The highpoint of this event was the return of Hergen Fekken to the rally scene where he had not yet completely played out his role. “This was where he belonged – for another few years” was my feeling.
That was unfortunately also where emotion stopped for me.
The rally would be held in the Secunda area and readers will recall that I predicted that it would draw a good audience – as a matter of fact I stated that this event would be better than the Bela-Bela and that rally that should never have been, Polokwane circle into circle shit.
When people stop at Rallystar and do the trouble to drive in to ask when “the rally” will happen this year, when the email, phone, sms or message me on Facebook to find out what’s happening I cannot help but wanting to close the website down, convert Rallystar into a place where cyclists can come enjoy themselves, 4X4 enthusiasts can have a ball – move away as far away as possible from the sport I loved my whole life.
The RallyCross series will however bring back the joy to the enthusiasts who lost a great spectacle due to the importance of some.
The Secunda Rally came and went – and the best marketing pre-event took place. I had to smile when we saw this effort with one thing in mind (I think) – show the Rallystar clan that there are better places to run the sport and make use of people who learned some of the tricks at Rallystar.
If spiting me is the reason – I love it!
All I can do is report to you what happened on paper and add a few of the stories some competitors felt worth telling. The standard press release going out tells the story you may read all over – so I suppose we have to be creative to keep our three readers happy. Rally teams do not need to promote their sponsors further than thanking them at the end of a Facebook comment!
So, here goes.
Mark Cronje in the Ford Fiesta rushed into Stage 1 and just to make sure that all-comers got a bit of a refresher he opened the rally with a stage win. Leeroy also not unknown for his ability to attack successfully very early missed the honours by a mere 2.6s but that would prove to be only the appetizer of the meal prepared by Cronje and Houghton.
Surprisingly – pleasant I may add was the fact that Giniel may be the driver who benefits most from the two pass recce. He would have looked for and summed up the risk level offered by the terrain and I have no doubt that he decided that most of what he saw was forgiving and decided to push. He knows better than anyone else that he can rely on incredibly controlled reflexes and get away with more than most.
The result – third fastest on the opening stage.
Henk Lategan did not really prove anything and if he did, he proved that the Skoda driven Polo was still not on par with the Ford nor the Toyotas, or he was not really a match for the leaders yet?
Thilo Himmel eventually came to light and posted the time I expected from him long ago. He was 7 seconds off the pace but that was a hell of an improvement to either running with a loose part or misfiring engine.
Our come-back boy Hergen Fekken was slightly off the pace, but for that I was pre-warned. When I spoke to him before the rally he told me that he was going to get used to the car which he did not have much time for before the event. Once settled in he promised to up the pace.
Gugu Zulu and yet another albeit not new in the business navigator Hilton Auffrey brought their Polo home in 7th spot, while Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman had a modest start to open their account in 8th spot. Ernie van der Walt and Greg Godrich was 9th fastest and Wilro Dippenaar completed top 10.
Theuns Joubert and Mari van der Walt just missed top 10 in Stage One.
S1600 promised to become a serious war when Guy Botterill beat Chad van Beurden by a tenth of a second through the stage.
Ashley Haight-Smith was third fastest.
Mark Cronje kept up if not improved his pace and opened the slither of light to a crack in the wall. This time he beat Leeroy by 6.2s and he increased his overall lead to 8.8s after the first two stages.
Giniel posted third fastest while Henk Lategan again managed fourth quickest through the stage.
Japie van Niekerk in the NAD Ford came to the party and wiggled into fifth fastest spot 4.4s quicker than Hergen in 6th spot.
Then followed Thilo Himmel, Gugu, Wilro Dippenaar while Theuns Joubert completed the Top10 for the stage.
Guy Botterill managed to open a gap between him and a hard chasing Chad van Beurden.
Top 4 remained the same overall – Cronje, Poulter +8.8, de Villiers +17.9, Lategan +20.5.
Van Niekerk moved up three spots, Hergen was still in 6th while Himmel dropped two spots to seventh, then followed Zulu, Dippenaar and Joubert to complete top10.
The S1600 brigade was knocking on the Top10 door with Botterill in eleventh and van Beurden in 12th trailing by 3.5s
In SS3 we saw the two Fords leading the pack. Cronje stayed in command while Japie came up to check out the prospects at the top.
Giniel – no surprise he knew exactly what pace he wanted to run at, while the war raged on between the rest. Gugu stepped up his pace and posted fourth fastest followed by a relatively steady Himmel in 5th.
Lategan was off his previous pace. This was his danger area – one bad stage usually followed by a better one and then lo and behold if the won one, the next stage usually spelled at least an off.
Leeroy Poulter hit problems and dropped to last man standing – or some 17 stage positions from his previous second best.
Giniel replaced his team mate in second spot while said teammate Leeroy dropped to 8th spot overall after experiencing some problem.
Henk Lategan thankfully seemed to be steady and he moved up into third place followed by Japie van Niekerk in 4th – some 25.7s behind the leader.
Hergen was only 7.6s behind van Niekerk and I sat waiting for the attack to come.
Himmel was 5th, Gugu 7th and Leeroy as said occupied 8th. Wilro Dippenaar and then Theuns Joubert filled the Top 10.
The S1600 war was still on with Guy Botterill (11th overall) leading Chad van Beurden (12th overall) by 12.2s
Stage 4 also belonged to Mark Cronje as he relentlessly went along on his merry way to open a gap which now grew to 27.1 seconds between him and Lategan.
This stage spelled the end of Japie van Niekerk’s rally when he lost a wheel or something to that effect.
Wilro Dippenaar also had a miserable stage and posted 16th fastest or is it slowest time?
Top 3 stayed the same while Hergen Fekken moved up to 4th spot and Theuns Joubert moved up into a respectable 7th overall.
Stage 5 spelled the end for Jose de Gouveia in the NRC 2 class.
Cronje win his fifth stage in succession while Lategan managed to close the gap through the stage to the thinnest of margins – to be honest less than an old tappet clearance 0.6 of a second.
Gugu Zulu was also right there in the midst of things. Giniel was fourth quickest while Leeroy managed 5th fastest, Hergen could only come up with sixth fastest time.
The sixth and last stage of day one arrived and Lategan managed to break Cronje’s stronghold by winning the stage by 2/10ths of one second! The good thing here may have been that there was a night between this and the next stage.
Hergen posted third quickest while Leeroy came in 4th fastest.
At the end of day One Cronje led by 26.9s from Lategan who enjoyed a gap of 7.7s between him and Giniel.
Hergen Fekken was 15s shy of Giniel and 49.6 from the robot like leader Cronje.
The two top S1600 contenders were now both inside the Top10 with Botterill still leading from van Beurden.
The NRC4 leader was Theuns Joubert, while Jaco Baker led in NRC2.
The event was far from over yet and every enthusiast in that area looked forward to a great rally finish.
The fun began again on Saturday morning and if anyone expected Mark Cronje to risk his lead, they were mistaken.
The only competitor he had to “worry” about was Lategan and his record on paper said that he was not a prime actor. This young driver often failed under pressure in the past and so far he did not prove that he got over that little weakness.
The only other driver that was truly still in with a chance was Giniel de Villiers who drove an excellent rally and he now needs around one second per kilometre to equal top pace. This may sound like a lot and inside a rally car it is indeed, but to find a consistent (habitual) “fault” in driving that cost a second per kilometre is not impossible. So the surprise or ray of light everyone is looking and waiting for in local rallies may just come from car number 31 in the very near future. De Villiers can beat anyone on gravel – and he is sure as hell going to discover just that one of these days!
In the S1600 class Guy Botterill did not have a great stage and Chad van Beurden reeled him in by 43s.
Poulter won the stage while Lategan posted second fastest time only .6 of a second from taking the win for himself. Were we in for that surprise we have been waiting for?
Mark Cronje was 9 seconds off the pace with one thing in mind and that was to get a clean run to the end while staying ahead of th now seriously chasing pack.
Gugu Zulu was still steady and came home 4 seconds behind Cronje.
Cronje now had a lead of 18.5s over Lategan while Giniel was 48 seconds short of leading the event.
Hergen was still holding on to 4th spot 68s down on pace.
Then came Gugu (5th), Himmell (6th), Poulter (7th) and Joubert in 8th spot.
Chad van Beurden now led the S1600 class after Botterill’s problems in the stage by 9.4s, which in this case was not comforting, except if Botterill had a real problem.
Ashley Haigh-Smith once again did not have a good event and he dropped to 16th overall.
AC Potgieter was just one short of the top10.
Stage 8 also went to Leeroy and once again Lategan was second fastest. Cronje held his pace but Lategan took almost 2 seconds from him which made the gap shrink to 16.6s. This must have caused a bit of concern in Ford Fiesta number 24.
What if this youngster manages to pick up his pace some more and stay on the road?
In S1600 it was Chad van Beurden’s turn to have a bad stage and Guy Botterill did not think twice before taking back the S1600 lead.
Stage 9 was again won by Poulter but the pressure was off Cronje when Lategan hit a gate post (so I heard) and Cronje could relax again.
Richard Leeke pulled of an S1600 stage win and was now occupying a very respectable 10th overall and second in class.
Cronje’s lead over de Villiers, who gladly accepted second spot overall was 27.5 and only a small miracle, a big rock or a gate post could actually take a win from the Ford team.
Lategan and White dropped to 6th overall and race for victory was run. One has to admit that Henk is getting closer and closer to his first National Championship win. It will however be interesting to see what he does in Portugal this weekend, although the PR work has already indicated that he was starting with a handicap against the R5 cars – that is indeed so. It is not just a preliminary excuse.
Stage 10 – Poulter again! Cronje for some reason or another stepped up his pace and posted second fastest – just 3.4 of Poulter’s sizzling time.
Gugu also took no prisoners and posted an exceptionally fast stage finishing less than a second behind Cronje.
Cronje led the rally by 35.8 from second placed de Villiers, while Gugu Zulu was only 15 seconds short of de Villiers.
Stage 11 followed basically the same pattern with Poulter winning the stage and Cronje taking no chances although he maintained what the average rallyist would still describe as a “blistering pace”.
Theuns Joubert and Mari van der Walt had a narrow escape when they almost went into a dam they did not mark on the notes after a very short “50m” on the so called basic notes made by someone and a machine.
The last stage came and went without much of a surprise. Giniel did lose a bit of time, but nothing dramatic that affected his result.
I have to admit that this “falling out” but staying in the rally is driving me around the bend. There is no real rule regarding the second day and it seems that if you manage to fall out on day two – you are scored to the end, which means people who genuinely finish an even is still pushed down the ranks.
I can understand the Super Rally rule for day One, but the rest is ridiculous.
The Secunda rally seem to have been a huge success as I thought it would be and it will next year make the Sasol look average except for the scenery and the special Sasol Atmosphere – which no rally will ever be able to beat, except that one that is also not happening anymore in Knysna.
The petrol-heads in Secunda has the ability to talk to each other – tell a story and there is not much else to do.
Good one and well done to all.
Now for the Bela-Bela safari where excitement is something unknown.
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DOWNLOAD: SECUNDA RALLY 2015 ANALYSIS (Stage and Overall Standings)
Photographs: André Laubscher