Ford pair wins 24th Sasol Rally

At the overnight stop the Ford crew, also the winners of 2012 and 2013, led the Castrol Team Toyota Yaris of Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee
by 25,5 seconds, and stretched this to 44,4 seconds at the second last stage of the rally.
The Toyota challenge then faltered, with Poulter/Coetzee’s car losing four-wheel drive, while Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan, in a comfortable third position in their Castrol Toyota Yaris, suffered engine failure at high speed.

This gave Gugu Zulu and Pierre Arries (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo) an unexpected podium position, to the elation of both the Volkswagen racing team and the event sponsors.
“It was the most difficult Sasol Rally I have ever done,” Cronje said afterwards. “The conditions were treacherous, and while it was already bad on the first day, it was even worse today because of the inconsistent road surfaces. In these circumstances you were never sure when you could push or where you should hold back,” he added. “Still, we were able to hold it together, and the Fiesta performed faultlessly throughout the event.”

The high attrition rate promoted Namibians Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo (North City Panel Beaters Toyota Auris) to fourth position overall, 58 seconds behind the VW crew, and also to a class win in NRC4.
The final day of the rally started in dramatic fashion when Henk Lategan and Barry White (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo), who were third overall, only 12 seconds behind Poulter/Coetzee at the overnight stop, crashed heavily with the NAD Ford Fiesta of Japie van Niekerk and Gordon.
While recovering from the spin they turned in front of Van Niekerk, who was still accelerating hard in fifth gear. Both cars were damaged extensively and had to withdraw, but none of the crew members were hurt.

As oil from the damaged Ford leaked onto the tarmac it was decided to cancel the stage. The next six stages were all won by Cronje and Houghton, but Zulu/Arries sneaked the short final-stage win in the Lowveld Showgrounds in Nelspruit by
0,1 of a second.
The competitors in the African Rally Championship found the going very difficult. In the end it was the Kenyan pair of Jaspreet Chatthe and Craig Thorley (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo RC2) who took the rally honours, beating Zambians Jassy Singh and Sajid Khan (Subaru Impreza), by just under three minutes and finishing seventh overall.
Chad van Beurden /Nico Swartz (Beurden Transport VW Polo) acquitted themselves well in the S1600 class by finishing the rally first in class and eighth overall, beating current log leaders Paulus Franken/ Henry Kohne (Manitou Group VW Polo R2), who finished 10th overall, by more than two minutes.

The difficult conditions led to a high attrition rate with only 13 of the 26 crews which started the event on Friday making it to the end.
The Northern Regions event, that formed part of the last day of the Sasol Rally, was won by Joos Stassen/Etienne Lourens in their Class S5 Subaru Impreza, followed by AC Potgieter/Tommy du Toit (Class S3 VW Polo) and Richard Leeke Jnr/Rikus Fourie (Class S3 Ford Fiesta) with Danie Stassen and Jaco Vorster also in a Subaru in fourth and Karl and Simon du Plessis in their Chev V8 in sixth place. The time difference between the top four being just more than one second. Despite Nic and Bianca Theunissen’s departure from the race in stage 12, they still won the NRC2 trophy. Joos Stassen, “It was a tough race even though we only entered the regional leg of the rally.

“It was a privilege for me to have someone of the calibre of Etienne Lourens as my navigator and even though we have never shared a rally car, we managed to sync fairly quickly which enabled me to often brake deeper and go faster. We did have a bit of a scare with a brake pipe coming loose but other than this, the Subaru performed flawlessly. And as a matter of interest, despite our Impreza having done a 100 000-kilometre race and considered ancient compared to the competition, we were but about two seconds off the pace of Mark Cronje in stage 12. Makes you think – does it not? That’s why we love the Subarus – low maintenance – tough as nails and always competitive. Very chuffed with winning the S5 class and fourth overall.”

Danie Stassen, “We had a trouble-free run with at times only a point-three time difference between us and Joos. Our intention was to have fun – bring the cars home and finish together. On the last stage we were only a 0,3 seconds slower than Joos and Etienne. And considering that neither one of us did any recce of the routes, as we had to attend to our business first, we were right up there with the much more expensive competition cars.”
Karl du Plessis, “We finished fourth in class and sixth overall in the regional leg of the rally. It was slippery and fun with the two-wheel drive V8 with its brutal power. The long stages of the rally are physically extremely tough but it suits the Chevy. Despite a broken diff mounting we were able to finish and do a very dusty donut at the showgrounds.”

Nic Theunissen, “Our 15th Sasol and time for the Beamer to retire. We broke a side shaft on stage 11 just after the start which put us out of the race on day two. May have something to do with the rule that we have to run with gravel tyres on the tar stages. The latter is not good if you push as much power as the Beamer does. Obviously thrilled to win the NRC2 prize despite this setback.”

The local teams would like to thank their various sponsors for their support.