Found at: http://www.rallystar.co.za/article/articleprint/4915/-1/1/

FINAL REVIEW - 2010 TOTAL TOUR NATAL

Publishing date: 10.03.2010 13:09

If you believe that the Germans put in a frantic effort to get the A-Bomb ready to pop onto London and blow Churchill back to the Apies River near Pretoria through which he reportedly swam to escape from my grandpa and his cronies, you have not seen frantic yet!

Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries - setting the targets

With only days to go before the Total Tour Natal teams were still frantically building S2000 cars all over the show and I started to doubt if some of these cars would make it to the start of the first rally for 2010.

In the end all of them made it - albeit not really in fully prepared trim.

Any reasonably experienced person would have expected that with 18 S2000 cars on the start line - nothing but a war would take place and it would be a miracle to see more than 15 of them make it to the end.

Visser du Plessis hardly made it to the start line before things started coming off and he was clearly dismayed about the situation. This time Lady Luck drew him as an early victim - and I had one less to worry about!

Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson - leaving no doubt about their intentions for the year.

According to a few spectators who stood at the end of a tunnel on the first stage where there were plenty of warnings to try and slow the teams down - Enzo Kuun came out of the tunnel through the air and landed spot on facing exactly in the right direction before he nailed the Polo and won the stage by exactly the time he could have gained in that specific manoeuvre - 3.2s from Hergen who came through the same spot only like a man possessed - not like a cross between Evel Knievel and Jack the Ripper!
Jan Habig and the new navigator with the wide eyes - well he is not all that new to the motorsport world - but this was his rally baptism! Ralph Pitchford were still looking rather worried but on the other hand quite pleased with what he experienced on the left side of a rally car.

A very early warning came from Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh when they brought the heavier N4 Subaru Impreza home in 4th spot.

The crowd drawing Ford Fiesta finished stage 1 in fourth fastest time with Charl Wilken looking quite pleased with what he felt but we all knew that there was no ways he would take any risks before he was more familiar with the car and its setups have been sorted out.

The suspension was still set up for almost rock hard Pirelli tyres and if you added the softer compound Dunlop tyres we use in South Africa to the already soft suspension, the car would definitely not handle near is peak.

Then 6th fastest and 12 seconds off the pace followed Johnny Gemmell and his new navigator Drew Sturrock.

Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton surprised a number of competitors by their early pace and while Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley finished stage 1 in a rather slow (for them) 8th spot.

A tense looking Heinrich Lategan and Johan V D Merwe completed the stage in 9th fastest time and Theuns Joubert and Carl Peskin managed to complete the Top10.

Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin set 11th fastest time and I sighed a sigh of relief as my biggest fear was an early attack for a better place by this talented driver.

Then followed J P Damseaux with his new navigator Carolyn Swan while an unhappy looking Fernando Rueda was 22.5s off the winning pace.

There were three N4 cars in the Top20 while the rest was an incredible gaggle of S2000's!

What worried me most was that it was sort of tedious to watch them coming in - one after the other and the fact that you could sit in a Million Rand plus at its cheapest - car and after the first stage be 18th or so in class could not have been a nice feeling.

Knowing every driver and also a bit about their way of thinking - I could not help grinding my teeth in anticipation of the first of the less experienced drivers in S2000 leaving the road Big Time! The bubble had to pop and I expected that to happen sooner rather than later.

Chase Attwell and Dean Redelinghuys

The road surface was very loose - and the little I did to try and slow them down slightly would in all probability have been changed back to the degree it was without considering the following corner or situation. Problem is that some teams do not bother to change anything to suit them - they purely drive on what they see on the Notes. One team discovered on Sunday morning that they had two pages missing from the notes - those were the two pages we slipped up with at the printer! So they have not been through the notes once!

Michael Otto and Tommy du Toit

Michael Otto and Tommy du Toit were the first "normal" team and finished 21st leading A7. What made this even more impressive is the fact that they had Natal Master Chris de Wit and his new navigator Riaan Erasmus behind them - albeit only .8 of a second! Then even more impressive followed Tjaart Conradie and Tiaan Rabe in their newly acquired ex-Mohammed Moosa A6 Auris. They led another Natal home-grown product in the form of Craig Trott with Robbie Coetzee next to him.

An overall sad (or is it unhappy) looking Gugu Zulu and new navigator Shaun Visser led in A5 from Andre Cleenwerck and his new navigator Kesevan Naidoo!

Andre Cleenwerck and Kesevan Naidoo Class A5 winners

Three teams; Chad Lambert/Nic Prinsloo; Mally Saville/Johan du Toit and also Megan and Oliver Verlaque retired before and during stage 1.

Stage 2 again went to a flying Enzo but Hergen fine tuned his attack and only needed a fraction of a second (0.7) to get on par with the effort Enzo put in. Mark Cronje stepped up his game, but in this company he still fell 1.2 seconds or a light year plus a fraction - short. Gemmell also stepped up his pace and managed 4th fastest but I suspect he did not have all the confidence he needed yet to attack with all he had?

Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley proving the Toyota can now also jump

Conrad was again right there between the Top S2000 cars and his WRC experience clearly showed. You have to remember that what you see in the same BP colours as last year is definitely not what you saw performance wise last year. I am not sure and I truly have given up trying to get any facts from the manufacturer teams as they build secrets instead of rally cars - but there is no doubt in my mind that the 2010 models or for that matter what we now see - are truly a visible step up from what they were!

A Skoda badge or two may reveal all? Suddenly the Auris' do not look that fast anymore and if you think that Cronje and Gemmell did not throw all they could muster in behind their efforts - you clearly do not know these two. Both of them can get maximum potential from any car they drive.

Another three teams fell out. Newcomer Leeroy Poulter and established navigator Henry Dearlove retired with electrical problems while Visser du Plessis and Gerhard Snyman called it a day before their whole new car fell apart.

Michael Otto and Tommy du Toit also sadly retired their impressive A7 Toyota in stage 2.

After stage 2 Kuun was leading by 4 seconds, but Hergen found his pace and the race was on. Conrad Rautenbach lay in a fantastic third spot overall and it would be interesting to see if he could stay there to the end!

Gemmell and Sturrock lay in fourth spot with a bit of work ahead of them to catch up the two leaders - but only 3.7 seconds lay between them and Rautenbach.

Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock

Then followed Cronje and in 6th spot a rather conservative Wilken in the new Basil Read bizhub Ford Fiesta. No matter what Wilken did or how he kept his need to nail this sensation at bay - spectators rushed from stage to stage to catch a glimpse of this world class car.

Japie van Niekerk was steady in 7th.

Jan Habig and Ralph Pitchford spun in the stage, this caused Jan to drop down to 8th overall. Rueda managed to move up 4 spots and was now 9th while Theuns Joubert still filled the Top10 spot.

Mohammed Moosa dropped 14 positions after a wrong slot in this stage and it took a bit of convincing to keep him at bay as he was determined to prove a point in this car. No matter how clever anyone outside a car can be - it is pure hell to sit your backside in the right machinery and then keep in the horses after you made a mistake. Ask any real rally driver and he will tell you about a few times he would have given anything to be able to turn back the clock and get another go at going around a corner - after trying to do something impossible!

The same can unfortunately be said for "relaxing" or settling for a specific position. I had one of my biggest accidents moments after I decided to settle behind Habig for second place - still needing 6 seconds with only 4.8 or so to go! Wham Bam thank you Mam - I settled in a sloot stopping from about 150 to nought in less than half metre! Geoff Tyrer (that’s the navigator with the long neck - will tell you all about that!)

The same risk lay with at least another 10 teams who may at any moment decide to open all the taps!

In stage three the works drivers did what they were supposed to do for the Million Rand per rally they are paid. They simply filled the top five spots through the stage without any thought or sympathy for those behind them!

Fekken blasted through the stage like a possessed man - possessed. That is one step to the left of crazy and Pierre's one eye was bigger than the other one when they came out of the stage. The route notes must have been in the way of the smaller one when he looked up to see that the end was nigh as Hergen went up two gears instead of down one!

Enzo clearly had a problem - but did not look too worried. The fun and war was still on for us!

Cronje kept pace for Toyota while Johnny stayed in touch and Jan Habig stayed just short of his real pace.

Conrad flew the flag for the privateers while Charl Wilken up his game a bit he still applied the power conservatively trying to get to grips with the left-hand-drive and soft setup.

Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh - excellent drive and N4 win

Japie was now 8th fastest followed by Nic Ryan and then in 10th Fernando Rueda.

Schalk Burger and Armand du Toit stepped up their pace and they looked happy with the result for the time being. They were followed by Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin while Theuns Joubert was now a bit off pace in 13th fastest.

Jaco van Dyk and Hennie Botes claimed 14th while Heinrich Lategan and Johan V D Merwe topped the first 15 times through the stage.

Gavin Cronje and van Aardt Schoeman withdrew - I think they had the alternator problem which means that Leroy and Henry withdrew for another reason? At my age and with all the running around to please everyone - don’t blame me for mixing up the plumbing and the electrical works. You can actually be glad I am not reporting on the Toyota Dealer Rally of 2008!

Fekken now took over the lead and Enzo needed a gear-change and a double clutch or 2.4s to get back into the lead.

Cronje was third but a rally light year from the real business as he trailed by 21.9s. Rautenbach managed to hold off Gemmell but he was only another .8s ahead of the charging Toyota.

Jan Habig crawled back into 6th spot while Charl was now in seventh and Japie in eight. Rueda stayed put in 9th and Ryan swapped places with Joubert to round off the Top10.

Mohammed Moosa shot up 9 positions to 16th spot after his miserable stage 2 while Tjaart Coetzee and Herman Groenewald dropped 10 spots down the ladder after problems in Stage 3.

Chase Attwell and Dean Redelinghuys did even worse and dropped all the way to stone last losing 18 minutes in the stage! This was such a pity as I for one would have loved to see where Chase would finish after a clean run.

Predictably - Kuun again took the "tunnel" stage beating Hergen into day one submission by 6.7s while Habig showed his ability to recall roads and also to up his pace exactly by how much he wanted. He was just 0.2s off Hergen's pace and Charl also showed a bit more confidence by positing 4th fastest time to stay in touch with the event leaders. We knew we could get ready for an even better rally on Sunday.

Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin had a very close escape when they beached their S2000 Toyota on sugar cane and the cane caught alight. Mo managed to reverse the car away from the threatening fire but then landed in a ravine. After a frantic call to me - we managed to get everyone in motion and the rescue attempt was successful! Little did he know that the mamma of problems lay waiting the next day when they wanted to add much needed seat-time.

Piet Bakkes and Paul van Wyk also fell out in the final stage of day one.

Jaco van Dyk and Hennie Botes

So after day one we all went to bed with Enzo leading by 4.01 from Hergen. Mark Cronje was 28.7 behind with Rautenbach still ahead of Gemmell in fourth and Jan Habig in sixth spot.

Charl was in 7th with van Niekerk in 8th. Ryan now 9th exchanged places with Rueda who now capped the Top10.

New day - new drama!

Something had to give and that was a fact!

Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock would have been determined to improve their position and I have little doubt that they would have been able to do that - when a small bump out of a slow corner simply tipped them over. End of the run for them - thinking back Natal has a habit of either giving Johnny everything or nothing!

Hergen won the first stage on Sunday while Enzo had a nightmare run losing 8 seconds to Fekken - still he was third fastest through.

Now Japie really made the eyebrows lift - mine included by posting second fastest time for the opening stage of the day.

Conrad was as steady as a rock while Heinrich Lategan for the first time slotted in where he belonged. JP also seemed to get some new life and posted sixth fastest time.

Seventh to tenth were filled by Rueda, Cronje, Habig and Joubert.

Overall Fekken now led by 3.9s from Kuun. Rautenbach swapped for fourth place with Cronje, van Niekerk moved up three spots into fifth while Hobig and Wilken stayed in 6th and 7th respectively.

Rueda moved into 8th, Ryan remained in 9th and Joubert claimed back 10th.

Schalk was still just outside of Top10 while Jaco van Dyk did well to fill 12th after Stage5.

In SS6 Enzo lost half minute and that sadly for all practical reasons put paid to his chances to claim the event from a driver such as Fekken. A small fart and a blink of both eyes at once and Fekken is gone - and 30s is like a holiday to the reigning champ!

But then again Kuun may not be from the real old school but he sure as hell had all his training under the most difficult circumstances in the company of sadists! He may be intelligent but unfortunately for the opposition he lost the part of his brain that is supposed to tell him when to give up!

Cronje - now surely under strict orders to finish the event split the Volkswagen effort of Fekken and Habig by posting second fastest time for this stage.

Gugu Zulu doing his level best to scare new navigator Visser - or at least something to that effect rolled the Class A leading Golf while Tjaart Coetzee and Herman Groenewald as well as Chase Attwell and Dean "Straight Through Gate" Redelinghuys also called it a day. They probably called it a few things more - but went home anyway!

Stage 7 - King Fekken and with the length of a small kingdom - so the temperature inside two helmets in the Kuun car must have shot halfway up the intercom system! But a 39 second lead between anyone and Fekken was like tackling Kilimanjaro with a set of used Crocs!

Cronje showed maturity by not getting flustered while Van Niekerk showed serious improved style again posting a time you could let the family at home know about - that is of course if you register for the results on the new service - our service have been canned after five years as most of you know and hopefully all will now know.

JP and Carolyn posted 5th fastest while Jaco van Dyk and Hennie Botes left the road on a straight piece after something gave way. That was that for this new crew.

As I said Hergen now led by 29 seconds from Kuun and 72.7 from third placed Rautenbach and 74.8 from Cronje in fourth.

Japie and Robin was steady in 5th while Charl and Greg moved the Ford up into 6th spot past Habig who dropped to 7th.

After this stage A7 belonged to Chris de Wit, A6 to Tjaart Conradie and A5 to Andre Cleenwerck.

Tjaart Conradie and Tiaan Rabe - winners Class A6

In Stage 8 the rhythm was slightly disturbed when Mark Cronje caused the first upset for the Volkswagen victory parade when he took a stage win for Toyota.

Fekken was second and Charl for the first time stepped up the pace in the Ford to take an easy third after another clean run.

Rautenbach was 4th and Enzo did not do too well in a stage that was actually custom-made for his style. He finished in fifth fastest time.

A bit further down Mohammed Moosa - albeit driving for practise and seat mileage posted 9th fastest time right between van Niekerk and Rueda.

Cronje now moved into third spot pushing Rautenbach down (eventually) after the latter threw the N4 around in great style making it as difficult as possible for the lighter S2000 cars to mess with him.

Lower down JP and Theuns swapped 11th and 12th places.

Basil Read bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000

Then … one of the biggest shocks I have had in my many years of rallying and involvement - I was about two metres away form Flip Wilken in the Scottburgh service park when he got a call. The first thing I heard was "did Charl and Greg jump out?" and then "ag nee man!"…..I knew that here was big, big trouble!

I could see the shock on his face when he looked at me and said, "the car burned out completely! Charl and Greg is Ok - but the car burned out at a stop street in the open section!"

It still felt like a joke to me - how can that ever be possible. I mean I have been in three rally cars that caught fire and never ever had a problem to extinguish the fire - with a normal fire extinguisher. How can a R3.5m @#4%&4 car just burn out? I knew they had the best upgraded extinguishers fitted for an incident like this!! No one - I don't care who you are can pay that sort of money - do eight conservative stages and then kiss your financial ass goodbye?

Basil Read bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000

I can only hope for the sake of the sport - and I am serious when I say this - and also for Ford and all who put money into this project - that someone somewhere will have a heart and look seriously into putting this incredible incident right.

Theuns Joubert and Charl Peskin - consistent first outing together.

I have to admit that I simply got into my car and drove home - I can take a lot of nonsense and fertilizer in any form - but at that stage I had enough. What the hell was the matter …?

In Stage 9 Enzo made some progress winning the stage and scraping 6 seconds off Hergens lead, 35.5s remained!

In between all the drama we missed the fact that a huge battle raged between Rautenbach and van Niekerk. Japie was closing the gap slowly but surely and needed on 15.2 seconds to reel the Subaru in.

Hein Lategan and Johan vd Merwe did not start this stage - there were only 23 cars left.

Stage 10 - the works drivers again claimed the top four spots and Enzo drew another - wait for it 0.4s closer to Hergen after winning the stage! That must be the sort of thing where the saying "to cry in your hands" applies to?

You win a stage - walk like John Wayne for three seconds and deflate when you realise that your effort was almost to no avail.

No change in the Top7 while JP and Rueda swapped places 8 and 9 and Theuns Joubert moved into the Top10 again.

Fernando Rueda and Dave Lewkowicz

As if the earlier Ford drama and Gemmell's roll were not enough - Schalk Burger and Armand du Toit clipped a bank or rock and rolled into a river where they landed under water and upside down.

Incredible as it may sound there were four spectators at that spot and they immediately jumped in to assist and actually saved the lives of both Schalk and Armand.

While they were still busy doing their incredible saving act, along came an inspired Mohammed Moosa - he saw some ground across the road, changed his lines and ran out of space through the same corner - also hitting a bank and rolling down the road - luckily staying out of the water.

Evan Hutchison and Elvene Coetzee - clean calculated first run.

As Mohammed's message about the two accidents came through on my phone I was caught doing 151km/h in a speed-trap while reading his chilling message.

At first it seemed if Schalk may have been very seriously hurt, but luckily we can report tonight that he is OK and he will probably not suffer any long term consequences.

Mohammed Moosa broke his collarbone in the incident and under went surgery last night (Monday). Everything went well and he should be back behind the steering wheel soon.

Enzo - still on maximum attack won stage 11, while Mark Cronje was second fastest, JP Damseaux claimed third spot through the stage.

Hergen decided to hand a few seconds back if need be, but to play it safe and protect his well deserved points.

Japie van Niekerk again posted a steady fifth fastest stage time.

There were no changes in overall positions after stage 11 and Stage 12 went to Mark Cronje again.

Once again all the positions stayed the same and Hergen won the rally in relative comfort.

Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley proving the Toyota can now also jump

This has been a great rally despite the mishaps and huge damage caused either by accidents or acts of …I am not sure whom. I am confident that Ford will do something about the fact that a brand new car went up in flames – not only destroying one teams dreams – but at the same time kicking a huge dent into the rally scene itself.

What was supposed to be the million watt light that was supposed to shine on the sport and revive it from its present recession or doldrums turned into a flame from hell that burned out in a few minutes.

The right steps taken by Ford will not only do their reputation well – it will without doubt be one of the best publicity stunts in a long time.

I am not so sure what the fate of Schalk Burger will be and what he will decide to do in future – but it will be sad if he decides to call it a day.

Mohammed Moosa will undoubtedly be back in action and hopefully as soon as the Toyota Dealer Cape rally!

The final positions were:

Pos	Driver / Co-Driver	CL	CAR	Total
1	Hergen Fekken / Pierre Arries	S2000	VW POLO	116:43.8			0
2	Enzo Kuun / Guy Hodgson	S2000	VW POLO	117:08.7	0:24.9	0:24.9	0
3	Mark Cronje / Robert Paisley	S2000	TOYOTA AURIS	117:54.0	0:45.3	1:10.2	0
4	Conrad Rautenbach / Pete Marsh	N4	SUBARU IMPREZA	118:29.2	0:35.2	1:45.4	0
5	Japie Van Niekerk / Robin Houghton	S2000	TOYOTA AURIS	119:23.1	0:53.9	2:39.3	0
6	Nicholas Ryan / Geoff Tyrer	S2000	VW POLO	121:13.3	1:50.2	4:29.5	1
7	J P Damseaux / Carolyn Swan	S2000	TOYOTA RUN X	121:16.5	0:03.2	4:32.7	1
8	Jan Habig / Ralph Pitchford	S2000	VW POLO	121:50.4	0:33.9	5:06.6	-2
9	Fernando Rueda / David Lewkowicz	S2000	TOYOTA RUN X	121:57.0	0:06.6	5:13.2	0
10	Theuns Joubert / Carl Peskin	S2000	VW POLO	122:35.6	0:38.6	5:51.8	0
11	Evan Hutchison / Elvene Coetzee	S2000	VW POLO	127:57.7	5:22.1	11:13.9	0
12	Chris De Wit / Riaan Erasmus	A7	TOYOTA RUN-X	129:52.3	1:54.6	13:08.5	0
13	Tjaart Conradie / Tiaan Rabe	A6	TOYOTA AURIS	131:11.2	1:18.9	14:27.4	0
14	Craig Trott / Robbie Coetzee	A6	TOYOTA RUN-X	131:57.9	0:46.7	15:14.1	0
15	Andre Cleenwerck / Kesevan Naidoo	A5	VW CITI GOLF	135:21.6	3:23.7	18:37.8	0
16	Ashley Haigh Smith / Hilton Auffray	A5	TOYOTA YARIS	142:14.4	6:52.8	25:30.6	0
17	Bertus Labuschagne / Lou Zietsman	0	VW POLO PLAYA	143:38.7	1:24.3	26:54.9	0
18	Brian Scott / Kirsty Scott	0	VW POLO PLAYA	146:04.7	2:26.0	29:20.9	0
19	Clyde Victor / Mark King	0	TOYOTA CONQUEST	149:51.3	3:46.6	33:07.5	0
20	Benjamin Pinho / Marco Ferreira	A5	FORD KA	150:52.5	1:01.2	34:08.7	0
21	Robson Maganezi / Pierre Jordaan	N3	FORD FIESTA	167:34.9	16:42.4	50:51.1	0

Chris de Wit and Riaan Erasmus Class A7 winners

Robson Maganezi and Pierre Jordaan

Attached files

Click to open Stage and overall Analysis	( Copy of STAGE AND OVERALL ANALYSIS.xls 135.50 KB )
Click to open Rallystar Stage and overall analysis

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