Ford win own rally in Gauteng

That became obvious over the weekend when Cronje and Houghton scored a comfortable victorry in the inaugural Ford Dealer rally around Cullinan. It was the pair’s fourth win in five events to give then a virtually unassailable lead in this year’s title chase.

Cronje/Houghton won eight of the 14 special stages over the two-day event which took place in the historic diamond mining area of Cullinan east of Pretoria. Henk Lategan and Barry White (VW Sasolracing Polo) finished second overall 76 seconds in arrears.

The 20-year-old Lategan scored five stage victories to become one of the youngest overall podium occupants in South African rally history. Third and fourth, separated by just seven seconds, were the Castrol Toyota pair Johnny Gemmell/Carolyn Swan and Leeroy Poulter/Elvine Coetzee in their identical Yaris S2000 models.

UNBEATABLE: Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Racing Fiesta) on their way to a convincing victory in the weekend’s Ford Dealer rally around Cullinen. Picture: Dave Ledbitter.

Poulter and Coetzee were penalised a total of 70 seconds for two jump starts on Friday, which saw them drop from second to eighth overnight. Their charge back up the field was one of Saturday’s highlights.

Privateers Japie van Niekerk/Gerhard Snyman were fifth winning the S2000 Challenge category in their New Africa Developments Ford Fiesta. Former champions Enzo Kuun/Douglas Judd (VW Sasolracing Polo) scraped home in sixth place with a fast-finishing Giniel de Villiers and Greg Godrich (Imperial Toyota Yaris) following just two seconds in arrears.

Completing the top 10 were Team Total’s Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Hilton Auffray and Mohammed Moosa/Andre Vermeulen in eighth and ninth places with their Toyota Auris S2000 Challenge cars, along with the Toyota RunX of Stephanie Botha and her father Willem Hugo.

The two-wheel drive S1600 class honours went to Ashleigh Haigh-Smith/ Craig Parry (Castrol Ford Fiesta R2). They finished 12th overall and 72 seconds ahead of the Beurden Construction VW Polo R2 of Chad van Beurden/ Nico Swartz. It was circuit racer Van Beurden’s best result in his first year in rallying.

Third were Paul Franken/Henry Kohne (Manitou VW Polo R2) in their best result of the season. Competing in only his second rally former circuit racer Ernie van der Walt was a very happy fourth with co-driver James Aldridge in their Ferodo Ford Fiesta R2.

Fifth were Matthew Vacy-Lyle and Schalk van Heerden (Fragram Tools Toyota RunX) ahead of Andrew Heine/Stephen Jones (Toyota Auris) and Lourens van Rensburg/Jason Plumbley (7 Films Ford Fiesta).

Run on extremely fast farm roads around mealie fields the event had a surprisingly low attrition rate but there were some broken hearts. Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries (VW Sasolracing Polo) had a weekend to forget.

They hit a gate post on Friday and were forced to retire. They restarted under Super Rally rules on Saturday but only managed to complete two stages before stopping with a severe vibration.

Defending S2000 Challenge champions, Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin (VW Sasolracing Polo), were forced to retire with a broken engine valve earkly on Saturday.

Former national champions Jan Habig and Robert Paisley were robbed of fifth place on the very last stage of the rally when their Basil Read Ford Fiesta S2000 suffered a broken camshaft belt. Clinton Weston/Cristoff Snyders managed to roll their Reef Tankers Citroen C2 in the final stage of the rally while fighting for the S1600 lead.

Another crew chasing the S1600 title, Thilo Himmel and Armand du Toit (Toyota Etios R2), dropped out on Friday with a broken drive shaft.

The next round of the championship will be the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally in the Western Cape on September 13 and 14.