Good times for Team Sasol

Team Sasol had an eventful 20th Sasol Rally with Mark Cronjé and Robin Houghton ending 5th overall in their Ford Fiesta S2000, while Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey recovered from an overnight 13th overall and broke into the top 10 before ending 11th overall.

Mark and Robin got off to a great start, scorching through the opening stage outside Graskop in a stage-winning time 1.9 seconds ahead of the chasing pack with Jon and Cobus settling into a steady 10th overall.

Going into stage 2, the roughest of the rally, Jon and Cobus had a tyre come off the rim after a nasty dip/jump combination. They searched for a road to pull off the stage and change the tyre, taking eight minutes to complete the task.

"I decided to carry two spare tyres because we had 50km of stages to run. They were a bit too heavy for our set-up and a tyre peeled off the rim. We were up a side road and had no idea how many cars had passed us", reported Jon. "We got back onto the stage just in front of Mark and Robin as we lost 8 minutes. My steering wheel was loose and that distracted me so I never saw Mark until he bumped me from behind".

Jon continued: "I immediately let Mark past but caught him again as he slowed with overheating problems. It was an unfortunate incident that hurt both of our chances of doing well".

Mark was disappointed after such a great winning start to the Sasol Rally: "Stage one was great and stage two was awesome. We were stuck behind Jon and the radiator filled with mud. The engine reached 127 degrees so I stopped and we tried to clear the mud out of the radiator fins but it had baked hard. We lost three minutes but the temperature dropped 20 degrees so we could get back to service".

After stage 2, Mark was 14th and Jon 21st overall. The #24 Sasol Ford Fiesta was quickly back up to speed, setting the 3rd fastest time in stage 3 and set quick times through the rest of the day, recovering to 8th overall at the end of Friday's stages.

Saturday got off to a superb start with Mark setting the fastest time and Jon ending 3rd quickest, and more rapid times followed. In the first gravel stage on day 2, Mark ripped the Fiesta's bumper off in a mud pit, but otherwise settled into a fast-paced run, moving to 6th after stage 12.

Mark and Jon took a Sasol Ford 1-2 fastest time in stage 13 and repeated that with Jon heading Mark in the final Nelspruit stage, while Mark and Robin set their 4th winning time in the 15th stage, leaving both drivers confident of the progress made.

Punctures in stages 11 and 15 on Jon's Ford cost him time and he lost his targeted top 10 placing by 40 seconds.

"The car felt good and I thought we had a shot at the podium", said a disappointed Mark at the Nelspruit finish. "A couple of the stages didn't really suit the car but otherwise it was a good run besides stage 2".

"I'm happy I have demonstrated that we have the pace to run at the front and we're getting a better idea of what is needed to win rallies", said Jon.

With six stage wins from 17, Team Sasol Ford is well set to continue their impact on the 2011 SA Rally Championship. The 3rd round of the series is planned to take place from 13-14 May.