It was billed as a two-horse race. A fight to the end, the battle of the season. In the end only one horse remained and he passed the finish hardly raising a sweat. Mark Cronje and Gerhard Snyman in a Ford Performance Ford Fiesta won the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally that ended this afternoon. The event was the seventh round of the SA National Rally Championship.
It may not have been the memorable occasion that so many anticipated, but it will be remembered for a number of reasons. The main one will probably be the way in which Leeroy Poulter in the Team Castrol Toyota Yaris virtually destroyed his left back wheel on the second stage yesterday and managed to fix what look like terminal damage overnight to be ready to fight again at the start of the next day’s rallying.
It was nothing short of a miracle or he must have had some help from above. But the damage that he did to the wheel cost him the rally and maybe even the championship as he lost just over two minutes to Cronje who was leading. He made up several places on the leader board and ensured that he did get some very welcome points. But that was it.
And just when the rally had settled to run its course to the end, Henk Lategan in a Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo was on the receiving end of a one minute penalty that dropped him from second to fourth and moved Giniel de Villiers in the other Toyota Yaris into second.
In stage nine the rally was turned on its head. Poulter threw all of his hard work out of the window when he rolled the Toyota on the stage. It was a heart sapping moment, like when your team has lost and you drop your head into your hands to hold back the tears.
Yet, more was to come when on the very next stage De Villiers also cost Toyota the rally with a spectacular roll.
Toyota’s participation on their own sponsored rally had come to an end. And that is something for the history books for I can’t remember a rally where none of the sponsors cars did not finish. It must have been a devastating moment for everybody involved in Toyota Motorsport especially the two crews involved.
On stage 11 Hergen Fekken picked up a puncture. Cronje and Fekken were both given a 20 second penalty for hitting a chicane and then the NAD Ford Fiesta of Enzo Kuun blew an engine on stage 12.
Just to top it all, the gremlins struck Henk Lategan again when his Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo suffered mechanical damaged and cried “no more” and even after a handful of stage wins, his second place disappeared again.
A dramatic ending to an event that also had a dramatic start.
And the la-di-da’s were shut up.
In Class 1600, Guy Botterill in a borrowed car ran away with the class to win it by more than four minutes from Matthew Vace-Lyle.
The provisional final top results are:
Cro 1:41:04.6
Lat +17.8
Zul + 2:55.2
Kuu + 3:31.3
Fek + 3:39.3
Ern + 7:28.0
Bot + 12:36.6
Jou + 12.48.3
A full final report will be published here once it comes to hand.