Reigning national rally champions Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton start the second day of The Imperial Toyota Cullinan Rally in sixth place after an opening day (Friday August 15) highlighted by wins in both the opening and closing stages.But their day got off to the worst possible start and despite setting the fastest time contact between a rock and the undertray of the Ford Dealer Team Fiesta resulted in a fist-sized hole being smashed through the top of the gearbox.
A valiant effort by the Thompson Racing crew saw a gearbox change completed in less than half an hour, but the duo still incurred a 70 second penalty for leaving the service point later than stipulated.
“We were hard on the brakes, with the suspension fully compressed when a rock smacked the skid plate really hard, and punched the top engine mounting right out of the gearbox casing,” lamented Cronje. “Thank heavens there was a service opportunity immediately afterwards, and a team which knew what it was doing when it came to changing a gearbox!”
Second quickest time – by a mere tenth – in the second stage proved that there was nothing wrong with #24, but an overshoot on the third stage lost them time and saw them drop to ninth position overall.
The following two stages saw them struggle in the dust of the competitor ahead, but they bounced back with a comfortable win on Special Stage six –Strijdom Park – to set themselves up for a fight back on Saturday August 16, with competitors tackling the same route in the same sequence. By early in the afternoon they will have completed another 78 kilometres of race mileage for a total stage distance of just under 156 kilometres.
“Robin and I have got work to do tomorrow, so we’re just going to get our heads down and see what transpires – a lot can change in six stages and if the surface is unpredictable again – as it was sometimes today, the order is certainly likely to change,” said Cronje.
Toyota Imperial Cullinan Rally 2014 – Spectator Info