The Day Toyota Got Dealt A Real Bad Hand
author: Leon Botha
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Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries - classy come-back.
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When you analyse the results of Stage One there was not really anything to read into it. Fekken won Habig was second, Cronje third…so what?
In a preview on the rally I predicted that stage one's top 5 would not be separated by more than 5.5s but that was still a bit wide as the Top 5 were covered by a mere 3.4s.
AT this stage no one expected too much from the Rautenbach Ford so a 7th there and 8 seconds off the pace did not stir too many eyebrows.
Now that I am not too worried anymore about sending sms results to the fans, I hung around to see what happened in A7.
While doing so I realised that the gaggle of S2000's got a bit boring after a while as they did not seem to stop popping around the last corner of the stage. All that happened that was different was that the pace of attack became slightly slower as we ticked off the list.
I have not seen Gavin Cronje drive on dirt yet and I wanted to see that he did in A7 and what Leeroy Poulter came up with in A6.
When Gavin stopped the clock 8.2s sooner that Gugu managed to do in A7 through Stage 1 I must say I was a bit shaken, especially when I noted that Ettiene du Toit was a further 13s down the road?
This on top of the fact that van Aardt Schoeman, Gavin's navigator is not the most experienced I know!
In A6 the Tjaart Conradie win did not surprise me at all but Poulter's deficit of 14s after the first stage made me think that I may have overestimated his ability?
In Class A5 young Ashley Haigh-Smith pulled a bit of a shocker out of the bag, but I have always waited for him to come to light driving like I knew he could. The fact that he opened a gap of 10 seconds over regular A5 winner Andre Cleenwerck did not look good for the latter and I suspected that he had a problem. This proved true later when I heard he had gear selection problems.
Thorsten Pey and Mark Palmer took an early and commanding lead in the regional section and I knew that the rest of the regional guys would have had to pull more than just the usual rabbit out of the hat to stay with the BMW.
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Pic by Cedric Fryer
Thorsten Pey and Mark Palmer - regional winners
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Tjaart Coetzee did not even pitch and Andre George and George du Toit (confusing names is it not?) also retired in stage 1.
In stage two Johnny Gemmell upped his pace dramatically and completed the stage almost three seconds quicker than anyone else.
Jan Habig was again second fastest and we knew that it would not be easy to shake him off when he settles into "consistently quick" mode.
Mark Cronje managed third fastest and Conrad Rautenbach managed to improve three stage positions from a relative slow start in seventh fastest spot on stage one.
Enzo did not have a clean run through the stage and posted 5th fastest 5.5s off the pace. Little did he know how he would need this 5 odd seconds later on.
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Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson - second overall after a huge fight!
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Then followed the surprise package to some on the day - Heinrich Lategan was on pace and 6th fastest and leading the chasing pack.
Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton lost about half hour and some seconds when he battled to get through the stage with a broken drive shaft.
Nicolas Ryan and Geoff Tyrer were a bit "luckier" and lost only 16 minutes due to a left shock-absorber having pulled out.
Japie van Niekerk and Nicolas Ryan found themselves in the strange position for being last and second last in the rally!
Gemmell led the rally by 1.8s with Habig in second spot. Cronje in third trailed by 3.1s while Enzo needed 7.7 to get t the top.
Conrad moved up two spots into 5th while Lategan stayed in 6th spot. JP was 7th and Hergen dropped from the lead into 7th spot 41 seconds behind the leader.
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JP after his unfortunate roll
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Ninth was Rueda and Hutchison made up the Top10 with Theuns Joubert and Carl Peskin knocking wildly on the door!
Gavin Cronje led A7 with Gugu Zulu, Chris de Wit and Ettiene du Toit on his heals!
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Pic by Cedric Fryer
Ettiene du Toit and Patrick Vermaak on their merry way to a Class A7 win
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Tjaart Conradie was still 6.6s ahead in A6 with Leeroy Poulter attasking from behind.
Ashley Haigh-Smith led A5 from Andre Cleenwerck with Morne van Rensburg in third spot.
Abduraghman Amlay led in N3 while Thorsten Pey and Mark Palmer had the regional section under control.
The S2000 crowd still did not even allow anything but their cousins in between their ranks and the Top14 consisted with du Plessis farting around a bit lower down the order.
Japie van Niekerk shot up 28 stage positions from his previous stage while Nicolas Ryan managed to up his pace 22 spots. Enzo again did not have a magic stage while Hergen also recuperated from a setback in the previous stage.
The overall lead still belonged to Gemmell and was now 2.1s over Habig and Pitchford. Mark Cronje was on +3.5 while Rautenbach trailed by 12.8s and Enzo by 17!
The A7 brigade lay perfectly placed in a row from 14th to 17th while the A6 cars followed from 18 to 20th with also no change from the previous stage.
Stage 4 was won by Enzo at an average speed of 127.83km/h when he beat Gemmell by 3.3s Cronje again posted 3rd fastest.
In the Top10 overall only Enzo and Conrad exchanged 4th and 5th with the former now 4th. Hutchison took over Rueda's 9th spot while the latter now completed Top10.
Once again no casualties in this stage!
Habig upset the Applecart in SS5 and won the stage from Hergen by 2.1s at an average speed of 133.61km/h. He and Gemmell now tied for the lead!
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Pic by Cedric Fryer
OK, so how much quicker can they go? Conrad thinking about his tactics
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Hergen moved into 7th pushing JP back into 8th.
In A7 Ettiene du Toit moved up into 2nd pushing Gugu back one. No one had a really bad stage.
Mark Cronje won the Casino stage from JP Damseaux followed by Jan Habig.
Habig did however better than Gemmell and he went to bed with a 0.4s lead in his pajama jacket pocket.
The Gemmell/Habig swap was the only change throughout the field!
On Saturday morning we all - the regular crowd stood waiting for Habig to appear at the end of Stage 7.
Only problem was that if was Gemmell who popped around the last corner! No Habig in sight!
Gemmell was not sure what happened but he could confirm that all was OK with the crew and that the car stood parked!
Most of the S2000 drivers had problems at an intersection where the rally cars split away. The bunting was taken off and the road had not been barricaded as usual. Some overshot and others could not see where to go due to dust.
Gemmell had a good run despite and overshoot and posted fastest time. Rautenbach was seconds quickest with Hergen on his heels.
The signs of a Ford wake-up however was there and I knew my prediction of a Ford win was going to come true!
Habig, de Wit and Lambert called it a day in this stage.
There was quite a number of changes in this stage with the top4 - Gemmell, Cronje, Kuun and Rautenbach all moving up one spot while Hergen did one better to move two up into 5th overall.
Rueda moved up three into 7th while Joubert also went up three into 8th overall. Hutchison stayed in 9th while Jaco van Dyk also not popped into he Top10.
Gavin Cronje still led A7, Tjaart Conradie A6, Amlay N3 and Haigh-Smith A5.
So, the Ford has a hell of a top speed - you say?
Maybe it has - maybe it is as quick as the Polo or Auris?
Stage 8 Rautenbach smiled going in, and laughed coming out!
I believe that Hergen drove the stage of his rally when he posted a time of 6m31.5s while Rautenbach used about 85% of the Ford's potential to win the stage in a time of 06m31.1s?
I can hear a few people now say in proper Afrikaans using a few "Party words" - inter alia stating that I lost my head but, the bad news to you is this stage was run at a "mere" 102.13 while the average speed for the rally was 121.3km/h!
I had a 'funny' feeling the Ford was going to win the Toyota Dealer Team rally - now I have an even funnier feeling that it has actually been built for rallies like the upcoming Sasol event, which runs in the Sabie, Nelspruit and White River on the weekend of 23 and 24 April?
Nothing was done to the setup of the car, it started the event with a new engine, Rautenbach did not have any real time behind the steering wheel of the Ford and to crown it all - Charl Wilken will probably also move in behind the steering wheel of one of these cars on the Sasol Rally?
Am I saying, "All is lost?"
Not on your life! All that needs to be done is that the Volkswagen and Toyota drivers will have to put both their feet on the other side of sanity - and the games will truly begin.
All I can say is I am pleased that my duties stop with compiling the Route Notes and that I do not have to go out there to catch a Ford!
Enzo obviously had to throw a very special curve ball in this stage to gain time and any psychological advantage over Rautenbach - but alas he failed for once and I have an idea that he may be to blame himself and that idea is not only a feeling…
May I add one more thing? Thanks!
I am still sorry Jan Habig failed to finish this event - he has the ability to go out hunting on the other side when he gets his pace and rhythm right and on what I was he had it worked out to a Tee.
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Pic by Cedric Fryer
Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock on the edge!
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Gemmell had a bad stage when he suffered a flat right front wheel for more than half the stage and he dropped to 5th overall.
On paper Mark Cronje led the event, but in reality he still had to accept a 1m50s penalty for lateness when his crew had to repair the damage caused by a driveshaft that broke at the end of the previous stage.
Rautenbach in fact took the lead in the rally on this stage already!
Gavin Cronje and van Aardt Schoeman dropped a massive 15 positions while Gugu Zulu and Sean Visser retired their A7.
Shaun Jones and Craig Gray's run in the regional section also came to an end.
The difference between Kuun and Rautenbach now was 2.9s!
Then in Stage 9 Hergen again showed that he was far from giving up driving another magnificent stage at an average of 129.57km/h! Kuun followed 1.4s later.
The gap between Fekken and Cronje was 7.4s and to Rautenbach it was 7.8s!
Theuns Joubert who kept Evan Hutchison at bay lost 8 seconds to the latter in this stage and Evan graciously accepted 7th position one ahead of his rally rival Joubert.
The difference between the two was only half a second and a second major dice was on!
Rueda dropped two spots into 9th with an engine problem.
Kuun's performance moved him into the lead of the event and a few thousand spectators could not wait for the last two stages.
Robson Maganezi and Pierre Jordaan retired their Ford Fiesta ST and regional entry Warren Scholtz and Justin Gay also called it a day.
Hergen and Pierre came out of the blocks in Stage 10 with a vengeance and drove where I talked about a few stages ago. Up to now we believed that this pace was situated in "No-man's Land" but the team in the number One VW went half in and came back - slightly wide eyed and paler than normal - but they came back to tell the story!
You think I am joking? Their winning time was only 1s quicker over 17.66kms that the second best time posted by Rautenbach who would have thrown all he could, albeit at an early stage in his development in this car, at the rest of the field to try and shake a nagging Kuun.
Pure solid magic insanity! So, will the Ford win the Sasol? Not if Hergen and Pierre pop through the magic door to insanity and stay there stage for stage!
Rautenbach was leading the rally by 6.9s from Enzo who in turn had a 4.2s lead over Cronje.
Hergen was 9.2 off Cronje while Gemmell was a bit further back in fifth and chances that he would pull a surprise were about nil.
Any one of the top four could however still pull off the overall victory as the last stage was almost 22km long!
All eyes however was on Rautenbach and Kuun while most people for the sake of rallying in South Africa hoped the Ford would win!
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Pic by Cedric Fryer
Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh on their way to an overall victory
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Strange to hear lime green blooded Volkswagen fans say - I will be glad if the Ford wins as it will be great for rallying! Now that is the words of a true rally fanatic!
A little way down the board Joubert took Hutchison's lead away and he was now in 7th spot 0.3s ahead of the Motorite Polo.
It was sad to see Tjaart Conradie and Tiaan Rabie retire after a great run leading A6 all the way. Leeroy Poulter gladly took over the lead in the class.
Rueda and Lewkowicz also retired the Total Toyota S2000 with a popped engine.
The last stage of the event arrived.
The question was if Kuun would have be able to dig deep enough to pull off a win?
He needed to take 7 seconds from Rautenbach over 21.87km.
Kuun completed the stage in an average speed of 137.79km/h - which in anyone's language should have been good enough?
It was good enough for a stage win by 2.3s but still 4.7s shy of what he needed.
What a rally - what excitement!
I can not wait for the Sasol and hope that we will see two Fords running!
The last retirement went to Andre Cleenwerck and Keesevan Naidoo who had a rally long battle with various problems.
….and what happened between Joubert and Hutchison?
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Evan Hutchison and Elvene Coetzee
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On paper Evan took a win by 8.7 seconds but Joubert could afford to tap off and finish the event when he learned that Hutchison earned a 10s penalty earlier in the event.
The Top10 positions went to S2000 cars, while Ettiene du Toit and Patrick Vermaak did very well to finish 11th with a welcome A7 victory added to the pleasure.
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Leeroy Poulter and Henri Dearlove - A6 victory
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A6 went to Leeroy Poulter and Henri Dearlove in 12th spot while Thorsten Pey and Mark Palmer in the Beemer won the regional section from 13th overall.
Abduraghman Amaly and Garth Ritsch took the honours in N3 after a fine drive.
Ashley Haigh-Smith and Hilton Auffray drove a magnificent and well-calculated event for once proving that what I said a few years ago was fact. This young man has potential and will get to the top.
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Ashley Haigh-Smith and Hilton Auffray - winners in Class A5
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What a rally! Well organised despite the hick-up in SS7 and I believe that it pulled enough spectators to deserve its place on the calendar for 2011.
Well done to Tom Lown and his team and thank you for making my life easier while doing the Route Notes.
While talking about that thank you to those teams who went to trouble to comment on the notes. It helps me forget the battle to get these things done and it was great to see so many stages without incident while I did not receive one single complaint about the notes not being spot on.
Now for the Sasol and a number of changed and new stages!
See you in Sabie on 23/24 April 2010.
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