It’s not often that an event sponsor wins its own event in motor racing, but that’s what Toyota did in the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally in the Western Cape this afternoon.
Giniel de Villiers, a former national cross country champion and winner of the Dakar Rally in 2009, won his first national championship rally with co-driver Greg Godrich in their Toyota Motorsport-prepared Imperial Toyota Yaris. They were overall winners and also first in the S2000 class for four-wheel drive two-litre cars
Second, eight seconds in arrears after 12 special stages and 174 kilometres of mostly gravel road racing were Toyota Motorsport team-mates Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris). Twice former national champion Enzo Kuun and Gerhard Snyman (New Africa Developments Ford Fiesta) filled the final spot on the podium, 15 seconds in arrears.
The victory did not come easily. De Villiers and Godrich were fourth overall, 42 seconds behind leaders Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Dealer Team Fiesta), at the overnight stop in Brackenfell, near Cape Town at the end of the first day of the sixth round of the eight-event South Africa Rally National Championship. Twenty-three seconds separated them from second-placed team-mates and current championship leaders Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris) and just three seconds was the gap to twice former champion Enzo Kuun and Gerhard Snyman (New Africa Developments Ford Fiesta).
Saturday’s route consisted of seven gravel special stages on tight and twisty farm roads in the Durbanville, Malmesbury and Moorreesburg areas. Rain had resulted in muddy and slippery surfaces and standing water along the route, which took its toll.
De Villiers was up to third behind Cronje and Poulter after this morning’s opening special stage six but then experienced an exploded shock absorber and had to complete two and a half stages without the shock absorber over bumpy roads. He recovered well to climb back to fourth behind Poulter, team-mate Hergen Fekken and Carolyn Swan (Castrol Team Toyota Yaris), who had improved their overnight position of seventh to second, and Kuun after special stage nine.
Poulter had taken over the lead on stage seven after Cronje lost nearly three minutes with a puncture. The defending champion had extended his overnight lead to over half a minute with a win in the opening stage of the day to add to the three he accumulated on Friday. He pushed hard to make up the lost time, winning stage nine after experiencing another puncture on the previous stage, but had to settle for sixth place at the finish, 1 min 30 sec in arrears.
Then Poulter was hit by a broken shock absorber on stage nine while enjoying a 41-second lead over Fekken and had to complete one and a half stages with no shock absorber. This allowed De Villiers to close to within a second of Poulter on the penultimate stage after overtaking Kuun on stage 10.
In an exciting finish to another excellent Cape rally that offered all the drama and high-speed of special stage rallying on loose gravel surfaces, De Villiers and Godrich were rewarded for their best ever performance together, winning the final two stages. They have had more than their fair share of bad luck in the past and now it was the turn of the two main championship rivals, Cronje and Poulter, to bite the bullet.
Poulter and Coetzee retain their championship lead and now enjoy a 29-point advantage over team-mates Fekken and Swan with two rounds remaining. Cronje and Houghton are third, 36,5 behind the leaders and 7.5 behind Fekken/Swan.
Hans Weijs Jnr of Holland and Bjorn Degandt of Belgium were first of the factory Volkswagen Sasolracing Polos to finish, coming home in fifth place, 1 min 12 sec off the pace. Namibian Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit (VW Polo) were classified seventh under Super Rally rules after breaking their suspension on stage nine. Eighth were Piet Bakkes and Shaun Visser (Toyota RunX) after experiencing engine problems on stage 10 and they were followed by Henk Lategan and Barry White, who also finished under Super Rally rules after hitting a post on stage eight. Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (VW Sasolracing Polo), finished 10thunder Super Rally rules after they broke their suspension on stage six.
Bakkes and Visser were the only finishers in the S2000 Challenge for older specification four-wheel; drive cars.
Namibia’s Wilro Dippenaar and Kes Naidoo (PZN Panelbeaters Toyota Auris) didn’t make it past stage one on Friday and were non-finishers.
The next round of the championship is the Polokwane Motor Rally in Limpopo on October 17 and 18.