It was probably not the result that most people who were following the Imperial Toyota Rally in Cullinan expected. That it was going to be close was never in doubt when the rally started the last six stages this morning. But the real drama came on the last three stages.
Starting stage 8 Leeroy Poulter in the Team Castrol Toyota Yaris, had cut Mark Cronje in the Ford Performance Ford Fiesta’s lead down to 1.9. And with two stages left it could go either way. The slightest mistake or problem and either of the two could have kissed the rally goodbye.
And then it happened. Drama for Cronje when he broke a steering arm in stage 9 saw his chances of winning disappear in the Cullinan dust. First came the news that he was out, but Cronje and co-driver,m Robin Houghton, fixed the problem . They lost 16 minutes in the progress.
On stage 10 Cronje threw all caution to the wind and attacked the stage like a man possessed. Not that it would have made any difference to the outcome of the rally, but he certainly entertained the crowd by going at the stage hammer and thongs. And entertain he did!
At the end of the day however, Toyota scored another consecutive 1-2 with Giniel de Villiers again second in the Team Castrol Toyota Yaris 29.4s behind Poulter.
Poulter has now taken the lead in the championship race and with two rallies left the outcome of the championship race is on a knife-edge. Cronje will try his utmost to win back the title that Poulter took from him last year, while Poulter will want to make sure that Toyota win their second championship after a long drought.
Third overall was Hergen Fekken in the Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo 36.7s behind the leader, followed by Gugu Zulu in another Volkswagen Polo 1:00.3s off the lead with Thilo Himmel also in a Volkswagen Polo 5th +1:55.6. Ernie van der Walt in his Vecto Toyota Yaris was 6th +3:22.3.
Theuns Joubert in a NR4 Toyota Auris came home seventh +8:18.7.
The drive of the day probably belonged to Henk Lategan in the Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo. Lategan broke a sump on the penultimaste stage yesterday and incurred a penalty of ten minutes when he re-entered the rally under Rally2 rules. He started the final day in 23rd place.
He gave it all he had to win three of the six stages and finish the event in 8th overall 9:16.7.
The 1600 2WD class was won by Guy Botterill in a Toyota Etios R2 with Paulus Franken second in a R2 Volkswagen Polo.
A full report and analysis of the Imperial Toyota Rally will be published here later.