here - Handbrakes & Hairpins

EVENTS
driving their new Basil Read/Bizhub Ford
Fiesta S2000, hit a rock with 10km to
go. The impact split the rim, so when the
crew stopped to change the tyre, just
the outer half came off, the inner part
of the rim fi rmly wrapped around the
brake caliper, preventing the wheel from
rotating. Four retirements from the fi rst
seven on the road.
Wilken/Godrich also re-entered
the rally, but retired a second time after
clipping a bank that bent the Fiesta’s
suspension in SS8.
Theuns Joubert/Carl Peskin hit
a huge rock in the road around the 36km
mark. Thinking they had a puncture,
they stopped but found nothing to
change for the wheel and the rest of the
suspension was missing, ripped off the
Salom Volkswagen Polo S2000.
Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys
(Automark Toyota RunX A7) also hit a
rock and ripped a wheel off, while their
fellow class rivals, Michael Otto/Tommy
du Toit (Jonnesway Toyota Corolla A7)
stopped with gearbox failure.
With Toyota Aurises fi lling the
top three places on the leaderboard,
it took just 850 metres of Saturday’s
opening stage to change that. Cronje,
running fi rst on the road and with cold
brakes, hit a bank on a “left 6 over
crest.” He and Paisley replaced the tie
rod after completing the stage, but with
no service before the next stage, the
Auris’ castor rod failed and it was game
over, leaving Gemmell in front.
This meant none of the top
four on the Sasol South African Rally
Championship log took any points away
from the weekend, while Gemmell
rocketed to second place, just 4 points
adrift of Kuun, while Habig is now third a
further 10 points back.
Hein Lategan’s Pirtek Toyota
Auris was up into second, his best ever
placing and with a sniff of a possible
win, kept going hard, setting the fastest
times of all in SS4 and SS6. It ended
in tears for the Pretoria engineer, who
rolled end-over-end in SS8, fortunately
without harm to the crew. This left
Habig in second place, with Jean-Pierre
Damseaux/Carolyn Swan up into third,
the Team Total Toyota RunX S2000 pair
enjoying their best outing since this
event last year.
Damseaux had a late scare,
limping through the SuperSpecial stages
with suspected differential problems.
Their result propelled them to the
head of the inaugural Privateer’s Rally
Championship. The second Team Total
Toyota RunX S2000 of Fernando Rueda/
Dave Lewkowicz ended fourth overall,
their best result since the Spaniard
moved into the S2000 class. Rueda
had no clutch for the entire second
day, starting the car at each stage
on the starter motor. The starter was
replaced as a precaution during the day,
but Rueda was aware that any stall or
overshoot would result in him walking
out of the stage.
Namibian Jaco van Dyk/Des de
Fortier (Volkswagen Polo S2000) fi nished
an excellent fi fth overall after strong
showings all year. The pair tackled
Jessievale with no power steering, which
cost them 5min, but thereafter ran a
faultless rally.
Mohammed Moosa and Grant
Martin put their bad start to the year
behind them to take sixth place in their
Team Total Toyota RunX S2000. Their
power steering failed halfway through
SS1 and without service before SS2,
lost more time. The team took 10min
of service lateness and were stuck in
other competitors dust for 40km in SS3,
leaving them 14th overnight.
Leeroy Poulter/Henry Dearlove
once again put in the drive of the rally,
bringing their Class A6 Imperial Toyota
RunX A6 home seventh overall and the
fi rst front-wheel drive car home, as well
as winning the 1600cc championship
category. Their only issue was a fl at tyre
in SS1.
Third time the bridesmaid to
Poulter, Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe
brought their Silverton Engineering/