Toyota works pairing of Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (S2000 Toyota Auris) won the inaugural MTN Polokwane Rally held this past weekend in the Limpopo area. The final round of the 2011 South African National Rally Championship was a nail-biter with the outcome only known after all the top crews had crossed the line. Poulter and Coetzee scraped through with a 2,7-second lead at the end of 206 km of frantic battle.
The pair claimed their second victory of the season ahead of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (S2000 Ford Fiesta). Poulter and Coetzee took Toyota’s all-time national championship rally win tally to 101. By virtue of finishing second Cronje and Houghton are the unofficial drivers’ and co-drivers’ champions of 2011.
Cronje said afterwards: “It’s a huge relief. Sunday was stressful because we knew we had it in the bag as long as we stayed on the road and out of trouble and not hit anything pulled into the road. I wasn’t in the sport 14 months ago so I’m really chuffed. We had our ‘near-death’ experience for the event early on and kept a level head. I knew the rally would come to us if we stayed consistent.”
Houghton, who already has national off-road titles to his name, added to his team-mates sentiment. “Saturday was particularly difficult; there were lots of things to hit. It looked like a scrapyard out there! This rally is one where if you lose half a minute, you can make it up again, unlike on other rallies where you would be out of the running. The pressure was tremendous all weekend because the championship was ours to lose. It’s a fantastic feeling to have done it in our first year”.
VW’s honour was upheld by Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries (S2000 Volkswagen Polo) who claimed third overall in this weekend’s event. The VW pair led Cronje and Houghton at the start of the final stage by nine tenths of a second, but were overtaken by the hard-charginf Ford and finished 2,8 seconds behind it.
Conrad Rautenbach started the event as championship leader and needed to beat Cronje to win his first South African title. In the end he and French co-driver finished fourth overall, 26 seconds behind the winners.
However, there could still be a twist in the tail the title outcome could well be affected by an unresolved protest regarding the results of the Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally run earlier this year.