Team Sasol's pair of young chargers is confident of a top drawer result going into the HMC National Rally, round 3 of the SA Rally Championship. Both Mark Cronjé and co-driver Robin Houghton and Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey have won stages while Mark has led both rounds of the series held so far. Driving a pair of state-of-the-art Ford Fiesta S2000s, Team Sasol has been at the forefront of the battle for rally wins and aims to take the fight all the way to the top this time around.
"We just need to pull all the elements together at once," asserts Mark. "We have the pace and I have confidence in the car and the team behind us. We need a little luck as well. The incidents we've had this year are partly self inflicted and partly out of our control but that's the nature of the sport."
"Winning stages has been quite straightforward - now we must add consistency to our pace. The stages we are likely to face are not as rough or technical in nature as those in Natal or on the Sasol Rally," Mark continued. "We have some nice stuff coming for the car, but it doesn't need much to get there. With the Fiesta, I'm more confident than I've ever been because I know I have the car beneath me to win."
Mark has pragmatic views on the change in venue from Ermelo to the Highveld region: "Rallying must be run like a business and the move away from Ermelo is for the better. The Witbank region is economically strong with a healthy rally culture. Organisers need to come to the party to make events more accessible to the public because we have healthy competition in the sport which has attracted healthy sponsors."
Robin Houghton matches his driver's enthusiasm for the HMC Rally.
"We've kick-started our championship and now we need to catch up a few more points and close the gap a bit. The stages don't require as much preparation work as the Sasol Rally did. This year's competitiveness means there's different winners and podium finishers and they all take points away from each other so no one is running away with the championship which plays into our hands. The race gods decide who to smile on these days - a puncture, an overshoot or mechanical problem means winning goes out the window. Toyota seems to be back on the pace and Volkswagen will come back sooner rather than later. When we discover the secret of how to win consistently, Mark will be very hard to beat. We plan to keep putting points on the board and really want to give Team Sasol their first win."
Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey have spent the weeks before the HMC Rally at the Canal Walk Motor Show, which attracted over 200 000 people in seven days.
"It was fantastic exposure for Team Sasol as well as the sport in general. We reached many thousands of people new to the excitement of rallying," Jon reported.
Looking ahead to round 3, Jon echoes his team-mates: "We need more consistency and more luck! I will have to push harder on the first day so that we're in the mix for a podium with less pressure on day 2. I'm glad I've found my feet so quickly. The Ford Fiesta is very forgiving to drive. Hopefully, the team has sorted the teething issues we experienced on the first two rounds so we can have a clean run."
The year started at a frenetic pace for Jon.
"The team was formed from scratch and there was a lot to do to make it all happen. No sooner had we got going we had the Sasol Rally and all the attention that triggered. Now we can settle down to the job at hand and score solid results for Sasol. Podiums are our immediate goal going to the next few events."
"The area is quite sandy and will suit our cars well" says Cobus of the expected terrain. "I'm looking forward to a good event - a clean event without mechanical problems so we can show what we can do. We need a good first day so we're in a good position to push harder on day 2. It's quite demoralising to drive so hard just to get back from a lousy position to 7th at the end."
The HMC Rally starts at noon from the Portuguese Club in Witbank and starts with a short 5km stage across the road from rally HQ. Two longer gravel stages make up the day 1 route.
Day two starts from the same venue at 7.30am, with two Witbank-based stages before heading to Bronkhorstspruit for 5 gravel stages, with the spectator friendly Witbank stage concluding the event.
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