13/07/08 - The 5th round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, the 25th Volkswagen Rally produced a drama-filled event that saw just 22 finishers from the 60 teams that started the 13-stage rally from VW’s Auto Pavilion in Uitenhage on Friday.

Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley (S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX) snatched the lead from the home-town favourites, the three car BP Ultimate Volkswagen Rally team, giving Toyota their 13th win on their rival’s event. Cronje powered his RunX to a 15 second win on stage 6 and never looked back, ending 19 seconds ahead after the spectator-lined Jeffrey’s Bay stage on Friday evening.

Running at nearly a minute per kilometre faster than the hard-charging Jan Habig/Douglas Judd/VW Polo combination on the first stage on Saturday, Cronje built up a defendable 54 second lead, easing off on the final run in the Longmore Forest to ensure his maiden rally win with four telling stage wins chalked up against his name.

“I’m really, really happy to win this one for the team. We were under a lot of pressure to do well here. I told Robert that we should give it a full go in stage 8 to see where we were against the others. I really thrashed the car and it held up well, so all credit to the technicians. It was a completely trouble free run”, said an elated Cronje at the Port Elizabeth finish.

Heading a BP Ultimate Volkswagen 2-3-4 was the reigning SA Rally Championship pairing of Jan Habig/Douglas Judd, 40 seconds shy of the top step of the podium, a bit disappointed not to have won it for the hosts. “All the bits are still on the car, so it couldn’t have been that bad”, quipped Habig.

The second BP Polo of 2006 champions Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson claimed the final podium place but it was the 2008 championship leaders Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries who provided the VW team with the most work. Running first on the road on Friday, Fekken picked up a puncture 12km from the end of the rough 6th stage. The rubber knocked the brake calliper off, smashing the left-front suspension on the BP Polo.

Ordered by management to drag the car back to the service park 38km away in Jeffrys, Fekken wore through the skid plate and onto the gearbox casing. Suspecting damage, the VW team replaced the ‘box and Fekken faced the prospect of fighting his way back from 5th place and recover as many points as he could.

“I tried hard”, said Fekken, but the Polo would have none of it. The gearlever broke in stage 11, leaving the car stuck in 1st gear until the Pretoria engineer figured out how to change gear and found third. With a 23 point lead before the VW Rally, Fekken still has a comfortable 19 point advantage after salvaging 4th overall, as he seeks a maiden championship with three rounds remaining.

Japie van Niekerk/Robin Houghton maintained their 100% finishing record with their S2000 Toyota RunX after a trouble-free run and remain 3rd in the title chase.

Jon/Douglas Williams (S2000 VW Polo) ended 6th, just 4 seconds behind Van Niekerk after a rally long battle between the two privateer crews. The remaining S2000 private entrants fared less well. The worst incident of the rally befell Nicholas Ryan/Schalk van Heerden and their S2000 Philips/Jonnesway Toyota RunX, which was written off in a high-speed accident in stage 8.

The car hit a sump rock and ricocheted into a rock to the left of the road that pitched the out of control RunX down a 50 metre drop, rolling twice and caught fire after coming to rest. Numerous teams stopped to help and the stage was stopped for nearly an hour. In spite of Van Heerden suffering a broken leg in the accident, the pair crawled out of the stricken car in a stark reminder to the rally fraternity that the sport is highly dangerous. Van Heerden was operated on on Saturday evening and is recovering in a Port Elizabeth hospital.

The most bizarre incident of the weekend occurred between the second Castrol Toyota RunX of Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh and the production car winners, Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich (Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza N12B). In stage 6 on Friday, Gemmell caught Wilken and thinking the Sasol Subaru had a problem and was moving over to let them through, stuck the RunX’s nose alongside the Subaru. Unaware of Gemmell’s presence, Wilken took his line and the two cars collided, damaging both.

The Sasol Subaru suffered a deranged steering arm and the Toyota a broken tie rod end. Wilken, unsure of the damage to his car, crawled to the end of the stage, dropping nearly half a minute to the N4 leaders. Gemmell lost 10 minutes as he replaced the tie rod end, dropping to 26th overall but fought back to finish 9th overall.

Wilken was lucky to recover to 7th overall and open his production car title lead by one point over Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman (N4 Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14). Du Plessis sideswiped the crash barriers at Scribante racetrack and broke a subframe en route to 8th overall.

Fernando Rueda/Dave Lewkowicz (N4 Total Evolution Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) completed the production car podium after losing 6 minutes with a flat wheel early in the 46km long 6th stage.

Richard/Natasha Vaughan (N4 KMG Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6) were disappointed with 11th overall, having spent two days running ahead of Rueda until the dying moments of the rally.

Adrian Karth/Rikus Fourie (NetConnect Volkswagen Polo), were delighted with their dominant first class A7 win in two years having opened up a 30 second lead by stage five. Thereafter the PE-based IT driver dominated proceedings and rocketed into 2nd place in the class championship standings.

Karth was the only survivor in class A7: title leaders Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) was excluded for running non-homologated tyres at Scribante; Michael Otto/Armand du Toit (Barloworld Toyota Corolla) had a monumental accident in stage 11, rolling twice down a mountain, fortunately without injury to either party; Theuns Joubert/Hennie Botes (Salom Group VW Polo) broke a gearbox in the last gravel stage and Evan Hutchinson/Greg Gericke (Motorite Toyota RunX) blew their engine in stage 3.

Blue Oval fans were delighted with Etienne Lourens/Elvene Coetzee’s first win for Ford since their return to the sport at the start of this season. The class N3 Ford Racing Fiesta ST finished 13th overall after suffering a broken shock absorber on Friday.

Rodney Visagie/Carolyn Swan (N3 Total Evolution Toyota RunX) cruised through the stages after suffering from a down on power engine throughout the two-day rally.

Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak (N3 Sasol Toyota RunX) retired from a 25 second class lead when the right rear wheel studs sheared with 37km of the 10th stage still to go.

Craig Trott/Tony Ball (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) increased their class A6 championship lead after finishing 64 seconds ahead of the mechanically challenged Pannar Seeds VW Polo of Stevan Wilken/Llewellyn Fourie. The Polo steadily disintegrated around the crew as the rough conditions took their toll but they survived to claim the class runner up place.

Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe brought their Techwood/Sasol Toyota Tazz home to another class A5 win, with Dave Compton/Paul Leslie (Sasol Toyota Yaris) ending 2nd in class after losing 5 minutes in an off road excursion on Friday.

Other major retirements were:
· Joos/Danie Stassen (N4 De Goede Finance Subaru Impreza N12) – oil fire SS11
· Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin (A6 Total Evolution Toyota Corolla) – engine SS11
· Nico Higgs/Menno Havelaar (A7 HRD Toyota RunX) – gearbox SS10
· Kosta Koumantarakis/Lou Zietsman (N3 Toyota RunX) – accident SS10
· Hein Lategan/Johan van der Merwe (N4 SAC Subaru Impreza N12B) – engine before SS8
· Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (A7 BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo) – driveshaft ss8
· Riaan/Hester Erasmus (N2 ABC Motors Toyota Corolla) – excluded tyre infringement
· Andre Cleenwerck/Des de Fortier (A5 BP Ultimate Volkswagen CitiGolf) – excluded tyre infringement
· Tony Barbosa/Robbie Coetzee (A5 Ford Racing Ka)
· Paul Pfeifer/Cindi Harding (N4 Nobili Subaru Impreza N14) – accident damage
· JP Damseaux/Cobus Vrey (S2000 Total Evolution Toyota RunX) – gearbox SS1

The 6th round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the Osram Rally, to be held in and around Barkly East on 15 and 16 August.