After four special stages reigning SA Rally Champions Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley (Castrol Toyota RunX RSi) are handily placed in second position only 13-seconds behind leaders Johnny Gemmel and Martie Olivier in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 who have won three of the four special stages run to date. Damseaux and Paisley won special stage 4.
Ettienne Lourens and Andre Vermeulen in the Total Toyota RunX RSi, who shared the fastest time with Gemmel and Olivier on special stage 3, are third and a mere second slower than Damseaux and Paisley while JP Damseaux and Cobus Frey are fourth overall and the Class A7 leaders in the Total Toyota RunX RSi.
Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden are fifth overall in the Class N4 Subaru Impreza WRX STi and are only three seconds behind Damseaux and Frey with Jannie Habig and Douglas Judd sixth in the new Class S2000 Volkswagen Polo, which is being plagued by engine management system problems.
Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries were second fastest on special stage 1in their Class A7 Volkswagen Golf but have dropped down the order and share sixth place with Habig and Judd.
Zimbabweans Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh have moved up the leader board in their Subaru Impreza and are 1m 02sec behind overall and Class N4 leaders Gemmel and Olivier. Volkswagen’s Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson are ninth overall and 1m 18s adrift of the leaders.
Fernando Rueda and Martin Botha (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7) got off to bad start when they completed an extra lap on one of the Zwartkops special stages and lost 1m 40s. The pair is languishing in 10th place and are just over two minutes behind the leaders.
All special stage times and positions are unofficial.