Visser du Plessis and Gerhard Snyman were back in their accustomed podium position in the Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14 at the end of the Swartland Rally, the penultimate round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, which finished at the Killarney circuit near Cape Town on Saturday.
Du Plessis and Snyman overcame a number of small niggles and obstacles to come in third in the production car category and ninth overall, behind the Subaru Impreza N12 of Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 of Fernando Rueda and Dave Lewkowicz.
“We were glad to finish after failing to score any points in the last event,” said Du Plessis. “But I’m disappointed that, once again, we didn’t have a clean run throughout the two days. This has been the story of our season, starting with the new car experiencing teething problems even before the official start of the opening round.”
The reigning production car drivers’ champion saw the odds on his retaining his title this year lengthen, with championship front-runner Wilken taking the win.
“We needed to finish ahead of Charl this weekend and we had the pace to do it, but we made a few mistakes and lost some time with a left rear wheel that persisted in toeing out. On Friday’s night stage at Killarney my spotlights were not correctly focused. Small things went wrong that showed up some deficiencies in our preparation. You can’t afford any slip-ups in this game and full credit to Charl and his team for an excellent all-round performance.”
Wilken and Godrich (84 points each) have virtually wrapped up the production car drivers’ and co-drivers championships respectively, although there is still a mathematical chance for both Rueda (64 points) and Du Plessis (61 points) to win the drivers’ title should they finish first overall in the final round in Gauteng in October (there are 25 points for an overall win) and their rivals not score at all.
Only Snyman (64 points) can beat Godrich in the co-driver’s competition (Lewkowicz, last year’s champion with Du Plessis, missed the first round and has 47 points) and then only if he and Du Plessis win overall and Wilken and Godrich fail to score.
“Winning the championship for the second year in a row is a very long shot, although theoretically possible,” said Du Plessis. “We’ll be giving it a full go right to the end and will be hoping for our first clean run of the season in the final event. But if we don’t succeed, I have to congratulate Charl and Greg. Charl has been the complete driver and he’s made the most of his good luck. Last year it was our turn. This year things have gone Charl’s way and he deserves his success.”
The eighth and last round of the championship is the Toyota Gauteng Rally on October 17 and 18.
