In the end it turned out to be somewhat of a walk in the park. Mark Cronje in the Ford Performance Ford Fiesta has won the Polokwane Rally, the final round of the SA National Rally Championship. And he also clinched his third South African Rally Drivers title that he lost to Leeroy Poulter last year.
Before the event the talk was that it was going to be a very tight battle between Cronje in the Ford and Poulter in the Team Castrol Yaris. Yesterday none of the two controlled matters up front with Giniel de Villiers in the other Team Castrol Toyota and Henk Lategan in the Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo occupying first and second positions at the overnight stop with Poulter and Cronje in third and fourth places.
But from the first of today’s five stages this morning, it was Cronje who was the quickest out of the starting blocks and set the tone for what was to come for the rest of the day. He was never really under any pressure from anybody including Lategan who won two stages and never gave up his second place.
De Villiers dropped back allowing Poulter to move up the leader board, but they never looked like catching the leaders and as the day wore on the time differences increased.
In the end Cronje won the rally with a time of 1:40:56.5. Second was Lategan 22.8 seconds later, followed by Giniel de Villiers 30.4 seconds of the pace.
The other positions are as follows(provisionally):
Poulter +1:16.6 (must have had a problem)
Ernie +4:38.8
Joubert +7:43.4 (NRC4)
Marko Him +12:02.0 (S1600)
A final wrap of the event will be published here as soon as it comes to hand.