Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries dominated the Total International Rally, the 4th round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship to further strengthen their grip at the top of the championship rankings, now 23 points clear of the next nearest title pretender.

The factory BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo pair completed the tough, dusty 14-stage route with eight stage wins to run out the victors for the second time this year by 75 seconds. Fekken was locked in battle with the works S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX of Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley on day two of the three day event, trading fastest times to hold a slender four second lead with one stage to go before the Friday Ermelo overnight halt.

Fekken blitzed the field Friday’s final stage, taking a second per kilometre from Cronje as heavy dust reduced visibility and further rubbed salt into the wounds of any would be challengers by clocking out of the daunting 60km long Jessievale stage on Saturday morning half a minute faster than anyone else could muster to put the win beyond any doubt.

Cronje, on the pace with four stage wins slid off the road in the dusty final Friday stage inflicting only cosmetic damage to his Castrol RunX but was forced to retire on the final day with gear selection problems.

Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh had their best event of the year, ending second overall in the second S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX after a trouble-free run. Rounding out the podium finishers, 17 seconds further back, was Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Cobus Vrey (S2000 Total Evolution Toyota RunX) who overcame a 30 second penalty before the rally even started as the team battled to cure an engine misfire. A storming drive on Saturday brought the Somerset West driver his first podium in several years.

4th overall was the defending SA Rally Champion pairing of Jan Habig/Douglas Judd in their BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo after losing time on Friday with the wrong gear ratios. In spite of a gearbox change at the final service on Friday, Habig could make no impression on the leaders and lost a place to Damseaux in the closing stages although the duo retain second in the 2008 title race standings.

Jon/Douglas Williams (S2000 Guma Volkswagen Polo) ended 5th after a solid drive, while Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich brought their Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza home for the production car win in 6th overall to snatch the championship lead at the half way point of the season.

Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton re-took 3rd place in the championship race after a measured drive into 7th overall for the Pretoria property developer. Visser du Plessis, the current production car champion and co-driver Gerhard Snyman brought their Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14 home 8th overall and second in the production car race; the result propelled them into 2nd place from 4th in the production car championship battle.

Ninth overall was Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden after losing time with a puncture and battling with power steering problems in their Philips/Jonnesway S2000 Toyota RunX. The Rally Chicks Lola and Megan Verlaque brought their Total Evolution Mitsubishi Lancer Evo home 10th overall and third in class.
Chris de Wit and Dean Redelinghuys claimed their third consecutive class A7 win in their Total Evolution Toyota RunX to move further ahead in the title race but not before Michael Otto/Armand du Toit (Barloworld Toyota Corolla) dominated the class until cut short by a mysterious electrical problem that left them stranded for 8 minutes midway through stage 12, dropping them to 4th at the flag.

Theuns Joubert/Hennie Botes brought their Salom Plant Hire Volkswagen Polo home second in class, 25 seconds behind de Wit, while Evan Hutchinson/Greg Gericke (Motorite Toyota RunX) rounded out the class podium. Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (A7 BP Ultimate VW Polo) had a lacklustre event, ending 5th in class.

Stevan Wilken/Llewellyn Fourie (Pannar Seeds VW Polo) took class A6 honours after surviving a scare in the opening trio of stages run without service. The throttle spring broke, leaving the Polo on full throttle at the most inopportune times. Nico/Gert Nienaber (Toyota Corolla) ended second in class ahead of the reigning champion Craig Trott and co-driver Tony Ball, who rolled their Total Evolution Toyota RunX in stage 8.

A closely fought class A5 war raged throughout the three days where Dave Compton/Paul Leslie scorched into a 40 second lead in their Sasol Toyota Yaris before succumbing to the dust and gloom in stage 9. Double winner Andre Cleenwerck/Des de Fortier (BP Ultimate VW CitiGolf) took over but rolled for the second time in as many events while trying to catch the flying Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabie (Techwood/Sasol Toyota Tazz) who took their first win of the year.

Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak drove their Sasol Toyota RunX to a maiden class N3 win in only their fourth event in the car. Etienne Lourens/Elvene Coetzee (Ford Racing Fiesta ST) led initially but suffered a broken lower control arm. Kosta Koumantarakis/Lou Zietsman (Toyota RunX) and Rodney Visagie/Carolyn Swan (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) both damaged their cars in the same hole in stage 10. Koumantarakis ended 2nd in class and Visagie third, while Martin Steyn/Van Aardt Schoeman brought their Ford Racing Fiesta ST home 4th in class to record their first finish of the year.

Riaan/Hester Erasmus brought their ABC Motors Toyota Corolla home to take the class N2 honours.