“and away they go” - BATHROOM BIZARRE – RALLYSTAR STAGE AND OVERALL ANALYSIS
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Christel de Jager
Schalk Burger and Martin Botha - on a run away win.
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If this was a horse racing event and you had to be the commentator you would have had a very easy but unexciting task.
“and away they go, and it is Burger taking the lead, and its Burger and its still Burger and Burger leads, and every one else is falling behind and Burger comes around the corner onto the straight and its going to be Burger …yes, Burger wins and we will soon be able to tell you who is second as soon as they come around the bend.”
A while later you will be able to announce the second horse in the race- also very consistent and then you will get to the more exciting part where third place kept on changing hands – so shall we forget the first two and pretend the rally started with third place?
Not on your life – you see it makes my life also a hell of a lot easier if I can state ‘Burger won every stage, and Wilson remained in second spot, despite the fact that he did not really perform consistently – and was actually lucky to hold on to second spot….which means I will have to tell you all about it!
Schalk Burger (the real one) set the pace by beating Wilson by a massive 25 seconds, while Werner Koekemoer posted a very fast rear wheel drive time 11 seconds slower than Wilson. Burger Junior brought the S4 or A7 Corolla in 5 seconds after Koekemoer, while Errol Finniss who seems to get quicker every rally despite very little experience was only 4 seconds slower.
Hannes Visser and Andre Vermeulen posted and impressive and stage winning S3 time, while newcomer to the rally scene Kurt Wesson was only 2 seconds off that pace.
Leon Mare and Carolyn Swan led S1 after stage 1 while Lood de Clerq and Dewald Hattingh were second.
Chriostoff and Celeste Snyders showed the way in S2 with Pierre de Clerq trailing by 6 seconds.
It was interesting to see brand new, newcomers Tjaart Coetzee and Ellie Hattingh completing their very first rally stage in a credible time, while Jose and Marco Ferreira had a horrible stage in which they wrong slotted.
Robert Olivier and Vannie Geldenhuys were the first casualties of the rally and retired in the very first stage.
Stage 2 turned into a sort of a family affair when the Burgers took both top spots, father beating the son by 23 seconds. A surprise visit to the top three was made by also relative inexperienced Christo and Rene Coetzee – beating Wilson by three seconds.
The Baker Bros decided to turn open every possible tap and finished only a seconds short of Wilson’s Subaru in their two wheel driven PMC inspired Toyota Tazz. This time around Hannes Visser and Andre Vermeulen missed a beat or two and saw the Bakers flying past them in overall position.
Christoff and Celeste had a horror of a stage and lost 12 spots on their Stage 1 performance, while the opposite was true for the Opel Corsa crew of Eddie Simpson and Marco Lottering who improved their previous stage performance by a massive 28 spots!
The little Escort and its occupants or is it inhabitants young Ashley MacKenzie and his father Les battled along nopt having anything like the runs we got used to.
Worse off however were Werner Koekemoer and Dries vd Walt when they made serious acquaintance with a tree and then all hell almost broke out when the car caught fire.
Werner told me afterwards that he had a rib injury – not because of the accident but because of Dries running into him with the fire extinguisher. He said that after the first extinguisher was empty he ran around in circles calling for help in general – I can just imagine the fear that the fire may spread and the helplessness the crew must have felt while waiting for two minutes – which probably felt more like 2 hours until the next cars arrived! Something like 9 extinguishers later the fire was put out and everyone could relax. Think goodness we still have a clean or is it unburned record!
Lood de Clerq and Dewald Hattingh went into yet another tree not far from where Werner came short and they were also out of the event. Leon Marais and Carolyn Swan also threw in the towel in this stage, whiuch means that PMC lost four crews in two stages! Now that is not what we wanted is it? But then again if you form more than half the total field I suppose you will have a few casualties along the line?
Even worse than PMC members were the number of crews with a “van” or “van der” in their surname. Lukas van der Merwe and Gert Janse van Rensburg, Gert van der Westhuizen and Jan van der Westhuizen, and then with Werner we also found Dries van der Walt. Later on you will see a few more going home early! And my point is……..??
The overall positions also changed dramatically with Christo and Rene Coetzee shooting up 8 positions into 4th, Burger Junior moving into Koekemoer’s vacated third spot, while Errol Finniss dropped three positions and Callie van der Merwe moved into the top ten.
A bit further down the best improvement was achieved by Gavin Harrison and Harold McGarry in their S1 Toyota Tazz when they climbed up 12 spots overall into 19th position.
Jaco and George Baker burst into the top 10 taking the S3 lead in hand from fellow club members Hannes Visser and Andre Vermeulen. The Baker Bros performance is not always appreciated as we came to expect them to do well, but the pace they are able to set in that S3 must be a serious irritation to many other crews and it also needs to be said that Hannes Visser seems to have more than just TV presenting talent. Danie and Pieter Strydom improved by nine positions, while the Christoff and Celeste Snyders dropped seven spots down the ranks.
Stage 3 saw the end of Jose and Marco Ferreira after a troublesome event where nothing seemed to go right from the start. Dawid Lehman and Fernando van Rensburg also packed everything up and left while Gerhard Auckamp and Monica Duvenhage also called it a day.
Schalk was now leading by the proverbial light year and I believe that any aspiration to win this event from anywhere out there in the bushes disappeared in the wind. Wilson was now trailing by the proverbial mile, while Jaco Baker posted an impressive 3rd fastest between the much more powerful cars.
Calie van der Merwe and Greg Godrich followed and in fifth fastest spot we found Kurt Wesson leading Errol and Ceris Finniss home by five.
The junior Burger had a bit of a bad one managing only 8th fastest one spot behind Hannes Visser. Predictable the Snyders couple improved their previous run by 18 positions, while Tjaart Coetzee and Ellie Hattingh managed to get 12 spots closer to the truth!
In overall positions the situation did not change in only 6 positions. Schalk Burger led, followed by Wilson, in 11th spot Karl du Plessis clung to his position, Llewelyn Edwards held onto 17th, Gavin Harrison and Gavin McGarry defended their S1 seconds place, while Erik de Jager and Robbie Coetzee stayed in a steady 25th although the gap between them and John Ogden and Kevin Clark shrunk to a mere 5 seconds.
The rest changed either up or down.
Third spot overall went to the Baker brothers – or did it? Not really, as they caught Burger junior but shared the same second with him after the stage. Callie van der Merwe moved up 4 spots into fifth, while the Coetzee couple dropped 5 to 9th!
The Snyders family on the other hand improved by a massive 9 spots and were now in 13th. Tjaart Coetzee went up 5 spots and trailed Eugene Schreiber and Lourens du Plessis by only 5 seconds.
Danie and Pieter Strydom dropped most positions in this stage – six down to 26th!
Burger claimed his fourth in a row by winning stage four, while Errol and Ceris Finniss surprised many by claiming second spot. Third spot this time went to Burger junior again, while Callie remained fourth fastest, Wilson dropped three spots in stage position.
Jaco and George Baker shared 6th fastest with Gary Brendt and Lohan Spies, while Christo and Rene Coetzee improved 3 positions form their third stage performance. Kurt Wesson dropped four spots in comparison with Stage 3 , while Hennie Lourens and Phillip Swanepoel popped into the Top10 stage times, improving a massive 18 positions compared to their time in Stage three.
This time Hannes Visser and Andre Vermeulen dropped out after a very good performance on the first three stages, while Christoff and Celeste lost everything plus some change that they built up in stage 3. They dropped a massive 19 positions on stage performance.
After Stage 4 the top two stayed the same while Burger junior moved back into 3rd on his own pushing the Baker brothers to 4th. Finniss moved up to fourth, Callie down to fifth, Kurt Wesson one up into 7th, Brendt improved two spots to take 8th, Christo Coetzee stayed in 9th, while Karl du Plessis moved intot he Top10.
Only a few positional gaps were still under five seconds – that between Berndt and Coetzee for 8th and the one between Edwards and Coetzee for 13th. Harrison and van Wyk were battling for a better S1 position with only three seconds splitting them, while Danie and Pieter Strijdom were chasing young Eric de Jager and Robbie Coetzee. Only five seconds separated these two PMC team mates.
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Picture by Christel de Jager
Erik de Jager and Robbie Coetzee - S1
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Stage five went to ….ok, you have five guesses and the 123rd correct entry will receive a fully paid Zimbabwe bread.
Callie van der Merwe was 25 seconds slower than the mysterious winner of the stage, while Jaco Baker again turned all the taps fully open to take third stage time. Kurt Wesson once again showed the potential rally talent and posted 4th fastest time. Wilson managed 5th while Errol Finniss lost out in stage four to post only fifth fastest time.
Schalk Burger and Colin Wilson were 2m39s apart but led the rest by almost another minute with Jaco Baker in third spot and Callie van der Merwe in fourth. Stage 5 cost Schalk Burger junior and Armand du Toit two positions leaving them 24 behind Baker.
There were no further dramatic changes after stage five.
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Paul and Anel van Wyk 2nd in S1
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In the final stage three teams dropped out of the event. They were Christoff and Celeste Snyders after a hell of a battle, Gavin Harrison and Harold McGarry who did well until then and also Hennie Lourens and Phillip Swanepoel.
The stage times were once again dominated by the Burger clan with the father beating the son by 16 seconds, Wilson again managed only third fastest. While Jaco Baker could not repeat his Stage four achievement.
Callie van der Merwe also battled, while Christo Coetzee again jo-jo’ed back into 6th, improving his stage 5 performance by 9 spots.
Kurt Wesson had a bad last stage dropping ten stage positions while Gary Berndt improved by 6.
Schalk Burger and Martin Botha won the event they dominated from the word go, by a massive 3m08s from Wilson and Tyrer who in turn left a huge gap to Burger and du Toit in 3rd spot.
Jaco and George Baker once again almost managed the impossible by finishing only 8 seconds behind much more sophisticated machinery and beating most of the rest.
Callie van der Merwe and Greg Godrich finished in 5th, followed by Errol and Ceris Finniss in 6th after a fine run.
Christo Coetzee seems to be getting the hang of the Subaru, while Kurt Wesson did well to finish in 8th overall and also seconds in S3.
Gary Berndt and Lohan Spies managed 9th while Karl du Plessis and Darwill completed the Top10.
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Picture by Christel de Jager
Eugene Schreiber and Lourens du Plessis Toyota Tazz winners S1
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S2 went to Pierre de Clerq and Johan Auckamp, while Eugene Schreiber and Lourens du Plessis walked away with the S1 silverware.
The penalties did not change any overall positions.
See the full RallyStar stage and overall analysis by clicking the button top right corner of this article.
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