While JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit stamped their authority on the 2023 SA National Rally Championship by picking up the Friday win in the unforgiving Algoa Rally’s Longmore Forest stages in the Eastern Cape at the weekend, it was Toyota Gazoo Racing‘s young lions who emerged victorious with a Saturday 1-2.
Top class rookie Jono van Wyk and navigator Nico Swartz laid down a marker for what looked set to be a very closely fought battle win when they powered their Toyota Gazoo Racing Starlet the to victory in Friday’s opening Special Stage. At 1 minute 32.3 seconds, chief rivals and championship leaders JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit’s Hyundai R4 was a mere 0.2 seconds behind them.
Theuns Joubert and Schalk van Heerden’s Salom Toyota Auris set the third quickest time ahead of local duo Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout in Toyota Auris S2000, and national pair Chris Coertse and Greg Godrich in their Rally Technik Mazda2.
The 21.45 kilometre second stage of the day gave Potgieter an opportunity to stretch the Hyundai’s legs. Chris Coertse was also getting into his stride and he was second quickest across the gravel stage, chased hard by Mandla Mdakane and Kes Naidoo in the second Toyota Gazoo Starle. Benjamin Habig and Barry White’s front drive NRC2 Just Tools Volkswagen Polo meanwhile mixed it up with their all-wheel drive NRC1 rivals in fifth.
Coertse and Godrich piled on the pressure to win MTO Sinkdam Stage 4 ahead of Potgieter and du Toit. Stage 5, Culturama Twist, did just that. Run in the darkness, it saw Mdakane forced way down the field as the Toyota driver was obliged to run the stage without working spotlights on the Starlet.
Potgieter and du Toit then closed their day as final 1.7 kilometre Mentor’s Sprint stage and rally winners to complete a hat trick of the first three rounds of the 2023 South African Rally Championship on stage saw.
Second overall and in NRC1 Coertse and Godrich held Mdakane and Naidoo and Joubert and van Heerden at bay, while Habig and White took the NRC 2 win from Gerald Klopper and Johan Aucamp’s Toyota Etios R2, and Gustav Poetgieter and Tommy Coetzee’s Ford Fiesta R2.
Saturday: A welcome Toyota Gazoo Starlet 1- 2
The 2023 National Rally Championship format sees two separate rallies run over two days, each using variations of the same special stages. Which means anyone with a repairable problem from Friday, can start afresh on Saturday. And that’s exactly what Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz did in their Toyota Gazoo Starlet.
They NRC1 rookies once again blitzed through the opening stage of the day, albeit a mere 0.1 seconds ahead of JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit in the Hyundai. Gazoo Starlet teammates Mandla Mdakane and Kes Naidoo enjoyed a stormer of a run to finish third ahead of the Owen Jones and Aden Bredekamp Subaru. The opening stage claimed a victim as Johan and Juane Viljoen’s VW Polo suffered a broken CV joint.
Van Wyk carried the momentum into the second stage of the day, emerging victorious by a massive 54 seconds over Mdakane, with Potgieter a further second behind.
Van Wyk held Potgieter off again in stage 4, but the repeat of the Culturama stage 5 as the penultimate of the day, proved dramatic. Jono van Wyk stormed to another stage win from Mdkane and Naidoo, and Coertse and Godrich as JJ Potgieter limped home three minutes off the pace and behind Habig, who was also nursing a damaged differential.
Identical final stage times for van Wyk and Potgieter with Mdkane in chase closed a fine rally off for Toyota Gazoo Racing, as Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz led a memorable 1-2 over teammates Mdakane and Naidoo. Chris Coertse and Greg Godrich held on to third in the Mazda from NRC2 winners Habig and White, while championship leaders Potgieter and du Toit survived to pick up valuable points in fifth.
Gustav Potgieter and Tommy Coetzee ended sixth and second in NRC2 in their Ford Fiesta from regional winners Jody Van Zimmern and James Johnson’s amazing Datsun Coupe, and third placed NRC2 crew George Smalberger Robbie Coetzee’s Shield VW Polo R2.
The 2023 South African Rally Championship now heads back north to the Mpumalanga Forests of Tzaneen on 25 and 26 August, the scene of championship leader JJ Potgieter’s dramatic and victorious arrival in NRC1 last year.