Enzo
Kuun and Guy Hodgson claimed the 2010 Sasol South African Rally Championship in spite of parking their BP Volkswagen Polo in the trees
as early as 800 metres into Friday's third stage of the Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally, the notorious mountain hill-climb stage at Gerotek,
Kuun's second ever accident in 100 rallies as a works driver.
Kuun started the event with a 21-point advantage over his only rivals Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock in their S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris. Gemmell had to win this event, whatever happened to Kuun, but could do no better than fourth place in a rally dominated by Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich in their M-Sport built Basil Read/Bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000.
"I'm very happy. We've worked hard all year and taken our risks during the season," said Kuun, now double rally champion after taking his maiden title in 2006. "We had no incidents or punctures all year. I went into a left 7 two gears too fast. The car got airborne and touched down already off the road. It's been harder than ever to win rallies this season, so this championship means it's a significant achievement."
Wilken and Godrich made the event their own, winning six of the 12 stages to open a commanding lead of over a minute by the end of Friday's all-tarmac surfaced day in spite of a spin and stall in stage 2. It was an easily defendable lead over Saturday's 78km of seven gravel stages in spite of a hard-charging Conrad Rautenbach/Peter Marsh in their identical Ford Fiesta. The flying Basil Read Fiesta pair won two gravel stages and was in the top three on all the others to storm to their maiden national rally win.
"It's awesome to win our first rally and give our sponsors something special after they stuck with us through what has been a terrible season for us," said an elated Wilken at the Bapsfontein finish.
Rautenbach tried hard to close the gap to Wilken, winning one tarmac and three gravel stages, but after two punctures, including one on the very last stage, eventually ended 84,8 seconds behind Wilken. The all-Zimbabwean pair clinched the inaugural Privateers' Championship.
The drive of the rally came from Castrol Toyota's Leeroy Poulter and Robert Paisley in their Auris S2000. In the driver's second-ever rally in a S2000 machine, Poulter - the 2010 class A6 rally champion, ended third overall to claim his first podium, capping a remarkable debut rally season. The former production car racer was consistently fast on the tarmac stages in spite of catching slower competitors on two occasions, but crucially, kept his team-mate and the hard charging pair factory Volkswagen's behind him on the gravel stages.
Johnny Gemmell, the championship runner-up for the second year, and co-driver Scotsman Drew Sturrock, pushed their Castrol Toyota Auris as hard as they could, but after ending the first day 87 seconds behind the leader, it was game over as far as the championship was concerned. Toyota clinched their 20th Manufacturers' Championship title.
"The tarmac didn't go well for us," said the disappointed driver. "Although we approached the rally in a positive frame of mind, realistically, we knew it was unlikely that we could win the title as Enzo needed only a 1seventh place finish."
The outgoing champions Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries (BP Volkswagen Polo), the major force in SA rallying over the past two years with back-to-back championships, had a subdued rally ending fifth overall, but set the fastest time in the final stage of the year.
Hein Lategan and Johan van der Merwe brought their S2000 Pirtek/Sasol Toyota Auris home sixth overall, after starting with the second-fastest time on the opening skirmish and holding their own over the remaining stages of the day. Traction and gearbox problems left them unable to defend their position and they dropped down the order as the day wore on.
Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton ended the final rally of the year in seventh place in their New Africa Developments Toyota Auris. The Pretoria property developer was cautious on his first-ever visit to the hill-climb stage, ending the day in ninth place overall. Back on the dirty stuff on Saturday, Van Niekerk put the hammer down to move up two places despite a broken rear shock absorber. After a heavy landing on the final jump in the super special stage, the car stalled at the control and had to be pushed to parc fermé, but it was their second-best result of the year.
Jan Habig and Ralph Pitchford brought their BP Volkswagen Polo home eighth overall after completing two extra laps of the Zwartkops stage on Friday that left them 13th overall on the overnight leader board. A hard charge on Saturday saw them move quickly into ninth place and they inherited their final position after the Team Total Toyota RunX of JP Damseaux/Carolyn Swan retired on the penultimate stage with a blown motor.
Namibian Jaco van Dyk and Des de Fortier brought their S2000 Volkswagen Polo home ninth overall after a hard drive. Every rally this season was new for the Windhoek transport operator, who found the tarmac stages interesting. Traction and set-up problems were only cured by the second last stage, too late to make up any more places.
Theuns Joubert and Carl Peskin (Salom Group VW Polo) took a cautious approach to the mountain and tarmac stages, ending Friday's stages 12th overall, some four minutes off the lead. A steady run on the gravel stages saw the Mokopane businessman edge up the order by a minute to end 10th overall.
Nicholas Ryan and Geoff Tyrer brought their S2000 Jonnesway/RCF VW Polo home 11th overall, just one second behind Joubert. The car suffered a failed battery at the end of the day, parking overnight on a slope and armed with a new power source on Saturday morning. The Polo pair was stuck behind Van Niekerk on the very first stage and lost over a minute after an overshoot on the first super special stage when the Polo refused to select reverse gear. A pole jumped in front of the car in the next stage, causing cosmetic damage to the front corner.
Team Total's Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin ended 12th overall, losing two places on the final stage after clipping a bank which caused a right rear puncture. He hated the tarmac stages but returned to his element in the gravel and quickly rose up the order from an overnight 11th to ninth.
Fernando Rueda/Dave Lewkowicz (Team Total Toyota RunX) ended their last rally 13th after a quiet run, savouring the last outing before the flamboyant Capetonian heads into retirement.
Evan Hutchison and Elvéne Coetzee brought their Motorite Volkswagen Polo home 14th after incurring a five-minute penalty to change the steering rack on the first day. The Motorite team completed the repair in the last minute of allowable time before being time barred. Without the penalty, the Motorite car would have finished seventh overall, the pair's best outing of the year.
Visser du Plessis/Cobus Vrey retired their Pirtek/Sasol Toyota Auris in stage two with another broken Sadev gearbox.
Heading the two-wheel drive contingent was Gugu Zulu and Cindi Harding in their works class A7 BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo. Already the 2010 class champions, the pair had a down on power engine on Saturday but came back strongly on Saturday's dirt stages to take their third class win of the year.
Rivals Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (A7 Automark Toyota RunX) ended 22nd overall after de Wit suffered motion sickness in the hill-climb stage and cruised around the remaining stages after taking lateness to sleep off the effects.
Gavin Cronjé/Henry Dearlove ended their season in the first stage when the Easy Life Kitchens VW Polo stopped with a shock absorber that punched through the turret top, the second such incident in two events.
Craig Trott and Robbie Coetzee (Team Total Toyota RunX) claimed the class A6 win, taking the new-for-2010 1600cc Championship in the process. Trott was shadowed all the way by teenager and 2010 Class A5 champion, Ashley Haigh Smith and co-driver Hilton Auffray (React Toyota Corolla). The pair traded fastest class stage times on Saturday but with Trott's three-minute overnight lead, the Natalian was never under real pressure.
Morné J Van Rensburg and Rikus Fourie brought their class A5 Volkswagen Polo Vivo home to its second class win in succession. The new junior class challenger from VW stopped in the first stage for two minutes with a stuck throttle and suffered intermittent power steering failure. The pair took a minute off the overnight class leaders Piet Bakkes/Johan Aucamp (Sasol Komatipoort Volkswagen Citi Golf) in Saturday's opening pair of stages and continued to erode their deficit until the penultimate stage when they took the lead with time to spare.
Henk Lategan/Patrick Vermaak (A5 Pirtek Toyota Tazz) were the class runners up followed by Bakkes.
The class N3 title fight between Megan/Oliver Verlaque (Toyota RunX) and the points leaders Robson Maganezi/Shaun Visser (Linking Africa Ford Fiesta ST) ended in a tie, with the title going to the vivacious Ms Verlaque on a count-back of wins. Verlaque ended the opening day with a solid 2½ minute lead over her rally rival Stefanie/Willem Hugo (Wiel Toyota RunX), who lost four minutes after completing two extra laps of the Handling track stage.
Verlaque, content to cruise to secure her title, saw the Hugos quickly eat into the deficit and take the class win by 25 seconds. Maganezi ended third in class and second in the championship.
The 50th year of South African rallying was the most competitive ever with no less than 17 top-class S2000 cars competing and a pool of eight potential winners on each event and saw the closest-ever win, Johnny Gemmell's 0.7 second victory over Jan Habig on the Rally of South Africa. On the same event, Drew Sturrock, Gemmell's co-driver, became the youngest-ever rally winner, while Ashley Haigh Smith, at 18 years and 8 days, became the youngest-ever class champion.
2010 Champions
Driver's Champion: Enzo Kuun
Co-Driver's Champion: Guy Hodgson
Privateer Driver's Champion: Conrad Rautenbach
Privateer Co-Driver's Champion: Peter Marsh
1600cc Driver's Champion: Craig Trott
1600cc Co-Driver's Champion: Robbie Coetzee
Class S2000 Driver's Champion: Enzo Kuun
Class S2000 Co-Driver's Champion: Guy Hodgson
Class A7 Driver's Champion: Gugu Zulu
Class A7 Co-Driver's Champion: Cindi Harding
Class A6 Driver's Champion: Leeroy Poulter
Class A6 Co-Driver's Champion: Henry Dearlove
Class A5 Driver's Champion: Ashley Haigh Smith
Class A5 Co-Driver's Champion: Hilton Auffrey
Class N4 Driver's Champion: Joos Stassen
Class N4 Co-Driver's Champion: Danie Stassen
Class N3 Driver's Champion: Megan Verlaque
Class N3 Co-Driver's Champion: Oliver Verlaque
Manufacturers' Champion: Toyota
Latest News