Enzo Kuun and Pierre Arries powered their factory-entered Sasol Dual Fuel Volkswagen Golf to a three-minute victory over teammates and current SA Rally Champions, Jan Habig and Douglas Judd in the sister Sasol Golf on the VolkswagenSure Tour Natal Rally.
The first event of the 2002 SA National Rally Championship was drama filled when on day two of the event, rally leader Johnny Gemmell and Robert Paisley (L&J Plant Services Subaru Impreza WRX STi) rolled out of the rally on special stage 15. The factory Team Castrol Toyota Corolla RSi of Serge Damseaux/Guy Hodgson, following in the Impreza’s wheel tracks, suffering the identical fate, landing on top of the inverted Subaru, fortunately without injury to any of the crew members.
Kuun held an overnight lead of 15 seconds after a thrilling stage at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Umhlanga Rocks held in front of thousands of appreciative spectators. Kuun/Arries overcame differential problems and a puncture to score their first victory since joining the Sasol VW squad.
Capetonian Fernando Rueda/Martin Botha ended an excellent 3rd overall and first in Group N for near-standard production cars. The Spaniard drove his Motion Vehicle Wholesalers Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 steadily and moved up the field as other more fancied runners hit trouble. It was sweet justice for Rueda, who rolled out of 3rd place in the 2001 Tour Natal Rally.
Emerging the victor in class A7 and ending 4th overall after an intense battle was Tjaart van der Walt/Mike Burrows in their factory Sasol Dual Fuel Volkswagen Polo Playa. Van der Walt was locked in a rally long battle with his team-mate, Hergen Fekken/Dave Lewkowicz until the latter retired on stage 12 with a broken drive shaft. Van der Walt was himself lucky to survive a broken drive shaft on stage 11.
Class A7 is numerically the strongest, and was led by newcomer to the class, Etienne Lourens/Andre Vermeulen, running a brand new Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi. The spectacular Lourens went of the road just before the end of stage 12, landing up buried deep in the KwaZulu Natal vegetation.
Fifth overall and first in class A6 was Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Graham Hooper in their Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi. They enjoyed a steady run with just a few off-road excursions in the tricky wet conditions on day 1, and emerged from the bruising event as favourites to win the class championship this year.
Current KZN Regional champions, Chris de Wit and Shane Saville ended a magnificent 6th overall, regularly mixing it with the more experienced class runners, including the second Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi of Craig Trott/Gerhard Snyman, who ended 12th overall.
Pietermaritzburg based Malcolm Saville (father of Shane) and navigator Alec Harris brought their brand new class N4 Auto Services Subaru Impreza WRX STi home in a credible 7th place overall and second in class. The beautiful black and yellow machine ran faultlessly throughout the tough two-day event, and augers well for the rest of the season.
Another local crew, Tony Ball/Dean Redelinghuys, spearheaded the Sasol VW Dealer Team entry into rallying with a fine 8th place. Ball had to contend with a broken wiper motor on day 1, and with much standing water on the KZN North Coast stages, lost enormous chunks of time before charging on the drier stages of day 2.
The other Sasol VW Dealer Team entries didn’t fare as well; Barry Grobbelaar/Paul van Wyk were time barred after being forced to change a malfunctioning gearbox on day 1, while Keith Coleman/Uwe Koch rolled their Polo Playa on stage 4 when the power steering pump failed at a critical moment in a particularly slippery corner.
Kosta Koumantarakis and John Costa won the non-points scoring class S20 in their Bridgestone-entered Toyota Conquest, fitted with a 20-valve motor. “Kosta and Costa” work for Toyota and started rallying in KZN Regional events four years ago.
Class N2 winner Marius Swart/Paul Kruger in their Supa Quik Honda Civic VTEC rounded out the top 10. Swart had a trouble free run, finishing ahead of the reigning class champion, Dean Sanders/Ashley Gericke (Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi), who endured a tough event. The Corolla suffered a seized shock absorber and the duo lost another 4½ minutes with a puncture on the 22 km long stage 12.
Class A5 was won by debutant Michael Houghton/Craig Jennings in their Toy Toy Spares Toyota Tazz, ahead of the Castrol Toyota Media Challenge winners Deon Schoeman/Andre van Deventer in the Topcar Automark Toyota Tazz.
Debutant rallyist, Gugu Zulu/Dave McGregor ended 25th overall after a massive learning curve. More at home in a 500bhp WesBank saloon, Zulu, in a Sasol Volkswagen CitiGolf, acquitted himself well, driving steadily in the changing conditions.
Nkosinathi Mzimande/Fani Fani Moyiwa, in the second Sasol Chico rolled heavily on stage 11, while the third “Junior Team” Sasol Chico of Kobus Roos/Brendan Nunan, retired on day 1 with fuel pump problems.
Team Total’s development team, Vusi Mabanga/Patrick Yende were time barred after suffering from odometer problems in their Sowetan-supported Toyota Tazz after stage 2.
- Other leading retirements included:
- Visser du Plessis/Johan Sieling (A6 Nationwide Airlines Toyota Corolla RSi) – accident SS12
- Cliff Blackman/Johan Klaasen (A7 Topcar Fuchs Lubricants BMW 320) – gearbox after SS8
- Rocky Reyneke/Andre Pheiffer (Hencom Panelbeaters VW Golf) – accident SS11
- Ferdi Koekemoer/Richard Clark (Renault Clio) – off SS3
- Robin Goodman/Greg Godrich (LUK/BMS VW Polo Playa) – driveshaft SS3
- Ferdi de Vos/Thilo von Westernhagen (Wiel Drive Toyota Tazz) – blown engine SS3
- Peter Alterskye/Alan Bisset (Hi-Q Toyota Conquest) – engine SS5
The next event in the SA Rally Championship is in the Western Cape on 13-14 April.
