Defending national champions and Bela-Bela Motor Rally victors Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee edged out a handy lead over the chasing pack in their Castrol Toyota Yaris S2000 on day one of the Volkswagen Rally in the Port Elizabeth region of the Eastern Cape Province.
After six stages and 102 kilometres of competition in changeable conditions with slight drizzle in places Poulter and Coetzee finished the day in a time of 1:06:49,9 –35,8 seconds ahead of current championship leaders Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton in their Ford Performance Fiesta.
Third, only 7,1 seconds adrift of the Fiesta crew, was a charging Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan in the second Castrol Toyota Yaris, performing better with every passing kilometre and matching Poulter and Cronje’s times in the final stages.
After the start at the Auto Pavilion at Volkswagen’s plant in Uitenhage Poulter threw down the gauntlet in the first stage, winning it by 5.5 seconds from Cronje, but the Ford driver responded by being the quickest in stage two and taking back 2.3 seconds.
However, Poulter then upped the pace and won the next three stages on the trot, before Cronje got the better of the Toyota driver in the last stage on the Aldo Scribante race track.
Behind the fighting Ford and Toyotas the NAD Ford Fiesta pair Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman kept a watching brief, keeping it clean on the tricky and sometimes treacherous stages to finish fourth overall for the day – nearly a minute behind De Villiers.
Young Ernie van der Walt, with Greg Godrich reading the notes, was driving out of his skin in the Vecto Fuel Yaris and lying fifth after stage five – their highest position in a national rally to date. But in the final stage at Aldo Scribante the pair went off track and the Yaris rolled down an embankment, effectively ending their rally.
Their misfortune promoted a struggling Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries, the first of the Volkswagen Sasolracing Polo crews, to fifth position overall, albeit another minute and 5 seconds in arrears.
It was just as tough a day at the office for their team mates Gugu Zulu/Hilton Auffray and Henk Lategan/Barry White.
Lategan lost more than five minutes in stage two with a puncture and a wheel that did not want to come off, while Zulu had a big moment in the next stage, nearly flipping the Polo over a jump and bending a rear wheel in the process. This stage also claimed the VW Polo of Thilo Himmel/Armand du Toit, grinding to a halt with alternator problems.
Zulu/Auffray lost more time limping through the stage, but kept it clean for the remainder of the stages to eventually finish the day in sixth position, two minutes down on Fekken/Arries and about 90 seconds ahead of Lategan/White.
It was a very eventful day in the S1600 class. Winners of the two previous rounds, Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios), stormed off into the lead, followed by Richard Leeke Junior and Rikus Fourie (ATS Ford Fiesta R2).
Behind them Paulus Franken/Henry Kohne (Manitou Group VW Polo), Matthew Vacy-Lyle/Schalk van Heerden (Fragram Tools Toyota Etios), Chad van Beurden/Nico Swartz (Beurden Transport Ford Fiesta R2) and Marko Himmel/Gert Nienaber (North City Panelbeaters VW Polo) were having a ding-dong battle.
Van Beurden and Himmel’s onslaught was ended in stage three, respectively by a broken CV joint and alternator problems.
By the penultimate stage Botterill and Leeke were way ahead, but then lady luck deserted them, the Toyota crew withdrawing with a broken gearbox, and young Leeke and Fourie forced out with a broken sideshaft.
That meant at the overnight point Franken was leading the class, more than a minute ahead of Vacy-Lyle and Van Heerden, with Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe (VW Polo) third in class.
The rally will restart tomorrow at 6:55 from the PEOTR grounds with six more stages and a total distance of 98 km of dirt racing facing the competitors. The day will end with two super special stages at the PEOTR oval, and the final stage is scheduled for 14:53.