Cobus Groenewald and Pierre Jordaan are overall winners of Secunda Arro Rally
Organisers cancelled one stage as it got dark.
TRICHARDT – Cobus Groenewald and Pierre Jordaan won the Secunda Geo-Paint Rally Arro Rally that kicked off at Terranova Village Mall on Saturday, 9 June.
Altogether 27 rally cars took off and Nico du Randt and JG Claassen won stage 1, known as Kosie, on the Holfontein farm.They finished the stage in 20 min 13 sec with their Can-Am Maverick.
The winner of the rally, Groenewald, described this 27km stage as a monster stage and said it is extremely fast at places with the rally cars reaching speeds of up to 200km/h.
Dean Redelinghuys and Amon Meyiwa in their Volkswagen Poli finished second in this stage and Groenewald and Jordaan finished third in their Toyota Run X A7.
Groenewald said stage 2 was a super special stage where two rally cars began the stage next to one another and duel it out over 3.23km stage to see who is the fastest.
Groenewald and Jordaan won this stage in 2 min 40 sec while Du Randt and Claasen finished second and Natie Booysen and Johan Smit third.
Stage 3 was a repetition of stage 1 and Du Randt and Claasen took the victory in this stage in 19 min 31 sec, with Groenewald and Jordaan finishing second and Marco Ferreira and Hannes Pienaar in their Subaru Impreza finishing third.
Stage 4, named Apie, was a new addition to the Secunda Rally and covered a distance of 15.20km.
Ronnie Botes and Etienne Venter won this stage in their Can-Am Maverick in 13 min 08 sec, while Groenewald and Jordaan finished second and Lood de Clercq and JP Jordaan finished third with their Toyota Tazz.
Du Randt and Claassen won stage 5 that was a shortened version of stage 1 and 3 of only 11.25km.
Their winning time was 8 min 34 sec.
Groenewald and Jordaan finished second in this stage and Ferreira and Claassen finished third.
The organisers cancelled stage 6 as darkness caught up with the racers and the last stage of the rally was done in the dark.
Groenewald and Jordaan won the last stage in 6 min 36 sec and Du Randt and Claassen finished second, while Ferreira and Pienaar finished third.
Ferreira and Pienaar finished second overall in the rally, De Clercq and Joraan finished third, Johan and Erica de Bruyn finished fourth and Booysen and Smit finished fifth overall.
The committee of the Africa Rally Racing Organisation thanked the farmers, Messrs Kosie and Janneman van der Merwe, for the use of their farms to lay out the stages of the rally, as well as Govan Mbeki Municipality for hosting the event.
