14/06/09 - Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries blasted their S2000 BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo to an easy 23 second lead to win the 4th round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, the Rally of South Africa, held in Ermelo and surrounding areas this past weekend.

Fekken took the lead in Friday’s 60km long Jessievale stage to end day one’s action with a comfortable 34 second lead over team mates Jannie Habig and Douglas Judd in a similar BP Polo, an easy lead to defend over the rally’s remaining ten stages. Fekken takes a six point lead into the second half of the Sasol Championship series with four rounds remaining.

“We decided to attack in the long stage”, said Fekken at the Ermelo finish. “We built up quite a good lead that we could defend on Saturday. I elected to go the safe option of running on dry tyres so I think we did well to keep up with the guys on the wet compounds”.

Habig took a cautious approached to Friday’s slippery stages but put the hammer down to set the fastest time in seven of the Saturday stages, chipping away at the defending champion’s lead all the time but at great risk, compared to Fekken’s easy ride. “We were too cautious in the first two stages on Friday”, said Habig. “It’s difficult to judge what the correct pace is at that early stage. We did the best we could in the circumstances”.

Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Andre Vermeulen were delighted to bring their S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX home for the first time this season on the final step of the podium. It was a close run thing though, for on the long open section returning from the Panbult forests to Ermelo for two final stages over the SuperSpecial, the clutch master cylinder failed, making the RunX slow off the line.

The factory Castrol Toyota team had a disappointing outing with early rally leader Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley hampered by a broken gear linkage in the Jessievale stage, leaving the Castrol Auris stuck in 5th gear, which cost the pair 3 minutes. Cronje rocketed into an early 33 second lead after the opening 35km long pair of stages but it wasn’t to be his day, finishing the 13 stage, 198km route 4th overall.

Double 2009 rally winner Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh were also affected in the 60km stage. The pair lost 4 minutes when they had to stop and change a flat tyre, then completed the last 20km of the stage with a broken shock absorber. Saturday brought more misfortune when their S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris developed a misfire, and with three stages run without service, the misfire persisted, costing the pair over 2½ minutes to Fekken, leaving the championship contender in a disappointed 6th place.

The BP Volkswagen Polo of 2006 champions Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson was out of contention from the second stage, losing six minutes with a flat tyre and jammed wheel nut. A rare wrong slot in stage 3 cost a further two minutes and they finished Friday an unaccustomed 11th overall, ending the rally in a lowly 9th place.

Splitting the two factory Castrol Toyotas in a fine 5th overall was Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich, the current Production Car Champions storming to their fourth consecutive Production Car and class N4 win of the year in their Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza N14. Wilken is now one point away from claiming the class N4 championship.

Theuns Joubert and Hennie Botes brought their S2000 Salom Group Volkswagen Polo home 7th overall – their career best finish - after Gemmell pipped them for 6th place by seven seconds at the final count. The Mokopane driver, in his first season of S2000 competition also maintained his 100% finishing record.

Nicholas Ryan and Geoff Tyrer brought their unsponsored S2000 Toyota RunX home 8th overall after enduring a puncture in stage 2, a failed alternator in stage 3 and a broken power steering pump in Saturday’s 7th and 8th stages.

Rounding out the top 10 was the class A7 winner Stevan Wilken and Greg Gericke in their Pannar Seeds/Triton Express Volkswagen Polo, the class championship leader taking a clear title lead after a perfect run throughout the event, barring some minor brake problems and a small off on day 1.

Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (A7 Team Total Toyota RunX) claimed their first finish of the season, 1:21 behind Wilken. The current class A7 champions were hampered on Friday by brake problems that led to an overshoot, leaving the RunX beached and Redelinghuys to push the car out of the bushes. The previous class leaders Evan Hutchinson/Elvene Coetzee brought their Motorite Toyota RunX home a lowly 17th after stopping for 10 minutes in stage three to cure a serious misfire caused by a broken plug lead. A driveshaft broke in stage 8, costing another 3 minutes to the charging Wilken.

Lola and Megan Verlaque had a rare appearance in the Sasol series in their S2000 Volkswagen Polo, ending 12th overall after a number of stalls. The window popped out mysteriously, letting noxious exhaust fumes into the cabin, leaving the Rally Chicks a little nauseated.

Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton’s rally turned upside down as early as stage 2 when the New Africa Developments Toyota RunX went off the road in slippery conditions. With an inoperable reverse gear, Van Niekerk booted the car to regain the road but beached the RunX, losing ten minutes extricating the car. A differential swap on Friday earned a 3 minutes lateness penalty, so Van Niekerk did well to eventually claw his way back from an overnight 17th place to end 13th overall.

Rodney Visagie and Carolyn Swan swept to the class A6 win in their Team Total Toyota RunX, 14 seconds ahead of class leaders Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin in their Team Total Toyota Auris. These two rivals now share the class lead with 24 points each. Moosa led comfortably but the car cut out in stage 8, losing two minutes 48 seconds in the process.

Class champions Craig Trott/Robbie Coetzee rolled their Team Total Toyota RunX in stage 11, ending third in class but 22nd overall, out of the overall points paying positions.

Sasol’s Dave Compton and Pierre Jordaan brought their Toyota RunX home to another unopposed win in class N3, leaving them with 1 point required to wrap up their championship. The Sasol team mixed it with the modified class A6 teams, ending just over a minute behind Moosa’s Auris and over 8 minutes ahead of the A7 Motorite RunX of Hutchinson.

Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (BP Ultimate CitiGolf) scored a lucky class A5 win after the rally long leaders Piet Bakkes/Paul van Wyk (Sasol Komatipoort Volkswagen CitiGolf) led throughout until a puncture cost them two minutes in the final forest stage, dropping the pair to second in class. Class A5 champions Andre Cleenwerck/Des de Fortier (BP CitiGolf) went off the road early in the first stage.

Ashley Haigh Smith/Hilton Auffrey (Team React Toyota Yaris) claimed their first podium finish while Riyad Jaffer/Henry Dearlove brought their similar Sasol Toyota Yaris to their first finish of the year.

24 teams finished the Rally of South Africa from the 32 starters on Friday.

Other leading retirements included:

• Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman (N4 Pirtek Subaru Impreza) – off SS2
• Tjaart Coetzee/Etienne Lourens (N4 Dastek Diesel Subaru Impreza) – gearbox SS1
• Schalk Burger/Armand Du Toit (A7 Spike Energy Drink Toyota Corolla) – lower control arm SS 2
• Michael Otto/Tommy du Toit (A7 Liqui Moly Toyota Corolla) – out of fuel SS3
• Fernando Rueda/Cobus Vrey (S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX) – gearbox SS3

The next round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the Volkswagen Rally on 10 and 11 July