With three of the six stages of the Sasol Rally to be run today completed, altogether seven of the 27 cars that started have already exited the event. Ernie van der Walt in the ex-Giniel de Villiers Toyota Yaris had a spectacular accident on stage one when the car rollede and landed up between trees next to the road. The car is badly damaged, but it is not known what the injuries is that the crew suffered, if any.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing tango between the Toyota Yaris of Leeroy Poulter and that of Giniel de Villiers continued up front with 24.8 seconds separating Poulter in the lead followed by his Dakar team mate, de Villiers . With the demise of Van der Walt, Namibia Wilro Dippenaar in a Ford Fiesta is third overall 1:00.3 behind Poulter.

In 4th position was the NRC4 Toyota Auris  entry of Theuns Joubert +3:49.4, followed by Zambia’s Muna Singh in a Subaru Impreza +6.07.3. Next up was Don Smith of Kenya also in a Subaru Impreza +10:43.5.

And now, just to confuse you. The times I gave you above was sent to me via the SMS service.

I received the “Unofficial overall classification” of the cars from the scorer at about the same time. According to the scoresheet I was sent Poulter is leader, de Villiers second, Dippenaar third, Joubert fourth, Botterill in a S1600 Toyota Etios R2 is fifth, Richard Leeke in another S1600 Ford Fiesta R2, sixth, followed by Paul;us Franken (Volkswagen Polo), and Muna Singh from Zambia,

Apart from Van der Walt the other competitors who are already out are Luke Botha, Ashleigh Haigh-Smith, Nico Nienaber, Juandre Nienaber, Jose de3 Gouveia all with me3cdhanical problems, while John  Roos an ARC entrant, did  not start.

All the above times and positions are provisional and have not yet been declared final.