06/04/08 - Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries emerged as the new Sasol SA Rally Championship leaders after the Toyota Dealer Rally, storming to a sensational win in one of closest rallies in many seasons.

Fekken made a break for victory in Saturday’s first stage, blasting his S2000 BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo to a ten second stage win – the first of three - breaking the Friday deadlock with rivals and team mates Jan Habig/Douglas Judd and Castrol Toyota’s Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley.

The rally got underway with Cronje rocketing his Castrol RunX into a 4 second lead but it was short-lived as Jean Pierre Damseaux/Cobus Vrey (S2000 Total Evolution Toyota RunX) joined the party with a win (shared with Habig) on stage two and took the overall lead. Nicholas Ryan/Schalk van Heerden (S2000 Philips Toyota RunX) were next in line for a stage win, with Habig, Cronje and Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson (S2000 BP Ultimate VW Polo) all tied for the second fastest time one second back. It was that close…

Kuun gave notice of his intentions with the final gravel stage win of the day. Four crews shared the Hypermarket stage and the scene was set for a little piece of history – three cars on the same second and the top five teams covered by 2 seconds!

After Fekken made his break on Saturday, Cronje set about closing the gap with two stage wins, and brought it back down to six seconds before dropping back to ensure a safe finish. Kuun made a late charge with three stage wins and took the runner-up place, nine seconds behind at the Strand finish.

“I couldn’t have gone quicker”, said Fekken. “Mark and Enzo made me work hard for the win. I really pushed flat out on the last stage – the sump guard was on the ground everywhere. When the gap was down to six seconds, they were the worst six seconds of my life”.

With a VW 1-2 and Cronje upholding Toyota’s honour, Habig recovered from a slump in pace to end 4th overall after changing his route notes overnight, a bad decision in hindsight that took the current SA champions out of the running for a second consecutive win.

Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh (S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX) ended 5th after losing power in the high-speed stages around Caledon. Jon/Douglas Williams (S2000 Guma VW Polo) ended 6th overall, some 43 seconds clear of Damseaux who had a flat tyre in stage four. Ryan recovered from an overnight 14th to end 8th after a polished performance, snatching the place from the production car winner.

Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich (N4 Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza N12B) dominated the production car race to end 9th, 81 seconds ahead of Fernando Rueda/Dave Lewkowicz (N4 Total Evolution Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9). The Spaniard had propshaft problems in the first stage and lost enough time in the closely bunched field to be out of contention.

Japie van Niekerk/Robin Houghton made it a 100% finishing record for the S2000 teams with 11th overall in his Castrol liveried Toyota RunX. Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman (N4 Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14) tied on elapsed time with Van Niekerk but was classified 12th.

The Nelspruit brothers, Joos and Danie Stassen brought their Subaru Impreza N12 home 13th overall on their first ever visit to the Cape, well ahead of the class A7 winner.

Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (A7 Total Evolution Toyota RunX) ran out the winners of the top two-wheel drive class but not before Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (A7 BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo) saw his 3½ minute lead evaporate on the final stage with mechanical problems. This left Nico Higgs/Menno Havelaar (HRD Racing Toyota RunX) to take the class runner up spot and 16th overall, 15 seconds behind Richard/Natasha Vaughan’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.

Evan Hutchinson/Greg Gericke (A7 Motorite Toyota RunX) completed their first rally on the final class podium step, just losing out to the class N3 winner Rodney Visagie/Carolyn Swan (Total Evolution Toyota RunX). Kosta Koumantarakis/Barry White ran out N3 runners up in a similar Toyota RunX. Both RunXs played second fiddle to Ford Racing Fiesta on Friday.

Etienne Lourens/Elvene Coetzee made a strong comeback in their class N3 Ford Racing Fiesta ST, and held an 8 second class lead after the first five stages. Driveshaft problems cost them any chance of a win but the Ford Fiesta ST has shown winning potential with more development. Martin Steyn/Van Aardt Schoeman retired the sister Fiesta ST after stage 5.

Trott and co-driver Tony Ball brought their Total Evolution Toyota RunX home to record their second win of the season with Andy Haigh Smith/Jonathan Bright second in class in their Team React Toyota Corolla.

Andre Cleenwerck/Des de Fortier (BP Ultimate Volkswagen CitiGolf) made class A5 his own in a forceful drive, with Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe next up in their Techwood Toyota Tazz. Steve Mearns/Ciaran Nunan (MPC Tazz) and Dave Compton/Paul Leslie (A5 Sasol Toyota Yaris) rounded out the class runners. Compton recorded his first finish since turning to rallying.