After another difficult weekend of rallying, SA’s 2013 National Rally Champions Mark Cronje and his co-driver Robin Houghton took victory in the Garden Route Rally aboard their Ford Fiesta S2000. This victory brought their 2013 tally to seven from eight rounds.
At the final round of the SA National Rally Championship it was the weather that played the biggest role. Only six of the planned twelve stages could be completed as the inclement conditions rendered those stages treacherous or unpassable.
The Ford duo started the event in fourth, but, as is their custom, were out of the blocks fast which ended with them winning the first stage. With a dominant performance throughout, they racked up a further two stage wins, and were second fastest in the remaining two stages. A left front puncture on the last stage of the day, their only incident, cost them around 20 seconds.
The works Toyota Motorsport S2000 Toyota Yaris, again fell short of taking its elusive first win. Johnny Gemmell and co-driver Carolyn Swan finished second for the third event in a row. An encouraging aspect of the weekend for Toyota was that three of their cars finished in the top 7, with Leeroy Poulter / Elvéne Coetzee and Giniel de Villiers/Greg Godrich finished third and seventh, respectively. “We did our best and always took the fight to the championship winners, but unfortunately we came a little short,” said team principle Glyn Hall, who also pointed out that they’ve won 17 special stages during the year.
Volkswagen had a more difficult weekend, with Enzo Kuun/Douglas Judd (Polo S2000) finishing the event in fourth place overall. Head of Volkswagen Motorsport, Mike Rowe, said: “A lot has been expected of man and machine and the final round just served to underscore how extreme the year has been.”
In the S2000 Challenge category for older machinery Mohammed Moosa/André Vermeulen (Toyota Auri) took top honours, with Volkswagen’s Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (Polo Vivo) taking second place. The private team of Nic vd Westhuizen/Stefan Cilliers (Toyota Auris) rounded off the top three.
Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Hilton Auffray (Team Total) took the championship in this class, with Volkswagen’s Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (Polo S2000 Vivo) taking second place and Moosa/Vermeulen third.
– Charlen Raymond
