Printable View
Weather update, overnight rain the ground is quite wet this morning, looks like more raining coming in from the stages side. The stages are good condition so they should last but it puts a whole spin on running order. Tactics are going to be fantastic to watch. I'll bring stage times as and when I hear them today, but tomorrow I'll be out on the stages so I'll bring photos and news when I get back on Saturday night.
Really bad news.. ;(Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce D
:up:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce D
I'm driving through today.. sure to be on the stages on Saturday as well.. ;)
Hehe, pity we can't organise a group photo of all of us on the event, Grant and Sarally will be too busy.
Starting to get some sunshine in Westville but thats 60km away from the stages and North of them so we're getting whatever weather has been over the stages already. Still looks dark down that side.
It sure is a pity.. but lets see what happens.. maybe we can! ;)
I've got the feeling that the weather man might be right on his predictions this weekend.. lets hope there isn't any more accidents..
Some pics coming in from scrutineering and shakedown stage.
Mark Cronje
http://yfrog.com/h7kyr8j
Jan Habig waiting at scrutineering
http://yfrog.com/h4eo8kuj
Conrad Rautenbach at scrutineering
http://yfrog.com/hsbu5dbj
Heinrich Lategan in the only remaining Peugeot. So the car is ready to go then.
http://yfrog.com/h352atxj
The rally is on now, first stage in about 30min time so hopefully we'll get some stage times in soon.
Here we go, SS1 times:
1. Fekken - VW Polo - 6:29.1
2. Rautenbach - Ford Fiesta - +0.1s
3. Kuun - VW Polo - +1.2s
4. Habig - VW Polo - +2.5s
5. Wilken - Ford Fiesta - 2.9s
6. Moosa - Toyota RunX - +5.9s (Grant_SA :) )
Poulter has overshot a junction and lost 15sec but still no works Toyotas in the top 6. Moosa must have driven really well to set that time and Wilken is in the fight like I thought he would be.
Correct SS1 times, Cronje's transponder not working properly, he wins both opening stages. The boy is fired up!
Hahahaha.. you can say that again!! Those Fiestas are flying!
Really good time for Wilken.. glad to see his putting up the fight!!
Overall times after SS2:
1. Cronje - Ford - 11:58.6
2. Kuun - VW - +9.1s
3. Rautenbach - Ford - +9.9s
4. Habig - VW - +14.1s
5. Wilken - Ford - +16.5s
6. Moosa - Toyota - +21s
I'm very impressed with Moosa/Grant_SA's performance so far, absolutely brilliant for such an old model car. Beating the works cars is really great, just hope they keep it on the road this year.
Yeah, he had a really good test session on these roads at the end of last year where they found a bit of time so I thought he'd look good on this event. Early days though and Mark is so fired up to stick it to Toyota that he's come out flying. Mind you he always was quick out the blocks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil - RSA
Cronje won stages 3 and 4 to have just over 10sec lead over Kuun. Jon Williams suffering transmission trouble. The 2nd Peugeot is out.
Any idea what happened to Hein's Pug? Would have liked to see what it does against the VWs/Fords.
Sorry, no idea at this stage. All the twitters I'm following haven't said. Got the impression it was more a reliability issue. Not sure of his stage times either.
All the works Toyotas are way down, last I heard Gemmell was the quickest at 11th overall!
Jip it isn't looking good for them... I'm interested in the S1600 times as well, I want to see what Ashley is doing with with the R2. Those times will probably only be available tonight?
:)
Divan, I think you may be lucky to get positions overnight but don't count on it any more than a brief mention of who is leading the class. I'm also interested to see how that class is going.
Only news I got on the Peugeot is that Lategan is reported "stuck" in SS2.
Proper overall positions after SS4 with only the superspecial tonight to run:
1. Mark Cronje - Ford Fiesta - 23:48.4
2. Enzo Kuun - VW Polo - 23:59.5
3. Hergen Fekken - VW Polo - 24:00.9
4. Conrad Rautenbach - Ford Fiesta - 24:17.1
5. Jan Habig - VW Polo - 24:25.3
6. Johnny Gemmell - Toyota Auris - 24:25.9
7. Giniel de Villiers - VW Polo - 24:34.4
Charl Wilken lost 5min in penalties due to late into and out of service with electrical problems.
To my knowledge Grant_SA is still in 8th place overall.
No news from the twitter updates now and it's been 2 1/2 hours since the stage started so looks like thats all the updates we'll get today.
Grant reports that they "had a good day, not 100% on position".
Last update for the day. Cronje and Poulter tied the super special so Cronje leads overnight by 12.8sec from Fekken with Kuun 18sec back. 4th Rautenbach, 5th Gemmell 6th Habig 7th Poulter and 8th Moosa/Grant sa
Ok, where to begin. Just got back from the stages myself, where a really great dice has developed for the lead.
Cronje continued to lead the event, while Rautenbach moved up into 2nd, Kuun 3rd, Habig 4th as Fekken lost over a minute. Unfortunately Moosa/Grant went off on the first stage of the day and lost time. I spoke to Grant at the service park after SS11 where they'd been off again, not having a good time, but lots of people losing huge amounts of time so they could still get points.
Cronje fell out on SS11 - 2 stories here as to what happened, one that he hit a bridge and ripped a wheel off. I can confirm that this is not true as I saw the car in the stage and at the service park afterwards and all the wheels were still on the wagon. I believe the 2nd story, that he hit a jump badly and broke the cooling on the car, forcing him out.
SS11 did a lot of damage as the guys were running close together and getting dust. Habig and Rautenbach are both visibly more committed and faster than anyone else. After SS12 Habig led by 0.3s from Rautenbach, Kuun 3rd +26.6s, 4th Fekken +111.9s, 5th JP Damseaux +113.6s, 6th Jon Williams +140.2s
2 stages to go at that point so we'll find out how the rest went. I'll post pictures soon too.
Rautenbach took the lead back on SS13, leading by 7sec going into the final 800m superspecial stage. He then sealed the win, his 2nd in SA rallying.
Provisional results
1. Conrad Rautenbach - Ford Fiesta - 1:40:44.0
2. Jan Habig - VW Polo - +8.2s
3. Enzo Kuun - VW Polo - +44.1s
4. Hergen Fekken - VW Polo - +2:06.8
5. Jean-Pierre Damseaux - Toyota RunX - +2:16.8
6. Nicholas Ryan - VW Polo - +2:38.2
7. Jon Williams - Ford Fiesta - +2:39.7
Ashley Haigh-Smith won S1600 in his Ford Fiesta after everyone else in the class wrong slotted on the same stage! Megan Verlague won S1400 in her Polo.
I'll have to post pictures on Monday as my connection is too slow to upload at home.
The lead changed a few times, seems like it was a great rally. Really glad about Ashley's win as well, his Fiesta is looking great!
It did but it seemed like everyone had trouble at some point, the top 3 were the only guys who had clear runs. When I spoke to Grant they were having a terrible time of things and miles down on time, similarly Charl Wilken was a long way behind. Even Gemmell in the works Toyota finished 10th after losing 4min with a puncture. As far as S1600 was concerned I spoke to Craig Trott at the final service and he was really just driving to the finish, they lost over a minute when Conradie wrong slotted, turned around and came back to the junction but was lost so waited for Trott to come through, unfortunately Conradie had pulled over and blocked the rally route so Trott went down the wrong road too and they lost time working this out and turning around, so Haigh-Smith may have been lucky with this result, but until we see proper stage times for all classes it's going to be hard to judge.
At more than one point today it looked like Cronje, Kuun and Fekken were going through the motions, then Rautenbach and Habig arrived next on the road and they were visibly miles quicker. An example, at the hairpin where I was standing on SS11 it was preceeded by a sweeping right-left-right section. Everyone lifted for the left except those 2 who were flat through the whole lot.
I see on Rallystar they're claiming that Cronje damaged the cooling and then in the next stage hit a bridge. I don't understand this as I was on the stage that they broke the cooling on and went straight to service after that stage and he was already retired. Not sure where this hitting the bridge story is coming from but I'm sure the TV coverage will sort it out.
Whet's with Moosa/Grant?
Not sure where they finished yet, but they had a bad day 2. They went off on the day's first stage and that damaged the handling so they were off their pace slightly after that, then hit a tunnel on SS11 and that bent the rear control arm and they lost more time there.
Just seen the final results now, Moosa/Grant were 20th overall in the end, but a few non-points scoring cars above them so they got some points from it.
Got some info on the Lategan Peugeot retirement. Apparently a warning light came on during the stage which he thought was warning that the alternator wasn't charging, but it was actually low oil pressure and he blew the engine not long after that.
Some video action can be found here (not made by me):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBpjqHFbnPQ
http://www.youtube.com/user/rapidmot.../1/oGuC_fNOb1E
If you pause the "Saturday highlights" video at 15sec and look for a blue shirt, thats me... ;)
A question to you guys.
What are the weights of the cars nowadays? I read in a Finnish motor sport magazine few years ago about the first Polo and Corolla and then the weights of Polos were about 1080 kg and the Corollas about 1220 kg.
Any videos from Total Tour Natal Rally?
See above your post ;) Just found those myself.Quote:
Originally Posted by OldF
As far as weight is concerned, I read that Toyota had taken some weight out of the Auris and I remember the Polos weighing 1200kg at pre-rally scrutineering at last years Tour Natal Rally so I think they'll probably be close to the figures you said, but from everything I've seen I believe the Fords have a weight and traction advantage.
Thanks Bruce D.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce D
1080 kg for S2000 is impossible. I remember that in times of 1150 kg limit cars in Barum scrutineering were heavier than that (all 207, Punto and Polo). Moreover asphalt cars are lighter than gravel cars...
If I remember right Corolla is around 1260 kg but I'm not sure.
A question on Bruce. Is FIA limit 1200 kg applied in RSA also?
Yes Mirek, it should be cos we run to the strict FIA rules here, so you can just buy a car and bring it here and be competitive, like many have done.
Moosa/Grant.. sorry to hear about the misfortunes..Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce D
Ai.. also bad news.. looks like the weekend was really difficult..Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce D
Thanks for the updates Bruce! My plans unfortunately had some changes and had to cancel my trip down.. but will definitely make the next one.
Time for some pics!
Rautenbach/Killinger
http://i52.tinypic.com/zyfu5x.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/2lwmbo0.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/1yqscw.jpg
Gemmell / Sturrock
http://i55.tinypic.com/348gh93.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/2lb1954.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/6yodxy.jpg
Poulter / Coetzee
http://i52.tinypic.com/2j33cqu.jpg
De Villiers / Pitchford
http://i52.tinypic.com/2ikcug9.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/elebti.jpg
JP Damseaux / Swan
http://i56.tinypic.com/2r59u7c.jpg
Ryan / Tyrer
http://i54.tinypic.com/fa0sg3.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/33dgksw.jpg
Haigh-Smith / Auffray (S1600 winners)
http://i52.tinypic.com/nfl1mp.jpg
Cronje / Houghton
http://i55.tinypic.com/rml99u.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/dr785u.jpg
Fekken / Arries
http://i56.tinypic.com/kcfbck.jpg
hi all,
What a wild rally, we were actually 6th overall overnight after corrected times.
We had a big off on saturday morning, and lost alot of time getting out of the stage, having another stage to complete before service we had a 21km stage where we lost another 3min with wheels pointing in all different directions. Add 11 min lateness at that stage we just tried to get to the end with a car that was handling like a pig causing all kinds of handling issues and losing masses of time.
A character building rally, but positives were our day 1 performance where we were able to compete with the newer generation cars.