THREE MAJOR WRECKS AS FEKKEN AND ARRIES SHINE

+ Click to Enlarge FIERY FINISH: The Ford Fiesta of Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich caught fire and burned out in an open section of the 2010 Tour Natal near Umzinto. Image: QUICKPIC

March 9, 2010

The South African Rally championship started last weekend with the annual Tour Natal and the old guard established themselves as firm title favourites.

Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries had a perfect start to the season after dominating the second day of the rally in their factory VW Polo and coming home first in a commanding 1-2 result.

Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley claimed the final step of the podium for the works Toyota Auris team and young Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach/Peter Marsh were fourth overall in their Subaru Impreza N16.

Three major accidents marred the event and only luck averted a double tragedy when after Schalk Burger/Armand du Toit (S2000 Toyota RunX) crashed and rolled down a bank, landing upside down in a river. Four spectators rushed to the scene and got the car on to its side and the crew’s heads above water.

Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin crashed their S2000 RunX at the same spot two minutes later and rolled end-over-end to land 20m from Burger’s stricken car. Moosa broke a collar bone, Martin was shaken but unhurt.

The highly rated Ford Fiesta of Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich caught fire in an open section near Umzinto and burned out.

Double-champions Fekken and Arries were left in their team mates’ wake on Saturday’s four North Coast stages. Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson, the fastest combination in the final part of the 2009 series, rocketed into an immediate 10sec lead in the opening stage of the year and won the next before Fekken pegged back the flying Kuun in stage three.

Tactics came into play in stage four and Fekken deliberately slowed in the day’s final stage to have a more favourable road position for Sunday’s eight stages. The pair finished 4.1sec apart.

Fekken blasted into the lead on Sunday morning with three consecutive stage wins, helped by Kuun wrong-slotting in stage six and losing 25sec. Once in the lead, Fekken controlled the gap and claimed his first Tour Natal victory and an early season title advantage.

Mark Cronje lost most of his time through running first on the slippery Natal stages on day one but hung on to bag a solid helping of points with two stage wins. The Toyota Auris driven by last season’s championship runner-up Johnny Gemmell and new co-driver Drew Sturrock, rolled out of fourth place in Sunday’s first stage after clipping a bank at low speed.

Fourth placed Rautenbach, out of a production car for three years, spent much of his time exploring the Natal scenery off the route schedule, with numerous wrong-slots and pirouettes. He was rapidly reeled in by the fast and consistent Japie van Niekerk/Robin Houghton Auris and, going into the final stage, was only four seconds ahead.

BROKEN SIDESHAFT

Van Niekerk made one last flat-out charge for fourth but a big moment caused a tyre to come off a rim and the Pretoria property developer had to settle for fifth.

Nicholas Ryan/Geoff Tyrer (Polo) had a perfect and untroubled run to sixth, a slender 3.2sec ahead of JP Damseaux/Carolyn Swan, whose Toyota broke a sideshaft in stage three and lost two minutes. Damseaux got faster as the weekend progressed which augers well for the rest of his year.

Six-times SA champion Jan Habig and new co-driver Ralph Pitchford brought their Polo home eighthoverall after a spin cost him 20sec in stage two. Brake and differential problems kept the genial Stanger resident unusually low down the running order.

Fernando Rueda/Dave Lewkowicz (Toyota RunX) had a scrappy run to ninth after a multitude of wrong slots.

Rounding out the top 10 was Theuns Joubert and new co-driver Carl Peskin in their Polo. There was a cane-harvesting moment and punctures in stages six and nine for the Mokopane driver to contend with.

SOLE SURVIVOR

Evan Hutchinson/Elvene Coetzee (Polo) also had a number of overshoots, not helped by a broken reversegear, and lost three minutes in stage three before settling into a steady rhythm and gaining valuable seat time in the S2000 class car.

Chris de Wit/Riaan Erasmus celebrated a new sponsorship on their Class A7 Toyota RunX with a debut class win as the sole survivor in the class. Gavin Cronje/Van Aardt Schoeman (Polo) retired in stage two with a broken steering rack and Michael Otto/Tommy du Toit (Corolla) had enduring bad luck with another blown motor.

Returnee Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe (Auris) had their first Class A6 win over Craig Trott/Robbie Coetzee’s RunX after a close fight through all 12 stages.

Class A5 was again an inter-team battle between defending champion Gugu Zulu/Shaun Visser and Andre Cleenwerck/Kesevan Naidoo, each team in a CitiGolf. Zulu built up a one-minute class lead before rolling in stage six on Sunday morning and giving the points to Cleenwerck.

Ashley Haigh-Smith/Hilton Auffrey claimed their best yet class finish in their Yaris, well ahead of Benjamin Pinho/Marco Ferreira’s Ford Ka.

Only 21 of 41 starters finished the event.

Round two of the SA Rally championship will be the Toyota Dealer Rally in Caledon over March 26/27.