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His second ever national championship rally could not have been more dramatic and incident-filled, but Gavin Cronje and co-driver Van Aardt Schoeman completed the Toyota Dealer Rally run over 11 stages and 180 km in the Western Cape at the weekend.
The result was a lot better than in the recent Total Tour Natal, where Cronje and Schoeman lasted just two stages before being forced out with mechanical problems. This time they challenged for the lead of class A7 in their Volkswagen Polo, winning two stages on Friday and one on Saturday and leading the event until four stages from the finish on Saturday.
They eventually finished second in class behind Etienne du Toit and Patrick Vermaak (Toyota RunX) after a series of problems on Saturday that included a broken throttle cable (and a broken spare), a broken shock absorber and a fire caused by power steering fluid catching alight on the exhaust. Just to keep Cronje even more on his toes, the driver’s door was damaged when it was caught by the wind as he opened it to attend to the throttle problem. As a result, Cronje had to drive for a distance with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding the door closed, restricting him to one gear only.
“I didn’t think so many things could go wrong on one event,” said a rueful Cronje afterwards. “And as a result we picked up a lateness penalty of 1 min 30 sec.”
Cronje and Schoeman started well on Friday, winning the first two stages and leading from Gugu Zulu, the reigning class A5 champion and Shaun Visser in a VW Polo Vivo, and 2008 class A7 champions Chris de Wit and Dean Redelinghuys (Toyota RunX). Despite suffering a burst shock absorber on stage four, which slowed them over the last three of the day’s six stages, they reached the overnight stop in Caledon in first place in the class, 3, 8 seconds ahead of Du Toit and Vermaak and 21,4 seconds in front of Zulu and Visser.
A big win in the first stage on Saturday, where he increased his lead over Du Toit to 41,6 seconds, was the perfect start for Cronje, but things went downhill from there. With all their problems they eventually reached the finish in Caledon 17 min 47 sec behind Du Toit and Vermaak.
“After all that we were relieved to finish, but disappointed with the result,” said Cronje, who is more used to driving an open prototype sports car or a Formula Volkswagen single seater (he is the reigning international Formula Le Mans and a former Formula Volkswagen champion). “We had a really good run at times and I thoroughly enjoyed our rally. The high-speed gravel stages suit my driving style and I can’t wait for the next round (the Sasol Rally in Mpumalanga on April 23 and 24).”
Issued on behalf of Gavin Cronje by Peter Burroughes Communications. For further information, please contact Peter Burroughes, tel 082 899 0101, e-mail bowtie@iafrica.com.
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