Found at: http://www.rallystar.co.za/article/articleprint/5102/-1/1/

GEMMELL HANGS ON TO LEAD BY 5 SECONDS

Publishing date: 23.07.2010 19:46

The Castrol Toyota Auris crew of Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock finished day one of the Volkswagen Rally in Port Elizabeth in first position overall after six of the eleven stages of the event. Gemmell's time for the day was 53:12.2 with the Class S2000 BP VW Polo team of 2007 SA rally champions, Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson, in second position on 53:17.5.

There is very little to choose between the top four and any one of the top four can still win the rally. Third with a time of 53:23.2 was Hein Lategan/Johan van der Mewe in a Toyota Auris followed by six times SA Driver's champion and the oldest competitor in the field, Jannie Habig and co-driver, Ralph Pitchford, on a time of 53:24.6.

In 5th position was the other Castrol Toyota Auris team of Mark Cronje/Robert Paisley on 53:42.2. The early leader on the event, Zimbabwean, Conrad Rautenbach was in 6th position on 53:53.7. Rautenbach's S2000 Ford Fiesta left the road on the second special stage, burst through a fence and according to Rautenbach that unnerved him for the rest of the day and he could not get his confidence back and struggled.

And that's a wrap for day 1

The rally was held in dusty and very cold conditions in the Longmore Forest near Port Elizabeth today.

All the results are currently provisional and will only become final late tonight. The full results for today will be available on the Rallystar website tomorrow morning, while we will be running more reports on the event during the day until the finish tomorrow afternoon.

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