The 2014 National Rally Championship has not been such a good year to Mark Cronje.And luck has not been on his side on the first four rallies of the season. On the Imperial Toyota Rally, looks like his not going to have a very good time.
His broken gearbox on stage one forced his technicians to change the Ford Dealer Ford Fiesta’s gearbox. The result of all this was that Cronje picked up a penalty of 1:10.0 and after winning the first stage he has now dropped down to 9th position overall.
His predicament with the gearbox gave Poulter the opening he was probably hoping for. He won the stage and took the lead. His overall time is 15:01.6. Second in the second of the Team Castrol Toyota Yaris cars, is Hergen Fekken 5.6 seconds behind his teammate. So we now have much to Toyota’s delight one would think, a Toyota 1-2 overall.
Hans Weijs in the Sasolracing Volkswagen polo has moved into third +9.6 seconds behind the leading Toyota. Fourth overall is Japie van Niekerk in die NAD Ford Fiesta. He is 10.6 seconds behind the leader and followed in 5th position by Henk Lategan in another Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo +11.6. Lategan is running first on the road and sweeping the stages.
Giniel de Villiers in the Imperial Toyota Yaris is 6th overall +15.2 behind Poulter, followed in 7th overall by Wilro Dippenaar in S2000 Challenge Toyota Auris, He trails the leading car by 32.1 seconds. Gugu Zulu in a Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo is 8th +1:05.2 followed by the luckless Cronje +1:07.1 off the pace.
Thilo Himmel in a Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo rounds off the top ten +1:09.5.
In class S1600 Chad van Beurden in a Volkswagen Polo won their second stage in a row and is leading his main rival Guy Botterill in a Toyota Etios R2 by 4.9 seconds.
Cronje’s mishap has turned the rally on its head somewhat and it is going to be interesting to se how fast Cronje in the Ford Fiesta can make up the lost time and catch Poulter.
Looks like there is some excitement in the air for a change!