The Polokwane Rally, final round of the South African Rally Championsahip, finally got underway this afternoon in Polokwane after the organisers had cancelled the first stage. The stage was cancelled because it was deemed dangerous. First on the road when the rally started with stage two was Mark Cronje/Gerhard Snyman in the Ford Performance Ford Fiesta.
Cronje is currently the championship leader and as such he has to start first and have the unhappy task of sweeping the dusty and dirt stages. Three stages will be run today.
The Polokwane Rally will also be the final event in which the Volkswagen works team will compete since they are withdrawing from rallying next year.
Henk Lategan/Barry Swart in a Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo, made their intentions clear on the first of the stages when he won the 10,36km stage in a time of 6:54.3, exactly one second faster than Leeroy Poulter/Elvene Coetzee in a Team Castrol Toyota Yaris.
Third was his team mate Giniel de Villiers in a similar car 1.6 second behind Lategan. Both Poulter and de Villiers failed to finish the previous event and this event is a must win for Poulter of he wants to retain his championship title.
Poulter and de Villiers returned from Morocco a week ago after competing in the Oilibya Rally of Morocco, a round of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Championship.
Hergen Fekken kin the other Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo was 4th on the stage 10.6 seconds behind the leader, followed by Mark Cronje 11.8 behind Lategan. Gugu Zulu in the third Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo was 6th 23.1 second slower.
Ernie van der Walt in the ex-Giniel de Villiers Toyota Yaris filled 7th place 24.7 behind Lategan and four seconds ahead of Thilo Himmel in Volkswagen Polo. Theuns Joubert in a NRC4 Toyota Auris was 9th with a 37.3 difference to the leader.
Richard Leeke in a Class S1600 Ford Fiesta R2 was 10th 53.7 seconds slower and leading class S1600 followed by Guy Botterill in a Toyota Etios R2 one second slower than Leeke.