Mark Cronjé and Robin Houghton dominated the Volkswagen Rally, taking a dominant 36,1 second win after leading from start to finish.
The Team Sasol Ford Fiesta pair won four of the 12 stages, none more convincingly than the repeated King's View stage on Saturday, where the Sasol car blasted to an 18 second win, doubling their lead to 36 seconds in one fell swoop.
Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey rounded off a successful weekend for Sasol, taking a solid sixth overall and a scratch time in stage 10.
Mark has enjoyed amazing success in the Eastern Cape city, claiming his first Production Car, Off-Road, Rally and now privateer rally victories during his varied motorsport career.
After taking a slender 1.8 second gap in the opening stage on Friday, Mark and Robin scorched through the event's second stage to win by a whopping 13.9 seconds and simply drove away from the field.
"Stage two was a great stage - it was neat and tidy. Starting ninth on the road really played into our hands," said Mark at the Port Elizabeth finish. "I was concerned about running first on the road on Saturday, but the stages had been swept clean of loose gravel. I wanted to maintain the momentum on Saturday and came out of the blocks fast. The car was perfect throughout the event; it's in the same condition at the end as it was at the start, which is a sign of a good car."
The Sasol pair jump to third in the provisional championship standings, of which the VW Rally was the fifth of eight rounds.
Robin was equally ecstatic about their weekend at the coast.
"We're not thinking about the championship yet, but tackling each rally - and each stage - individually," he said. "Saturday was nerve-wracking at the front, but after stage 8 we backed off a lot. It was a perfect weekend, no overshoots or other issues in the car. Our performance this weekend is scary for the others because there's more to come from us."
Jon and Cobus had a cautious start, running just outside the top 10 initially.
"I knew it was going to be tough," said Williams. "There's a lot of blind rises in Culturama. The exhaust manifold cracked in stage 2, causing the Team Sasol Fiesta to lose power. It was fixed at service but broke again in the following stage."
With lots of ground to make up, Jon and Cobus started Saturday's stages intent on taking the fight to the leaders, ending the opening stage just 0.9 second behind the former double champion Hergen Fekken.
"We went through the King's View stage just 10 seconds slower than Friday's winning time, which was very rewarding as it shows we have the pace," said the Cape Town-based charger. "Now we need to string together a series of stages and find a bit of luck as well. It's a great recovery from my roll in Gauteng and I'm happy with what we achieved."
"It's been a great weekend for Team Sasol," said Dean Somerset, Head of Sasol Motorsport Sponsorships. "It is a very young team compared to the extensive experience of the factory teams, which makes our victory all the more pleasing. Mark and Robin never put a wheel wrong all weekend. Given the high-profile attrition rate where some major names have crashed out, it speaks volumes for Mark and Jon to have emerged unscathed with a wonderful set of results."
The sixth round of the SA Rally Championship takes place in the George and Knysna area of the Garden Route in the Western Cape.
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