. The pair hit a big jump in stage eight and their Toyota Etios R2 landed badly, causing it to roll over at high speed. Luckily both of them were unhurt.
WATCH THE CRASH HERE...
Meanwhile their fellow Toyota campaigners and overnight class leaders Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle (Etios R2) stretched their advantage over Chad van Beurden/Nico Swartz (Fiesta R2) after the Ford pair lost over 3 minutes in Stage 6.
With Richard Leeke/Rikus Fourie (Fiesta R2) rolling out of contention after breaking a control arm and AC Potgieter/Tommy du Toit (VW Polo R2) damaging the radiator when hitting a major jump, both retiring in Stage 9, Paulus Franken/Henry Kohne (VW Polo R2) moved up to second in the class, finishing nearly 1 minute and 40 seconds behind the Etios team, with Van Beurden/Swartz third.
The seventh and penultimate round of the 2015 South African Rally championship, the Toyota Cape Rally, is scheduled for September 18-19 in the Western Cape Province.