The Ford Performance pair of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton overcame misty and wet weather conditions and the unpredictable and very slippery gravel roads of the Lowveld forests in their Ford Fiesta S2000 to win the 24th edition of the Sasol Rally in emphatic fashion. At the overnight stop the Ford crew, also the winners in 2012 and 2013, led the Castrol Team Toyota Yaris of Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee by 25.5 seconds, and they stretched this to 44.4 seconds by the second last stage of the rally.
The Toyota challenge then faltered, with Poulter/Coetzee’s car losing four-wheel drive, while Giniel de Villiers/Carolyn Swan, in a comfortable third position in their Castrol Toyota Yaris, suffered engine failure at high speed.
This gifted Gugu Zulu and Pierre Arries (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo) an unexpected podium position, to the elation of both the Volkswagen racing team and the event sponsors.
At the chequered flag Cronje/Houghton were a comfortable 3 min 38 seconds ahead of the crippled Yaris of Poulter/Coetzee, with Zulu/Arries another 3:29.3 adrift.
“It was the most difficult Sasol Rally I have ever done,” Cronje said afterwards. “The conditions were treacherous, and while it was already bad on the first day, it was even worse today because of the inconsistent road surfaces.
“In these circumstances you were never sure when you could push or where you should hold back,” he added. “Still, we were able to hold it together, and the Fiesta performed faultlessly throughout the event.”
On the podium he thanked his co-driver for his contribution to their win and dedicated the victory to Robin’s brother Michael who recently passed away.
The high attrition rate promoted Namibians Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo (North City Panel Beaters Toyota Auris) to fourth position overall, 58 seconds behind the VW crew, and also to a class win in NRC4.
Thilo Himmel/Armand du Toit (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo) came in fifth, with the luckless De Villiers/Swan finishing sixth.
The final day of the rally started in a dramatic fashion when Henk Lategan and Barry White (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo), who were third overall, only 12 seconds behind Poulter/Coetzee at the overnight stop, crashed heavily with the NAD Ford Fiesta of Japie van Niekerk and Gordon
The overcast conditions and light rain made the first stage in the centre of Nelspruit, the famous “spaghetti junction” tarmac stage, super slippery. This caught out the VW crew.
While recovering from the spin they turned in front of Van Niekerk, who was still accelerating hard in fifth gear. Both cars were damaged extensively and had to withdraw, but none of the crew were hurt.
As oil from the damaged Ford leaked onto the tarmac it was decided to cancel the stage. The next six stages were all won by Cronje and Houghton, but Zulu/Arries sneaked the short final stage win in the Lowveld Showgrounds in Nelspruit by 0.1 of a second.
The competitors in the African Rally Championship found the going very difficult, since they are not used to these kinds of conditions.
In the end it was the Kenyan pair of Jaspreet Chatthe and Craig Thorley (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo RC2) who took the rally honours, beating Zambians Jassy Singh and Sajid Khan (Subaru Impreza), by just under 3 minutes and finishing seventh overall.
Chad van Beurden /Nico Swartz (Beurden Transport VW Polo) acquitted themselves well in the S1600 class by finishing the rally first in class and eighth overall, beating current log leaders Paulus Franken/ Henry Kohne (Manitou Group VW Polo R2), who finished tenth overall, by more than 2 minutes.
The difficult conditions lead to a high attrition rate with only 13 of the 26 crews which started the event on Friday making it to the end.
The Northern Regions event, that formed part of the last day of the Sasol Rally, was won by Joos Stassen/Etienne Lourens in their Class S5 Subaru Impreza, followed by AC Potgieter/Tommy du Toit (Class S3 VW Polo) and Richard Leeke Jnr/Rikus Fourie (Class S3 Ford Fiesta).