Cape Town - Giniel de Villiers, a former SA cross-country champion and winner of the 2009 Dakar Rally, has won his first national championship rally.
And he did it right in his own back yard, at the Toyota Western Cape Rally, Round 6 of the SA Rally championship, in a semi-works Toyota Yaris S2000, with navigator Greg Godrich in the hot seat.
Second, just eight seconds in arrears after 12 special stages and 174km were works Toyota crew Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee, with twice former SA champion Enzo Kuun and Gerhard Snyman (Ford Fiesta) third, 15 seconds behind the leaders.
It wasn't an easy win for the local man; De Villiers and Godrich were fourth overall, 42 seconds behind leaders Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Fiesta), at the overnight stop in Brackenfell after the first day, just three seconds behind Kuun and Snyman, and 23 seconds behind championship leaders Poulter and Coetzee
Saturday's route consisted of seven gravel special stages on tight and twisty farm roads in the Durbanville, Malmesbury and Moorreesburg areas. Rain had resulted in muddy and slippery surfaces and standing water along the route, which took its toll.
De Villiers was up to third behind Cronje and Poulter after the opening special stage six but then blew a shock absorber and had to complete two and a half stages without damping on that wheel, over very bumpy roads. He recovered well to climb back to fourth behind Poulter, works Toyota crew Hergen Fekken and Carolyn Swan, who had improved their overnight position of seventh to second, and Kuun after SS9.
Poulter had taken over the lead on SS7 after Cronje lost nearly three minutes with a puncture; the defending champion had extended his overnight lead to more than half a minute with a win on the opening stage of the day to add to the three he’d accumulated on Friday. He pushed hard to make up the lost time, winning SS9 after picking up another puncture on SS8, but had to settle for sixth at the finish, 1m30s in arrears.
Then Poulter was hit by a broken shock absorber on SS9 while 41 seconds ahead of Fekken and had to complete one and a half stages with no damping, allowing De Villiers to close to within a second of Poulter on the penultimate stage after overtaking Kuun on SS10.
De Villiers and Godrich were rewarded for their best performance yet together, winning the final two stages to take the rally win, while Poulter and Coetzee retained their championship lead, leaving the Cape with 29 point advantage over team mates Fekken and Swan with two rounds remaining.
Hans Weijs Junior of Holland and Bjorn Degandt of Belgium were first of the factory Volkswagen Polos to finish, coming home fifth, 1m12s off the pace. Namibian Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit (VW Polo) were classified seventh under Super Rally rules after breaking their suspension on SS9.
Eighth were Piet Bakkes and Shaun Visser (Toyota RunX) after experiencing engine problems on SS10, followed home by Henk Lategan and Barry White, who also finished under Super Rally rules after hitting a post on SS8, as did Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin (VW Polo) who were classified 10th after they broke their suspension on SS10 .
The next round of the championship will Polokwane Rally in Limpopo on 17 and 18 October.