The Ford Performance Ford Fiesta crew of Mark Cronje/Robin Houghton watched as one potentail challenger for first place on the rally after the other fall by the wayside. Cronje ended the first day with a lead of 26.9 seconds after six of the rally stages were completed.
As expected Cronje took the lead right from the start followed by Leeroy Poulter in the Team Castrol Toyota Yaris, but Poulter’s challenge came to an abrupt end on stage 3 when the car’s bonnet came loose and broke the front screen. More misery followed when he lost another two minutes on the next stage as a result of a puncture. He finished the day 7th overall 3″:52.2 behind Cronje.
His demise opened the door for Giniel de Villiers in the second Team Castrol Toyota Yaris to move into second place, but two stages from the finish of the day the young Henk Lategan in a Sasolracing Volkswagen slipped past De Villiers into second 26.9 behind Cronje. He also won the last short spectator stage.
De Villiers in third is 34.6 behind the leader followed by Hergen Fekken in his first rally of the year in a Sasolracing Volkswagen 49.6 seconds behind the leader. His teammate, Gugu Zulu in a similar car was fifth 1:21.7 off the pace.
Thilo Himmel from Namibia finished the day 6th +3:04.4 followed by Theuns Joubert on 3:59.0.
Class S1600 was lead by Guy Botterill in a Toyota Etios R2. He was 34.1 seconds ahead of second place Chad van Beurden in a Ford Fiesta R2.
The rally is the third round of the South African National Rally Championship and also a round of the Northern Regions Rally Championship. It is being held in the Secunda area for the first time.
The rally ends in Secunda tomorrow afternoon.