SA rally champs to tackle UK event

Published Feb 14, 2013

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South African rally champions Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton will race a WRC-spec rally car in the Malcolm Wilson Rally in the UK next month.

Malcolm Wilson, who heads Ford’s international motorsport division, M-Sport, has invited the pairing to compete in his self-titled event as a thank-you to them for winning last year’s SA rally championship in a car built by M-Sport.

Although Ford has pulled out of the World Rally Championship as an official team entry, M-Sport still prepares and races WRC Fiestas at the highest level in rallying, and it’s one of these cars Cronje will pilot on March 2.

“Although not a major international event, it will give us the opportunity to learn first-hand about conditions in the UK and also to evaluate our performance at WRC level should an opportunity present itself to compete in a WRC or ERC event later in the year,” says Cronje, who took the SA Rally Championship title in a Sasol-sponsored Ford Fiesta S2000 last year.

The Malcolm Wilson Rally is a round of the British national rally championship, but the South African entrants will not compete for points at the event. -Star Motoring

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