Toyota tops tougher than normal Tour Natal

The Dunlop girls handed out rugby balls at the rally camp in Scottburgh, adding a touch of glamour to the muddy Tour Natal. From left are Darnae Manuel, Eloise Wattergreen, Cara Grove and Hazel Ntusi.

The Tour Natal rally is always a rough and tough event, and the past weekend’s was no exception.

Defending champions Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton first damaged their practice car and crashed out their Fiesta in the first 500 metres of the opening special stage on Friday. Their car was too badly damaged to be repaired in time to enter on Saturday under the half-points Super Rally rules.

Racing mechanic Patrick Samuels loads the bumber
that failed the Mark Cronje balls-to-the-wall test.

This left the field wide open for Toyota, which took first, second and fourth with Volkswagen in third place.

Toyota’s Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee led the rally throughout the event in their Yaris, winning seven of the 14 special stages to finish 43,9 seconds ahead of team-mates Hergen Fekken and Carolyn Swan, also in a Yaris.

Volkswagen filled up the podium in third place, with the visiting Dutch-Belgian combination of Hans Weijs Jnr and Bjorn Degandt in a Polo, one minute and 36 seconds behind Fekken and Swan.

The Imperial Toyota Yaris ended fourth with Giniel de Villiers and Greg Godrich (+2 min 55.2 sec). The Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo of Henk Lategan and Pierre Arries followed in fifth (+10 min 39 sec).

The 19-year-old Lategan was actually lying third, 55 seconds behind Poulter and only 9.9 seconds behind Fekken after winning stages 10 and 12 in an impressive late charge. The youngster then went ploughing on stage 13 and was placed fifth under the half-points Super Rally rules.

Mark Cronje and Roger Houghton's practice car.
'twas ALWAYS going to hard racing for sho!

Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo (PZN Panelbeaters Toyota Auris) were sixth overall and first in the S2 000 Challenge for older specification four-wheel drive cars. They ran as high as third overall on Friday until an overheating engine and alternator failure forced them out. They continued under Super Rally rules on Saturday.

Second S2 000 Challenge crew home and seventh overall was the combination of Piet Bakkes and Shaun Visser (Toyota RunX), who completed day one in second place behind S2 000 Challenge debutants Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit (VW Polo). Himmel rolled out of contention on Saturday’s opening stage, but was placed ninth overall and third in S 2 000 under Super Rally rules.

Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman (New Africa Developments Ford Fiesta S2 000) went off the road and rolled some three kilometres into the opening special stage on Friday, but competed on Saturday under Super Rally rules, and were classified eighth overall and sixth in the S2 000 class after winning three of eight stages.

The Result of Ford Racers Leek and Gilbey's gravity test.
Gravity won.
But, hey, a bit of crack-filler and that should polish right out, right?

Former S2 000 Challenge winners Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin were stranded in stage three on Friday with engine problems. They competed on Saturday under Super Rally rules, but were not classified as finishers after running into further problems.

Like defending champions Cronje and Houghton, Nic van der Westhuizen and Stefan Cilliers (SA Earthworks Toyota Auris) also rolled out of contention in the opening stage on Friday and were unable to enter the Super Rally on Saturday.

The next round of the championship is the Sasol Rally in Mpumalanga on April 11 and April 12. — sarallying.co.za

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