Hein Lategan and Johan van der Merwe rocketed to their maiden Production Car and class N4 win, heading up the third Subaru 1 – 2 finish of the year on the Osram Rally, round 6 of the Sasol SA Rally Championship. Subaru also claimed their first 2008 rally championship, with more to follow over the remaining two rounds.
With Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich increasing their overall production car lead from 7 to 18 points, it was another great weekend for Subaru fans with four Subarus in the top six of the production car leaderboard.
Lategan, driving his Steve’s Auto Clinic Subaru Impreza N12B has threatened to win from the Sasol Rally back in May, leading every event since he got behind the wheel of his Impreza but has always been thwarted until now.
The delighted Pretoria-based mechanical engineer said: “I’m really happy with this win, especially as we were running with a conservative power setting after destroying two engines. We have been under attack the whole way”.
Lategan continued: “In stage 7 we went through a fence – twice. There was a ‘left five’ and I went in too fast. I was heading to the bank and would have rolled if we hit it sideways so I straightened up and went at it head-on. The Impreza went through the fence and again to get out. That incident also punctured a tyre, probably from the barbed wire, so we had to drive 4km like that and still only dropped 10 seconds to Charl”.
“There is no doubt that on this event, we’ve stepped up our pace”.
For the Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza N12B team, Wilken was philosophical about ending on the second step of the podium.
“Hein has nothing to lose while we have a lot to throw away. I’d rather lose the battle but win the war. The championship is looking very good now as long as we continue to finish”, Wilken said. “I drove a bit too conservatively in stage 2 and dropped 30 seconds to Hein. We took back 23 seconds in stage five on Saturday morning”, he smiled.
Thereafter, the inter-Subaru battle raged over the remaining tough stages in the Drakensberg mountains, with stage times ebbing and flowing until the final, muddy stage when Wilken settled for the championship points rather than risk all in an accident.
Paul Pfeifer and Cindi Harding brought their Nobili Subaru Impreza N14 home 5th in class after a taxing event which started with a puncture in stage 1, which Ms Harding changed in seven minutes. “I took flak from Paul for taking so long. He reckons I must improve my wheel-changing skills”, she quipped.
A loose relay swithch caused the Impreza to misfire in stage 1, a problem that cost 4 minutes of service lateness to cure. The Nobili Subaru had a puncture in stage five and thereafter promptly went out and set the fastest class time in stage 8. “I’m very disappointed”, said Paul. “The nature of the roads suits my driving style and I really hoped to do well. I had to carry on to see the roads because next year I’m going for the championship, so it was a worthwhile exercise”.
When Pfeiffer had a clean run in stage 2, he set the second fastest overall time, a foretaste of what his rivals can expect when the sophisticated machine is sorted out.
“I’m happy to have at least finished. I’m starting to get to grips with the car. The last two events should go well for us”, Pfeifer said.
Joos and Danie Stassen blasted their De Goede Finance Subaru Impreza N12 from 36th and last at the end of day 1 to 26th at the finish. The Nelspruit brothers lost 20 minutes in day one’s stages with an obscure electrical problem.
“There was a complete electrical failure close to the end of stage two”, Joos explained. “We eventually found the problem in the starter motor wire which had broken. We stretched the remaining wire until it eventually snapped in stage three, so we loosened the battery and brought the battery closer to the cable”.
The brothers also had to endure boiling brake fluid in the first stage, not what you need with the ultra high speed nature of the mountain stages and were reasonably happy with their result in the circumstances.
Visser du Plessis, the defending production car and class N4 champion, and co-driver Gerhard Snyman suffered their first non-finish in over 18 months. It happened in stage 6, as Du Plessis expalins.
“I lined the car up for a left 6. We were in 5th gear and as I came close to the bank, I hit a rock protruding from the emabankment about the size of two soccer balls. It smashed the rim and the suspension. It took two centimetres out of the rim. We slid down the road for about 19m and all this happened 900 meteres from the end of the stage”.
Du Plessis continued: “I had a loose wheel in stages two and three. It turns out the lower control arm bolt was finger tight. The car was all over the place”.
The Pretoria gem dealer ended day one third in class, 30 seconds behind Wilken.
“I doubt I would have made up the time to Charl on Saturday, but third would have been a fair result, although he gave the whole production car field a driving lesson on the first stage on Saturday.”
“I am very disappointed about the rally though – not what happened, but that it was my first non-finish in such a long time”.
The 7th and penultimate round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the Swartland Rally in the Western Cape on 19 and 20 September.
