Competitors on the Volkswagen Rally taking place in Port Elizabeth, woke up to a second day welcomed by very wet stages after an overnight deluge that turned some of the stages into mud bath. On the very first stage nearly half of the field got stuck in the stage according to reports from Port Elizabeth.
Andy Haigh-Smith tweeted that is was one of the most wet and difficult stages he has ever done.
At the halfway service on day two verylittle has changed from the overnight positions. Leeroy Poulter in the Team Castrol Toyota Yaris was still leading the event with an overall time of 1:40:44.8, 26.5 seconds ahead of Mark Cronje in the Ford Performance Ford Fiesta.
Cronje commented yesterday that after they has the puncture he pushed very hard, but “luck just was not on our side”.
Third overall is Giniel de Villiers in the other Totyota 46.6 seconds behind the leader. De Villiers seem to have found a second breath and following his performance in Bela Bela, is again putting in a very good display.
Jape van Niekerk in the NAD Ford Fiesta was just holding position in fourth 3:17.6 behind Poulter, followed by Hergen Fekken in the first of the Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo’s on +3:38.7.
Gugu Zulu in another Volkswagen who, lost a lot of time yesterday, was 6th overall +6:41.1. He was leading Henk Lategan in another Volkswagen Polo who is putting in a storming run after losing some five minutes yesterday as a result of a puncture and has moved up from 13th overnight to 7th on stage 9, but is 7:08.3 seconds off the pace.
In 8th overall is Paulus Franken in a S16000 Volkswagen R2 15:24.2 behind the leader, followed by Matthew Vacy Lyle in a S600 oyota Etios R2 on +15:55.7. Franken is leading the 2WD class.
The next stage is the longest of the rally. It is 47km in lenght and with all the rain that has fallen it may have an effect on the current leaderboard.
BREAKING NEWS:
Stages 11 and 12 of the Volkswagen Rally have been cancelled as a result of the rain and very wet roads.
The results up to stage ten will be final with Poulter winning. Cronje second, de Villiers fourth and Fekken fifth. Lategan finished sixth followed by Zulu and Franken who won the 2WD class S1600.
Full final report to follow.