Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan (Castrol Toyota Yaris S2000) came out with guns blazing on day one of the Polokwane Motor Rally to after three special stages lead the final event of the year by 8.1 seconds from Henk Lategan/Barry White (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo).
As expected the former Dakar champion set a blistering pace from the outset in an effort to assist his Castrol Toyota team mates and defending champions Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee in their quest for overall championship honours.
However, the Toyota team’s carefully laid plans did not work out as expected, as Poulter/Coetzee lost nearly 23 seconds to championship leaders Mark Cronje and Gerhard Snyman (Ford Performance Fiesta) after suffering a puncture in the second stage of the day.
Things worked out much better for Cronje and Snyman. They were the first crew off the start ramp at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, faced with the prospect of sweeping the road for their S2000 challengers.
But with the first stage cancelled due to safety reasons, the Ford pair only had to face three stages leading the pack, putting more pressure on the Castrol Toyota team to establish a time cushion between Poulter/Coetzee and themselves before tomorrow’s stages.
Lategan/White won stage two from Poulter/Coetzee by one second with the charging De Villiers only another 0.6 seconds adrift, with Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo) fourth fastest, followed by Cronje/Snyman.
This meant Poulter had a 10 second lead over Cronje going into the next 12.77 km stage, but a puncture cost them time, while the stage, called Snyman, was kind to its namesake in the Ford team – Snyman and Cronje winning the stage from the Namibians Thilo Himmel/Armand du Toit (Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo) by 7.6 seconds, with De Villiers third and Lategan fourth fastest.
In the next stage, a repeat of stage two, Poulter bounced back, winning it by 0.7 seconds from team mate De Villiers, with Fekken third, followed by Cronje and Lategan.
“Things went well for us today,” Snyman commented at the overnight point at the Peter Mokaba Stadium. “After winning the tight stage three we paced ourselves in the final stage as we did not want to end up first on the road again for tomorrow.
“We’ve established quite a comfortable gap to Leeroy today, and we plan to manage this tomorrow. We don’t need to win here, we just need to make sure we don’t finish too far behind the leaders to secure the championship,” he said.
Cronje and Snyman will start third tomorrow – only 0.7 of a second behind Lategan/White, with Poulter just behind them on the road, another 15.8 seconds adrift, followed by Himmel/Du Toit and team mates Gugu Zulu/Hilton Auffray.
After a fast start Fekken/Arries also lost time in stage three with a puncture, while young Ernie van der Walt and Greg Godrich (Vecto Fuel Toyota Yaris) had a dismal time with a broken side shaft in the first stage, and also picking up a puncture in the next stage.
Theuns Joubert/Mari van der Walt (Salom Agri Toyota Auris) finished the day in eighth position overall, leading Class NRC4 by a country mile, while the Namibian Marko Himmel/Gert Nienaber (Northern Panel Beaters VW Polo R2) showed their latent speed by finishing the day first in Class S1600.
However, after three stages they are only 0.6 seconds ahead of championship leaders Guy Botterill/Simon Vacy-Lyle (Yato Tools Toyota Etios S1600 R2), with Richard Leeke/Rikus Fourie (ATS Ford Fiesta R2) third, a further 5.4 seconds behind, and Ashleigh Haigh-Smith/Patrick Brides (Castrol Ford Fiesta R2) in fourth position.
The current runners-up in the S1600 championship, Matthew Vacy-Lyle and Schalk van Heerden (Fragram Tools Toyota Etios), had some very slow stages today and are currently lying eighth in class – nearly a minute behind the overnight class leaders.
The rally will restart at 07:30 tomorrow at the Peter Mokaba Stadium with five challenging stages awaiting the competitors. The first car is expected at the finish, also at the stadium, by 14h30 tomorrow afternoon