Scottburgh, KwaZulu-Natal - Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton dominated the Tour Natal Rally, opening round of the 2015 SA Rally championship, at the weekend, in their Ford Fiesta.
Cronje and Houghton, after winning seven of eleven special stages in overcast and cool conditions through the sugar cane fields in and around Scottburgh, finished in 2hr 6m01, beating defending champions Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Toyota Yaris S2000) by 44.6 seconds.
An overnight setup change on his Yaris didn't help Poulter.
"The revised settings didn't work," he said. "After the first two stages on Saturday we changed back, but by then it was too late; Mark was too far ahead."
Third, after a consistent and trouble-free run was young Henk Lategan, with Barry White reading the notes, scoring a podium position in their first outing in a works Volkswagen Polo S2000, 28.2 seconds adrift of Poulter and Coetzee.
Dakar hero Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan in the second works Yaris took no risks in a conservative drive to fourth, while Japie van Niekerk and Gordon Noble (Ford Fiesta S2000) had to work hard to regain fifth after they suffered a puncture in stage eight, costing them valuable seconds. In the end they beat the works VW Polo team of Gugu Zulu and Pierre Arries, in his first outing in top-tier rallying for more than a year, by just nine seconds - overtaking the Polo on the penultimate stage.
S1600 CLASS
While the Ford crew romped home virtually unchallenged in the premier class, it was a day of major upsets and heartbreak in the hotly contested S1600 class, as the lead changed a number of times before Paulus Franken and Henry Kohne in VW Polo came home to take class honours.
The worst affected were Ashley Haigh-Smith and Damian van Ass (Ford Fiesta S1600). With the frontrunners all hit by trouble, they inherited the class lead and looked set for victory - until two kilometres from the end when a broken rim on their Fiesta R2 brought their progress to an abrupt end.
Earlier the overnight leaders Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle (Toyota Etios) lost four minutes due to a puncture. Then they suffered brake problems, leaving them floundering at the back of the field.
Chad van Beurden and Nico Swartz (VW Polo), lying second in class, tried to capitalise on Botterill's woes, but their Polo broke a wishbone in stage seven, effectively ending their charge.
The same bump also led to the demise of Richard Leeke and Rikus Fourie, whose Ford Fiesta R2 damaged a control arm too badly to continue, while Ernie van der Walt and Rowan Robberts (Ford Fiesta R2) rolled out of the rally in stage eight. This stage also claimed Andrew Heine Robby Coetzee when they went off the road and got their VW Polo beached.
NCR4 / NCR2
All this action, as well as Haigh-Smith's cruel luck, saw Franken and Kohne come home more than a minute ahead of Matthew Vacy-Lyle and Schalk van Heerden (Toyota Etios), with Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle in a distant third.
The only surviving NRC4 entry after the eleven stages was the Toyota Auris of Piet Bakkes and Shaun Visser, who finished ninth overall, while Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo (Toyota Auris) finished second in class under Super Rally rules after gearbox trouble put them out of contention on Friday.
In the NRC2 Challenge Bryan and Keith Heine (Datsun SSS) were the pick of the bunch, winning easily from Trevor Graham and Brian Clifton (Nissan Skyline) with Hanno Ehlers and Kevin Cunningham (Toyota Corolla) bringing up the rear after Tony Ball and Wade Harris (Lancia Fulvia) ran out of fuel after stage eight. Altogether 13 out of 25 starters completed the rally distance of 426.34km.
The next round in the SA Rally championship and the Africa Rally Championship, the Sasol Rally, will be run on 17 and 18 April in Mpumalanga.