The South African Rally Championship came to a close in the George, Wilderness and Knysna regions of the Western Cape this weekend, when Hans Weijs Jnr and Björn Degandt brought their BP Volkswagen Polo in ahead of the rest of the field on the Garden Route Rally.
The Belgian/Dutch duo ended their debut season at the top tier of South African rallying in spectacular fashion, overcoming a puncture on stage three to win seven of the total 11 stages. The Volkswagen win was bolstered by team-mates Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson coming home 33 seconds behind the leaders.
“I wanted the best result I could get after the puncture on Friday,” says Weijs. “We claimed more than three minutes back, the stage times were perfect. We pushed really hard, we took it to the limit at this event.”
Jon and Doug Williams took the final podium spot in their Sasol Racing Ford Fiesta, 55 seconds off the leaders. While only managing fourth, it was all that was needed for Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton to be crowned 2012 champions, when they brought their Sasol Fiesta in ahead of closest championship rivals Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan’s Castrol Toyota Auris.
Gemmel and Swan pushed hard to make up for lost time due to a puncture stage four and chased down Cronje and Houghton successfully toward the end of the event, even leading the Fiesta with one stage to go, but unfortunately suffered another puncture on the last stage.
