Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries won the Osram Rally in their class S2000 BP VW Polo in and around the Free State town of Dewetsdorp on Saturday and set up a close finish to the 2007 Sasol SA Rally Championship(BP VW Polo.
They finished 57 seconds ahead of reigning champions and VW team-mates Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson. Third, just five seconds back, were Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh in an S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX, with former champions Jan Habig and Douglas Judd a further 12 seconds in arrears in fourth in their S2000 BP Polo.
It was the pair’s second win of the year (they also won the Zulu Rally in KwaZulu Natal in May) and they did it in impressive style, winning five of the 10 special stages. They now lead the championship, with two rounds remaining, by a single point (112-111) from team-mates Kuun and Hodgson. Joint third are former multiple champions Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley (Castrol Toyota RunX) and Habig and Judd on 100 points.
Damseaux’s son Jean-Pierre and co-driver Cobus Vrey were early casualties in their S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX after going off the road on the first stage of the day on Saturday.
Fernando Rueda and Gerhard Snyman finished an excellent fifth overall to take their second successive Production Car win in the Team Total Mitsubishi Lancer), 1 min 38 sec ahead of sixth-placed Paul Pfeiffer and Cindi Harding (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6) and 2 min 39 sec ahead of ninth placed Visser du Plessis and Dave Lewkowicz (Pirtek/Kreepy Krauly Subaru Impreza).
Du Plessis and Lewkowicz hold on to their Production Car championship lead and are now 18 points ahead of defending champions Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden, who finished 10th overall in the Bosal/Jonnesway Subaru Impreza).
Notable N4 retirements were Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich (Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza), who went out after stage 6 with gearbox problems. It was their first event since the car was badly damaged in a crash on the Total Rally in June, resulting in their missing the VW Rally and only just making the Osram event after the new body shell arrived from England on the weekend prior to the event.
Jon Williams and father Douglas equalled their best result of the year when they finished seventh in their S2000 Trident Press VW Polo. Etienne Lourens and Andre Vermeulen were eighth in the S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX.
After winning the first two stages on Friday, Lourens and Vermeulen looked set for a better result, but they lost valuable time on stages 5 and 6 and 7 after stopping to change a broken rear wheel in stage 5 and completing stage 6 without rear brakes. They also incurred an 80 sec penalty for lateness into stage six after having to replace a shattered brake disc and broken calipers in the service area.
It was a fast and punishing event that covered more than 210 km of dirt road special stages in and around the Dewetsdorp area some 80 km from Bloemfontein. Twenty-six of the 40 starters were officially classified as finishers and among the retirements were Damseaux and Paisley, winners of the recent VW Rally in the Eastern Cape.
Damseaux, seeking a record 13 national rally championships in what is believed to be his final year in a long and distinguished career, was third overnight after Friday’s two 4-km stages at the Bloemfontein Showgrounds. But it all started to go wrong on stage 4 on Saturday when he lost almost two minutes with a puncture (he drove 12 of the stage’s 23km to the finish on the flat wheel), an engine misfire, a broken brake pipe and a leaking power steering oil cooler.
The misfire persisted for the next two stages and Damseaux had dropped to 13th overall. The engine finally blew up as they finished the 4,58-km stage 8, two stages from the finish, and they coasted through the flying finish and into retirement.
Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin wrapped up the class A7 championship with their sixth successive class win and a well-earned 11th overall in the Castrol Toyota RunX. Chris de Witt and Dean Redelinghuys (Team Total Toyota RunX) were second in class and 13th overall, while Tony Ball and Alan Bissett (Bulwer Motors VW Golf) were 14th overall and third in class A7.
Barry Grobbelaar and Grant Martin retired their Sasol VW Golf on stage 5 with a broken control arm while lying second in class A7.
Class A6 honours went to Salie du Toit and Gert Janse van Rensburg (Team Total Toyota RunX), from Andy Haigh-Smith and Eugene le Roux (Toyota RunX) and Team Total’s Craig Trott and Carolyn Swan in a similar car.
Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin wrapped up the class A5 championship with their fifth win of the season, ahead of BP VW Citi Golf team-mates Andre Cleenwerck and Des de Portier. Third were Piet Bakkes and Tommy du Toit (Toyota Tazz). Notable retirements were Claudio Piazza-Musso and Greg Gericke (Sasol Toyota Yaris) who were time-barred after experiencing fuel pump problems on stage 6 while lying third.
Class N3 was won by Mohammed Moosa and Henry Dearlove (Team Total Toyota RunX), who took full advantage of the retirements of the first three crews in the championship, Rodney Visagie/Arno La Grange (Team Total Toyota RunX), team-mates Michael Houghton/Hennie Botes and Kosta Koumantarakis/Barry White (Toyota RunX).
The win in class N2 again went to already confirmed champions and lone entrants Etienne du Toit and Patrick Vermaak (McCarthy Toyota Corolla), their fifth in a row.
The 7th round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the Total Swartland Rally in the Western Cape on September 21 and 22.
