Their success came despite their finishing a disappointed eighth overall and fourth in class in the seventh and penultimate round of the championship, held in the maize fields and surroundings of Mooreesburg and Malmesbury in the Western Cape on Saturday and Sunday.
It was an eventful rally. Du Plessis’ intention was to go for a win and increase his lead in both the overall Production Car Championship and class N4. After the first two dirt stages on Friday, covering a distance of some 44 km, he found himself in joint second place with closest championship rival and defending champion Nicholas Ryan (Subaru Impreza WRX), 12 seconds behind Charl Wilken (Subaru Impreza WRX).
The last three stages on Friday were all on tar at the Killarney motor racing circuit near Cape Town. “We decided to lower the suspension, but didn’t change the wheel alignment. Big mistake. The toe-in was wrong and we had three big spins and a huge moment at 160 km/h, which lost us a cumulative 50 seconds or so.”
At the end of the first day, Wilken led by 24 seconds from Ryan, who in turn was 15 seconds ahead of Fernando Rueda (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9), with Visser 54 seconds behind Wilken and 15 seconds behind Rueda.
“We decided to take no unnecessary risks on Saturday and aim to beat at least Fernando and possibly also Nick. Charl was not in championship contention and therefore wasn’t a threat.
“After the first three dirt stages we had closed to just 5 seconds behind Fernando and were looking good for third overall. Then came stage 9, at over 46 km the longest on the event. We overshot a turn at maximum speed – somewhere in the region of 180 to 200 km/h – and went straight through a fence, hitting a pole in the process.
“I managed to slow the car down enough to turn about 150 metres from the hole in the fence. The car was not too badly damaged – mainly bent bodywork – and we rejoined the route just behind Mark Cronje (class A7 Toyota RunX). We were held up in his dust and lost about 30 seconds in total.
“We lost this battle, we weren’t beaten. The spins at Killarney and the ‘off’ cost us a total of around 80 sec. Charl had a great event and finished almost 2 minutes in front of us, but the final gap to Nick was only 22 seconds and to Fernando 18!
“Finishing eighth overall wasn’t too bad, but I was very disappointed to be fourth in class. Anyway, we’ve won the class battle for the year (we have a 10-point lead over Nick and Schalk and there are only nine points at stake for a class win in the final event) and now we must concentrate on defending our 16-point advantage over them in the overall championship. I think we’ll be able to do this.”
The final round of the season, the Toyota Dealer Rally, takes place in the Bapsfontein area east of Midrand on October 26 and 27.
