Subaru crowned king of the Bushveld
author: Leon Botha
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Mohammed Moosa and Henry Dearlove overall winners
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Subaru was crowned King of the Bushveld after taking the top 5 places during the Ellisras Toyota SAM Rally.
One of the talking points of the event however was the absence off the two teams that were to "dominate the Championship" – the new A7 Toyota of Charl Wilken and then also the A7 Toyota Corolla of Etienne Lourens. The latter unable to fix his gearbox on time, while Wilken was still waiting for an engine – or so rumours will have it.
The Ellisras Toyota Rally was the second round of the Total sponsored Northern Region Rally Championship, and took place in the Ellisras (or whatever it is called these days) area, The rally consisted of six wet, rough, sandy but also fast stages, plus one short tar stage.
Leading the Subaru brigade in the end was the young talented Mohamed Moosa a.k.a Mo with navigator Henry Dearlove in their Mega Hardware Subaru.
The pairing got off to a cautious start and only posted the 4th best time 27 sec behind Jose Ferreira and Greg Godrich in their Scooby.
The biggest surprise however on stage one came from Guillaume Jordaan and Riaan Erasmus in the "Rallystar Xtreme" Subaru. They posted the 2nd best time on the stage only a sec behind Jose.
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Guillaume Jordaan and Riaan Erasmus - Rallystar "Rally Max" Subaru
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Biggest losers in the first wet and slippery stage due to some heavy rain the previous night, were Dario and Paul Dos Santos who went off the road and damaged the Subaru station wagon's suspension. The team repaired the damaged suspension keeping it in position by using one of the bonnet pins. Their brilliant plan backfired however when the bonnet flew open in a fast section of the stage, shattering the windscreen and blocking visibility.
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Dario and Paul dos Santos - "look ma - no windscreen!"
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Another team who almost fell prey of stage one was the Subaru of Sallie du Toit and Gert Jansen van Rensburg who hit a tree, giving the Subaru an extreme makeover. They forunately for them managed to get going again.
Not so lucky was one of Pretoria Motor Club’s top teams, Jaco and George Baker, as well as the team of Christoff Snyders and Irma Du Plooy. The latter also a PMC member.
After stage One Ferreira led Jordaan by 1s, followed by Theo Venter and Christelle Barnard 15s later, and then only was the eventual winners, Moosa and Dearlove 27 seconds off the pace.
Fifth fastest through stage one were Theron and Muller in the VW Caddy, followed by Ehlers and Roux in 6th, while 7th place belonged to Hennie Lourens and Andre Pfeiffer, with Jose de Gouveia and Tommy du Toit in 8th, and the last two of the Top 10 spots were filled by Danie van Hengel/Paul Bothma and Jaco Liebenberg and Schalk van Heerden in their Golf.
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Jose De Gouveia and Tommy du Toit - 3rd overall in their Subaru Impreza.
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In stage two the roaring Nissan Exa of Callie van der Merwe and Vanny Geldenhuys did not just sound fast, it was quick enough to win the stage and bettering their stage position from SS1 by 13 positions, beating second fastest Ferreira by 3s.
Jose de Gouveia and Tommy du Toit managed to beat Moosa and Dearlove by 5s while Dos Santos and Sallie Du Toit shared 5th fasted time 18 sec off the pace of the winning Exa. The leading front-wheel-drive was the supercharged VW Caddy of Willem-Adriaan Theron and Graig Muller.
Seventh fastest through the stage were Jordaan and Erasmus in the Rallystar Subaru, They were already struggling with overheating problems, while Flippie Venter and Des de Fortier retired the Mini Cooper, Jan and Suzette Jacobs, as well as Scott Howden and Willie van Straaten also called it a day.
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Jose Ferreira and Greg Godrich ..not a trouble free rally!
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Ferreira was now leading Moosa by 35 seconds, while the latter only had 3 seconds in hand over the determined de Gouveia who improved his overall position by 5 places. Guillaume Jordaan dropped two spots to 4th, while Callie van der Merwe improved his overall position by 9 places to 5th overall! Then followed Salie du Toit who moved up 6 spots, and 7th were the dos Santos brothers who rocketed up by 11 positions.
The Caddy of Theron lost 3 positions, while Venter who still led S3 dropped 6. Danie van Hengel also did not have a good day and he dropped one spot to tenth.
Jaco Liebenberg and Schalk van Heerden were leading S2, while Andre Ehlers and Eugene le Roux’s Toyota Tazz still showed the way in S1 even after losing 9 positions overall in SS2.
Japie and Luvette Roos dropped a massive 11 positions in this stage as well.
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Callie van der Merwe and Vannie Geldenhuys - V for S4 Victory
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Stage three saw the first off a string of problems for Callie in the 2.8 l powered Exa. The team had a puncture and lost 32 sec to Mo and Dearlove who launched their planned attack after taking it easy through the first two stages to check matters out.
Ferreira posted second fasted time 15 sec behind Mo, while De Gouveia was a mere 6 sec behind Ferreira. Dario and Paul Dos Santos were battling along without a windscreen which hampered their speed.
The Caddy team lost almost 40 min in the stage due to a yet unknown problem.
Ashley and Leslie Mackenzie, Japie and Luvette Roos, John Ogden and Kevin Clark as well as Stephan Geldenhuys and Hannes Bothma retired after stage 3.
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John Ogden and Kevin Clarke still hanging it out.....
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After three stages Jose led Mo by 20s, while de Gouveia hung in there twenty four seconds further down, while Callie van der Merwe crept into 4th desperately chopping away on 67 seconds to get to the leader. Salie du Toit was in 5th while a battling Jordaan lost another 2 spots and was now occupying 6th.
Willem Adriaan Theron and Craig Muller dropped a massive 20 spots, while both Shaun Visser and Brian Carrihill in the Nissan Sentra and Ashley and his father Les Mackenzie in the Ford Escort moved up five positions.
Ernie Boshoff and Grant Martin also managed to improve by 4 positions through the stage.
Jose Ferreira and Greg Godrich stormed through stage four beating their closest rival, Moosa and Dearlove, by 45 sec.
De Gouveia was 2 sec slower than Moosa while Callie lost 58 sec to Ferreira with the fourth fastest time.
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Rodne Marillier and Andre vd Merwe - Subaru
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The top five overall positions remained unchanged – Ferreira, Moosa, de Gouveia, vd Merwe and du Toit, while Dario dos Santos moved up one at the cost of the RallyStar Subaru of Jordaan. Rodne Marillier and Arrie van der Merwe climbed two spots to 8th, while Venter occupied 9th and van Hengel 10th.
Chad Lambert and Carel Vos dropped 6 positions in SS4, but they were still better off than Marius van Biljon and Martin von Wielligh in the Conquest, Ashley and Les Mackenzie (because they forgot their club’s name), Japie and Luvette Roos in the Golf, John Ogden and Kevin Clark in the Nissan, and also Stephan Geldenhuys and Hannes Bothma – all went home to watch the Super14 Bulls get forked by two fingers of fate – one from Australia and the other from the Boland.
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Eddie Simpson and Marko Lottering - Opel Corsa
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Callie launched another desperate attack in SS5 taking back two minutes from the struggling Ferreira. Second fastest in the stage were Dario and Paul Dos Santos in the still "windscreenless" Subaru station wagon. They completed the stage 44 seconds slower than Callie but gets recognition for being the only team on the same minute as Callie. This once again shows the sort of pace van der Merwe sets under rough conditions. That Exa must be suitable for off-road racing as well.
Although Moosa and Dearlove ended the stage 54 sec behind Callie, with their closest rival at the time De Gouveia more than a minute behind them, they took over the overall lead of the event by one second from Ferreira.
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Andre Ehlers and Eugene le Roux - winners S1
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Callie’s effort brought him up to 3rd overall. Gouveia dropped one spot, while dos Santos gained one to move into 5th. Salie went down to 6th, Marillier gained one spot, Van Hengel fought back climbing to 8th, while Wannenburg moved up three into 9th, Andre Ehlers gained 4 spots to fill the Top10.
The amazing factor of the event was that, except for the top three spots where Moosa led Ferreira by one and he in turn led van der Merwe by 9s, there were no serious fights further down the ladder. Nobody’s position were actually under threat which meant only one thing – the route and or conditions were extremely tough.
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"agge neeeeeee! wat fluit so?" Jordaan/Erasmus out of the event
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The "injury" list grew at an alarming rate with the RallyStar Subaru driven by Jordaan and Erasmus leading the way home, I really mean home, like in home-home – not rally finish home.
They were followed by Venter and Barnard, Liebenberg and van Heerden, Hein and Wynand van der Merwe as well as Marius van Biljon and Martin von Wielligh.
Stage six was a disaster with the rally cars using 800 meters of public tar road. The road wasn't blocked off in time and saw spectators in the stage. The road was also the only access to the start of the stage which meant that rally cars were driving to the start while cars already in the stage where coming from the other direction. Luckily this dangerous and disorganised situation did not cause accidents.
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Special Stage 6 - a bit of a booboo!
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Callie's problems continued in the stage when a coil wire came adrift and losing him close to 5 min to the leaders.
Mohammed Moosa blasted through the stage extending his one second lead over Jose Ferreira to 52 sec!
Callie’s problems caused De Gouveuia, Dos Santos and Sallie du Toit to move up one spot each. Callie dropped 3 positions and was now in 6th , Marillier maintained 7th, while Wannenburg moved up one into 8th, van Hengel dropped one and was now in 9th, while Michael Otto pushed Ehlers out of 10th.
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Michael Otto and Hannes de Beer
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Nico van Niekerk and Andrew Fourie loaded their Toyota on the trailer to go home, with only one single stage to go.
Stage 7, the final stage of the even, was a 500m long tar stage which did not change any positions.
In the Top5 Pretoria Motor Club walked off with 1,2 and 4th, while HMC too 3rd and 5th.
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Hennie Lourens and Andre Pfeiffer 2nd S4
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Class winners were:
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Moosa/Dearlove
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S5
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Subaru
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PMC
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Vd Merwe/Geldenhuys
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S4
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Nissan
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SCC Pta
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Van Hengel/Bothma
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S3
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Toyota
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PMC
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Ehlers/le Roux
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S1
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Toyota
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PMC
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Booysen/Marx
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S2
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Escort
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HMC
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