Jan Habig Rallying

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Basil Read's Habig takes overall honours

02 Jun 2013

Jan Habig and Robert Paisley in the Basil Read Ford Fiesta, clinched overall victory in the Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally this weekend.

Habig, who was the overnight leader, was followed home by Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan (Castrol Toyota Yaris) who were 28.7 seconds adrift.

Habig suffered from overheating problems caused by long grass clogging the radiator, but the Basil Read team of technicians managed to rectify the situation at the service break on Friday evening. At the time, Habig was in second place chasing Gemmell after SS3 and going into the penultimate stage for the first day, he was only 11 seconds behind. Gemmell was then given a one-minute penalty for clocking in early into SS4 and this moved Habig into first position with a 28.7 second lead.

With five special stages to go, and the overheating problems something of the past, a confident Habig was determined to maintain the lead on day two.

Last year this event saw Habig and Paisley leading the event from the very first stage, until the penultimate stage when they suffered two punctures, handing victory to Jon Williams, and had to settle for second place.

"I wasn't prepared to make predictions, but I knew that the Basil Read Ford had the pace and reliability to keep up the competition," said Habig.

While the rest of the field jostled for positions, the two veterans Habig and Paisley, with eight SA championships between them, fought off the challenges of the younger rivals, and steadily increased their lead building up a comfortable cushion, eventually winning by a 45 second margin, once again denying the sponsors, Toyota, victory on their own event. It was a superb end to the rally and a good result for Basil Read, Habig's main sponsors.

Second were Gemmell and Swan with Enzo Kuun and Douglas Judd (Sasol Volkswagen Polo) in third.

An interesting fact was that the average age of drivers and navigators on the podium was 52 years with no fewer than 17 South African national rally championships titles between them.

Six times SA Rally Champion Habig went into the Gauteng Dealer Rally in third place on the 2013 SA Championship ladder.

"With this result we are now in a strong second place, only one point behind Mark Cronjé - a nice position to be in going into the halfway mark of the 2013 Championship - the VW Rally in Port Elizabeth," said Jan.

With Habig's latest victory, Ford has won four consecutive SA Rally Championship events, and are now in first and second positions in the 2013 SA Rally Championship after winning the 2012 SA Rally Manufacturers' Championship.

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