I had an uncle who always said when things went the way he predicted, “Well, well, what can I say?”
This is about what I can say after day one of the Imperial Rally that took place in the vicinity of Pretoria – if I may use the Toyota PR way of describing where a rally takes place.
No one of the two predicted leaders got away from each other as the route used today traditionally holds quite firm for two runs. Here and there in about four places the sandy areas always tended to break away a little bit – but not so much that it could have an effect.
Cronje won every stage today and I have no doubt that he would have liked to have a bigger margin between him and a very steady but competitive Poulter tonight.
Let us have a look at what really happened.
Cronje predictably threw everything in into stage One and beat a charging Poulter by 1,9s. Lategan was quick of the mark as well and went third fastest 2,8s off Cronje’s pace.
Japie van Niekerk posted fourth quickest while Himmel in the Thilo Himmel surprised a few people finishing ahead of de Villiers in 6th and Fekken in 7th.
Gug Zulu beat Dippenaar who led the NRC4 class by only 1,5s and Ernie van der Walt completed the top 10.
Guy Botterill won the stage in class S1600, but hardly by the skin of his backside. Chad van Beurden almost made it but for 0,8 of one single second.
Paulus Franken posted 3rd fastest of the 1600 with AC Potgieter in fourth and Mathew Vacy-Lyle in fifth
STAGE 2
Cronje again – this time by 2.1s from Poulter. The gap opened to four seconds – that of course is wide enough to drive a portable podium through. (I wonder if they still tow that 16 ton Leeke start ramp through the country at great expense?)
Anyway – van Niekerk was again 3rd with Lategan fourth.
In the overall standings all remained the same in the top four, but Himmel dropped two spots from fifth to seventh. De Villiers moved in to 5th and Fekken to sixth.
In the S1600 class van Beurden took the honours and closed the gap between him and Botterill to as close as you will ever get to nil! Botterill led by 0,1 of a second.
Paul Franken dropped a spot, but Marko Himmel lost ten places.
STAGE 3
A repeat of stage 1. It would be interesting to see how much quicker the teams would be on their second run through.
It was good to see that Piet Bakkes (-13,6) managed the biggest natural improvement, while Leeke improved by 13,4
The big bangers battled a bit to take substantial time off their first run but Cronje did 5,7s better while Leeroy managed only 4,8.
In S1600 Botterill made his move and improved by 10,8 while van Beurden could only take 5,8s off his first run. Big mistake!!
Cronje won the stage by only 0,1 of a second – from Lategan who did not have such a great SS2. Discussing this sudden improvement after a slower stage I expressed my concern that Lategan was going to do what we are getting used to – next stage – off, and that would again be it.
Poulter posted third fastest and van Niekerk second.
Overall Cronje opened the gap to 6,8 while Lategan suddenly needed only a second to reel in Poulter.
Van Niekerk now needed 13,8 to get to the lead while de Villiers was 25,6 off the lead.
In S1600 Botterill had a cushion of 5,9 between him and van Beurden while Leeke moved into third spot 15,9 off the leader’s pace.
STAGE 4 a repeat of SS2
Only four drivers did not manage to improve on their first run over this stage.
At the top where consistency now really mattered Cronje took 9,6 from his morning time while Poulter only managed 6,3 better.
Lategan damaged his car’s sump according to an SMS and was out of the event, although that means that he is still in – I know, I know – it sounds silly, but that is what it is. Once you have started a rally in South Africa it is impossible not to be a finisher – or then very difficult not to be! Matter of fact you can gomhome and still finish!
Van Niekerk also had a problem and he dropped 5 spots.
Cronje made it a full score day and beat Poulter by 5,4s to stretch his lead to 12,2s
De Villiers, Fekken, Himmel, Zulu, Dippenaar and van der Walt all moved up two spots into 3rd, 4th etc up to 8th spot for van der Walt.
Van Niekerk dropped to 9th and Theuns Joubert completed the Top 10.
Botterill was leading van Beurden by 9,1s in S1600 with Leeke in third.
Dippenaar was a mile ahead in NRC4.
Tomorrow will be a different kettle of fish. I have not been near the route or the rally for that matter – but if I remember correctly the stages are sandy and especially Potgieter deteriorates after the first run.
The sandy sections may give Toyota an advantage if what we saw in Bela Bela still counts. There the Toyota had a definite torque advantage over the Ford – so for Ford’s sake – lets hope they found a solution to counter this.
As a rally enthusiast and fan of especially Hergen Fekken – I truly hope that he will find some serious speed and power to do something for his team that will at least give the other fans some hope. One advantage that team has is that they are lying in 4th, 5th and sixth position after Day One, with Himmel and Gugu chancing Fekken.
So, if any of the three leaders make a slight mistake – it will at least be podium time again for Volkswagen.
Sorry this report is a bit late, but I had to rescore the times to be able to do the analysis. I have given up trying to get it in the right format from the “Honorable” Rally Commission.
| 1 | Cronje | 29:10,7 | 0 | [ | ||
| 2 | Poulter | 29:22,9 | 0 | [ | 00:12,2 | 00:12,2 |
| 3 | de Villiers | 29:43,7 | 2 | J | 00:20,8 | 00:33,0 |
| 4 | Fekken | 29:49,7 | 2 | J | 00:06,0 | 00:39,0 |
| 5 | Himmel | 30:02,4 | 2 | J | 00:12,7 | 00:51,7 |
| 6 | Zulu | 30:06,2 | 2 | J | 00:03,8 | 00:55,5 |
| 7 | Dippenaar | 30:11,4 | 2 | J | 00:05,2 | 01:00,7 |
| 8 | vd Walt | 30:24,9 | 2 | J | 00:13,5 | 01:14,2 |
| 9 | van Niekerk | 30:47,0 | -5 | K | 00:22,1 | 01:36,3 |
| 10 | Joubert | 31:51,7 | 1 | J | 01:04,7 | 02:41,0 |
| 11 | Botterill | 32:44,7 | 1 | J | 00:53,0 | 03:34,0 |
| 12 | van Beurden | 32:53,8 | 1 | J | 00:09,1 | 03:43,1 |
| 13 | Leeke | 33:06,8 | 1 | J | 00:13,0 | 03:56,1 |
| 14 | AC Potgieter | 33:08,6 | 1 | J | 00:01,8 | 03:57,9 |
| 15 | Franken | 33:21,2 | 2 | J | 00:12,6 | 04:10,5 |
| 16 | Matthew | 33:22,7 | 0 | [ | 00:01,5 | 04:12,0 |
| 17 | Bakkes | 33:28,5 | 1 | J | 00:05,8 | 04:17,8 |
| 18 | R Himmel | 33:52,8 | 1 | J | 00:24,3 | 04:42,1 |
| 19 | M Himmel | 33:58,5 | 2 | J | 00:05,7 | 04:47,8 |
| 20 | Heine | 34:04,1 | 0 | [ | 00:05,6 | 04:53,4 |
| 21 | Coertse | 34:24,9 | 1 | J | 00:20,8 | 05:14,2 |
| 22 | Baker | 35:53,5 | 1 | J | 01:28,6 | 06:42,8 |
| 23 | Coetzee | 39:08,6 | 1 | J | 03:15,1 | 09:57,9 |
| 24 | Lategan | 39:18,5 | -21 | K | 00:09,9 | 10:07,8 |
| 25 | Venter | 53:58,5 | 0 | [ | 14:40,0 | 24:47,8 |