GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Mark Cronje and and his co-driver, Robin Houghton, won the Garden Route National Rally, in their Sasol Ford Fiesta S2000. The rally started at the Garden Route Mall last Friday at 12:00.

Driver Johnny Gemmell and his co-driver, Drew Sturrock, took the second place in the Team Castrol Toyota Auris. Gemmell's teammate, Leeroy Poulter and Elvene Coetzee were third.

Cronje has got his rally career back on track this season after three very bad years with Toyota until he left Toyota Motorsport a year ago. When he started rallying in the top S2000 class after Serge Damseaux retired at the end of 2007, Cronje made no bones about his plans for the future. At the time he said that the notion that it takes a rally competitor ten years to win a national rally title did not sit well with him. He intended to win the title in two years. This did not happen and by September last year it looked as if his rally career was over. He came back with a bang at the beginning of this year in the Team Sasol Ford Fiesta RS. Right from the start he showed the pace of the Ford, but it took him a little time to settle down in the car. Once he and Robin Houghton, became one with the Ford Fies-ta, Cronje was always going to be the danger man on any rally.

Fourth place on the event went to the BP VW crew of Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson, followed by the Red Bull supported BP VW crew of Giniel de Villiers and Ralph Pitchford. Volkswagen did not have such a good rally with Jannie Habig and Hergen Fekken falling out of the event.

In 5th position was Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach and his German navigator, Nicholas Klinger in a G-Fuel Ford Fiesta RS. They were followed by the second of the two Team Sasol Ford Fiesta RS cars of Jon Williams and Cobus Vrey. Cronje's provisional winning time was 2:16:29.8. Gemmel +1:31.1; Poulter +2:06.1; Kuun +3:17.9; Giniel +3:21.0; Rau +4:06.1; Williams +6:00. Apart from Habig and Fekken, the two Pirtek Peugeot 207 entries of Hein Lategan and Visser du Plessis also did not finish the event. Du Plessis did not start the rally due to brake problems and Lategan retired with suspension problems. Wilro Dippenaar in a Toyota RunX had engine problems, while in the 2WD drive Class S1600, Gugu Zulu retired his BP VW Racing Polo Vivo with gearbox problems.


Hein Lategan and Visser du Plessis in action in their Pirtek Peugeot 207. They did not finish the event. Photo: Christo Vermaak