Jan Habig Rallying

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Cronjé wins SA title

21 October 2013

Mark Cronjé and Robin Houghton (Ford Dealer Team Fiesta) won the Polokwane Rally on Saturday to take back-to-back South African National Rally Championship titles.

Cronjé and Houghton have virtually dominated the championship taking overall victory and Class 2000 honours and the penultimate event of the season was their sixth success in seven starts. With the other win going to veterans Jan Habig and Robert Paisley (Basil Read Ford Fiesta), who finished well down the list under Super Rally rules after a difficult weekend, Ford have won every event this year.

Having starting the day with a narrow 1,3 second advantage over Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Castrol Toyota Yaris) after day one of the event, Cronjé and Houghton gradually pulled away from the factory Castrol Toyota Yaris of Johnny Gemmell and Caroline Swan. The final gap was a little more than 90 seconds with Gemmell and Swan coming under pressure from third-placed Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries, in the Sasol Racing VW Polo, with only 6.7 seconds separating the two cars at the finish.

The result saw Gemmell and Swan move into second place in the championship. It was also a seventh successive podium finish for the factory Yaris.

A fine performance in the Total Toyota Auris saw Cape crew Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Hilton Auffray come in fourth ahead of former champions Enzo Kuun and Douglas Judd in another of the Sasol Racing VW Polo entries. Damseaux and Auffray also won the S2000 Challenge for older specification four-wheel-drive cars.

Sixth and seventh overall were Wilro Dippenaar/Kes Naidoo (PZN Toyota Auris) and Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman in the NAD Ford Fiesta. The two crews were also second and third in the S2000 Challenge, and held off Dakar Rally star Giniel de Villiers and Greg Godrich in the Imperial Toyota Yaris.

It was strong recovery from De Villiers and Godrich after day one problems forced them to rejoin the event in the Super Rally category. They were followed home by Marko Himmel/Francois Schoonbee (Toyota Corolla) in the first of the Class S1600 front-wheel-drive cars.

A solid performance brought Himmel/Schoonbee home ahead of teenager Richard Leeke Jnr and Pierre Jordaan (ATS Ford Fiesta) in Class S1600 with the category hit by late controversy. Championship frontrunners Clint Weston/Christof Snyders (Reef Tankers Citroen C2) and Thilo Himmel/Armand du Toit (Toyota Etios) were both excluded from the results for technical infringements.

There was major disappointment for Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee in the second Castrol Toyota Yaris. After a sparkling day one performance when they were only 1,3 second behind Cronjé/Houghton, a power steering problem saw them retire late in the day.1

It was also an unhappy outing for reigning S2000 Challenge champions Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin (Sasol Racing VW Polo) who broke a sub frame, and team mates Henk Lategan/Barry White who were forced out by a broken steering box. Also in the wars were Class S1600 contenders Ashley Haig-Smith and Miles Skinner (Castrol Ford Fiesta R2) who called it a day when an engine sensor went into limp mode.

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