Secunda Motor Sport: Ford Performance pair of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton dominate the first day
Will they do it again today?
SECUNDA – Spectators turned out in their thousands to watch the Ford Performance pair of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton dominate the first day of the inaugural Secunda Motor Rally in and around the bustling industrial and mining town of Secunda in Cosmos Country.
The Ford Performance crew in their fast Fiesta S2000 comfortably won five stages on the opening day of the rally to pprovisionally lead by a healthy margin of 26.9 seconds over Henk Lategan/Barry White (Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo) at the overnight stop at the Lake Umuzi waterfront complex in the Mpumalanga town.
Lategan/White, who had to contend with a stuck diff release for three stages, put in a late charge to win the final stage of the day by the slimmest of margins (0.2 seconds) and in the process also displaced Giniel de Villiers/Carolyn Swan (Team Castrol Toyota Yaris) in the second last stage.
At the overnight stop the VW crew were only 7.7 seconds ahead of the Toyota pair, with their “new”, but very experienced VW Sasolracing team mates Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries only 15 seconds adrift of the Yaris crew – so expect a battle royal amongst these three for second place tomorrow.
Gugu Zulu/Hilton Auffray (Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo), in their first outing together, is lying fifth after team mates Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit received a penalty for lateness after they had to push their fuel-starved car for 800 metres, dropping them down to sixth.
For defending SA champions Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee it wasn’t a good day at the office. The bonnet pins on their Team Castrol Toyota Yaris were not secured properly after it refused to istart at the beginning of special stage 3, and it flew open in the stage, cracking the windscreen.
They then hit a rock in the following stage, damaging a rim, and also suffered gearbox problems. This was changed at the next service, but then experienced clutch problems in the final stage. All this meant over 4 minutes of lost time, dropping them down to eighth position – 2 minutes and 30 seconds behind the leaders.
The Namibians Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo (North City Panelbeaters Toyota Auris) also had trouble from the start. Their car suffered a misfire all day and they broke a side shaft in stage 2, leading to their retirement in the fourth stage. They hope to compete under SupeRally rules today.
Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman (NAD Ford Fiesta S2000) were running well in Van Niekerk’s spare car and moved up to fourth overall after stage 3, but in the next stage the pair’s Fiesta lost a wheel 1.7 km into the stage when they hit a gate post, leading to their retirement.
In only his second outing in his Yaris S2000 young Ernie van der Walt, with Greg Godrich, again had to retire, this time with engine problems.
Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios S1600) were leading the highly competitive S1600 class after the first 185km of special stages, 34 seconds up on Chad van Beurden/Nico Swartz (Beurden Transport VW Polo).
Third, only 14 seconds behind Van Beurden, was Ashley Haigh-Smith/ Damian van Ass (Castrol Ford Fiesta R2) followed by AC Potgieter/Tommy du Toit (RickyB Transport and Plant Hire VW Polo R2), another 19 seconds adrift, were Richard Leeke Jnr/Rikus Fourie (ATS Ford Fiesta S1600 R2).
Current S1600 log leaders Paulus Franken/Henry Kohne (Manitou Group VW Polo S1600 R2) had to retire after stage 2 and Marko Himmel/ Francois Schoombee (VW Polo R2) ran out of fuel in the same stage after they had a problem with the fuel pump in the service area.
The rally restarts at 9am this morning from the Lake Umuzi complex with six more special stages over a distance of 107 km to be run before the event ends at Lake Umuzi at around 3pm.
(Photos: Standerton Advertiser)
