Jan Habig Rallying

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VW Rally contenders locked in battle

20 July 2013

Ford's top championship contenders were locked in battle after the opening day of the Volkswagen Rally, round four of the South African championship, being held in the Eastern Cape.

At the end of the seven special stages that made up day one of the event, South African rally champions Mark Cronjé and Robin Houghton (Ford Fiesta) led veterans Jan Habig and Robert Paisley (Basil Read Ford Fiesta) by 26.7 seconds. Going into the event Cronjé and Houghton led former champions Habig and Paisley by a single point in the championship standings.

The two Ford crews ended the day ahead of the Castrol Toyota Yaris of Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee. The Toyota pair were just over half a minute behind Habig with Hergen Fekken and Pierre Aries (VW Sasol Polo) the first of the crews hoping for a home town win on what is the 31st Volkswagen Rally.

Former Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers and Greg Godrich (Imperial Toyota Yaris) completed the top five and were 25 seconds behind Fekken. The top five were separated by one minute and 47 seconds, but Fekken had been struggling with gearbox problems.

Among those who also ran into problems were VW Sasol pair Enzo Kuun and Douglas Judd, former winners Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan (Castrol Toyota Yaris) and teenager Henk Lategan and Barry White in another of the VW Sasol Polo entries. Kuun/Judd ran into ongoing prop shaft problems, a puncture hampered progress for Gemmell/Swan and Lategan/White, who were third in an international event in Hungary last weekend, were time barred after ending up in a dam at the end of the day's five gravel stages.

Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Hilton Auffray (Total Toyota Auris) led the S2000 Challenge for older-specification, four-wheel-drive S2000 cars. They came in ahead of team-mates Mohammed Moosa and Andre Vermeulen and local crew Morné Janse van Rensburg and Rikus Fourie in the GC VW Polo.

For reigning class champions Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin it was not a happy day. Suspension problems saw them finish sixth in class with a mountain to climb on Saturday.

In the two-wheel-drive S1600 category a good fight was developing. VW Polo crews Chad van Beurden and Henry Dearlove (Beurden VW Polo) and Paul Franken and Henry Kohne in another VW Polo were being chased by the Reef Citroen CR2 of Clint Weston and Christof Snyders with a tight finish in the offing.

Saturday's action will start at 08:00 from the Fountains Mall in Jeffery's Bay and will end at King's Beach in Port Elizabeth from around 14:15. There will be a podium ceremony and prize-giving at the finish at 15:45.

Saturday Restart Times

1. Cronjé 50:04.7
2. Habig + 26.7
3. Poulter + 53.1
4. Fekken + 1:22.9
5. De Villiers + 1:47.5
6. Damseaux + 2:31.7
7. Kuun + 2:45.6
8. Moosa + 3:42.2
9. Janse van Rensburg + 3:49.6
10. Gemmell + 3:53.2

2013 Volkswagen Rally Results - Day One

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