19/10/08 - The 2008 Sasol SA Rally Championship reached a thrilling, spectacular and dramatic finale across the farmlands of Gauteng, delivering a high-speed spectacle with four different leaders before the new champions made the event their own, leading home a Volkswagen 1-2-3 on the Toyota Dealer Rally this past weekend.

Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries drove a brilliant race in their S2000 BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo, rocketing into the lead after stage three on Friday and led through to stage 11 when the Polo suffered right rear suspension trouble. They lost 74 seconds in the stage, dropping to second place by 2 seconds, setting the scene for a dramatic eleven 10ths flat out fight back over the remaining five stages. The new champions re-asserted their presence at the top of the leader board in the very next 12th stage to claim their 4th win of the year by a narrow 12 seconds.

“I tried hard on this one”, said the new champion. “I had to drive slowly for the championship in Cape Town last month so it was very satisfying to show everyone why we won the title this year. It’ll be good to have number 1 on the window next year”.

Second place was hotly contested by four teams, initially led by Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh in their brand new S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris which first turned a wheel on the Wednesday prior to the event. Gemmell was breathing down Fekken’s neck on Friday, ending just one second adrift before electrical problems dropped the Toyota down the order on Saturday.

Outgoing champions Jan Habig/Douglas Judd held second place on Saturday in their BP Polo but dropped back under a relentless onslaught by young Jon/Douglas Williams in their S2000 Trident Press Volkswagen Polo.

Williams led the event for a brief, glorious moment after Fekken’s problems and hung on in 2nd place before the 2006 championship pairing of Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson (S2000 BP Polo) put in a final burst to snatch second place in the dying moments of the 16 stage rally.

With Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich (N4 Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza) in the mix as well, running as high as second overall, the four-way fight for the podium was one of the closest seen this year. At the final tally of times, Williams’ career first podium was just 4 seconds off second place, while Wilken missed the podium by one second and had to settle for 4th place. The pair wrapped up the overall Production Car Championship in the process, just reward for being the fastest team in the category with 5 wins and two second places this season.

Gemmell and Marsh’s Castrol Toyota Auris dropped back over 90 seconds behind the leaders after his electrical problems but fought back hard to pull in the leaders with a string of five stage wins to end 8 seconds behind the flying Wilken, who was beset with a misfire on Saturday.

The second Castrol Toyota Auris of Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley retired in day one with a terminal electrical problem, failing to start in the service park after stage five. Cronje was well down after leaving the road in stage two, getting stuck on an earth bank for 13½ minutes.

Habig and Judd gradually fell further way away from the leaders to end 6th, over a minute down on Fekken.

Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton brought their privateer S2000 Toyota RunX home 7th after a steady run. They lost a little time in stage 4 with a flat tyre and were cautious over the many jumps, but ended the season with bags of experience for the 2009 season.

Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman brought their N4 Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14 home 8th overall and second in the production car class, 4½ minutes ahead of the Rally Chicks’ Total Evolution Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. Lola and Megan Verlaque claimed their best result of the season after a trouble-free run.

Adrian Karth/Menno Havelaar (NetConnect Volkswagen Polo) claimed their 3rd class win of the year after chasing down both Schalk Burger Junior/Armand du Toit (Triple S Panelbeaters Toyota Corolla) and Theuns Joubert/Hennie Botes (Salom Volkswagen Polo). Karth overcame a stuck accelerator cable in stage 4 and again at the start of day 2 to end 10th overall. Joubert’s engine broke while leading by 55 seconds in the dying moments of the rally, while Burger dropped to third with mechanical problems, ending behind Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin’s BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo, 11th and 12th respectively.

The class A7 champions Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) got stuck in stage 2 for eight minutes, the car beached on an earth bank where Cronje also went off but recovered to finish a distant 16th overall.

Evan Hutchinson/Greg Gericke (A7 Motorite Toyota RunX) were classified 20th overall after losing 16 minutes in stage 5 after stalling and the car refusing all attempts to restart.

The class A6 champions Craig Trott/Tony Ball (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) inherited another class win and 13th position after Stevan Wilken/Llewellyn Fourie retired their Pannar Seeds Volkswagen Polo from a 6 minute lead with an overheating engine after damaging the radiator in stage 8 on Saturday morning, landing hard after a fast jump.

Kosta Koumantarakis/Lou Zietsman (Toyota RunX) were awarded the class N3 win after on-the-road winners Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak (Sasol Toyota RunX) were excluded during the post-event check for having a non-standard airflow sensor installed.

The surprise of the rally was the pace of the young Zimbabwean Chase Atwell and Dave Milner, who led convincingly in their Jonnesway Toyota RunX. Attwell retired late in the event with a broken driveshaft, the fourth such failure in three events, ascribed to a faulty batch of components.

Rodney Visagie/Carolyn Swan, the 2008 class N3 champions, suffered from ongoing electrical problems, costing them five minutes to the leaders on day one. The nine times champions recovered to 15th place and 2nd in class, dead heated with Koumantarakis on elapsed time.

Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe (Toyota Tazz) won class A5 after the Sasol Toyota Yaris retired in the penultimate stage with a broken rear axle. Twice the Tazz had fuel pressure problems but survived the heat to give Conradie their 3rd win of the year. Bradley Martin/Kenny Hill (Volkswagen CitiGolf) ended 2nd in class and was the only other finisher.

Riaan/Hester Erasmus (ABC Motors Toyota Corolla) won the N2 class in spite of a roll in stage 10, which caused cosmetic damage for the newly crowed class title holders.

The final runner, Murray Lloyd/Ralph Lehman (MLC Computer Solutions Subaru Impreza GT) suffered a fire at the end of stage eight caused by a frayed fuel pipe. The crew repaired the hole with Pratley putty and completed the event in 23rd place, the final classified runner.