Third, a single point behind the Toyota pair, are multiple former champions Jan Habig and Robert Paisley (Ford Fiesta), who are four points ahead of Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Hilton Auffray (Toyota Auris).
While the top three are all competing in the premier S2000 class, Damseaux and Auffray are leading the S2000 Challenge for the older specification four-wheel-drive cars. Second in the Challenge and fifth overall are 2012 Challenge winners Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin in a VW Polo. Damseaux and Auffray’s team-mates Mohamed Moosa and Andre Vermeulen are third in the Challenge and 11th overall.
Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan Toyota Yaris), who were runners-up to Cronje and Houghton in the 2012 championship, will be looking to improve on their sixth place in the championship.
Teenager Henk Lategan and Barry White are the highest-placed of the S2000 VW Polo crews in seventh place. The pair will be buoyed by a superb sixth place in the recent Rally Adriatico, a round of the Italian Rally Championship, in an S2000 Skoda Fabia.
Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers and Greg Godrich make up the top 10 in the overall point standings and will be making only their second appearance in the new Toyota Yaris.
