IN SECOND overall, and the only one of three works toyota’s entered, was Hergen Fekke, in a Castrol Toyota Yaris. He was 24.2 seconds behind Cronje.
In third place ater the end of stage three and 42.0 second of the pace was the Dutch Volkswagen Racing driver in a Volkswagen Polo. He was followed by Japie van Niekerk in the NAD Ford Fiesta 51.1 seconds behind Cronje.
Henk Lategan in another Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo was fourth overall on 58.1 seconds behind the leader. Gugu Zulu, in the third Volkswagen Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo was 6th overall for the day 1:12.7 seconds behind.
Class S1600 was being led by Guy Botterill with Ernie van der Walt second.
Toyota’s bad luck started on stage two when Leeroy Poulter had to withdraw from the event as a result of a blown engine. He was followed shortly afterwards by Giniel de Villiers in the Imperial Toyota Yaris with the same problem.
Poulter has won the first two rounds of the championship, but this mishapt has opened the door somewhat for Mark Cronje whose season did not start well with one non-finish and one Rally2 finish that cost him a lot of points.
The event will restart from the Rallystar Motorsport Academy tomorrow morning. It will end there again after another six stages.
A final wrap of the day and the day’s scores will be added as soon as they come to hand.
author: Andries van der Walt