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Reigning international Formula Le Mans sports car champion Gavin Cronje’s dramatic baptism in the Sasol South African Rally Championship continued at the weekend when he and co-driver Van Aardt Schoeman rolled out of the Sasol Rally in the Mpumalanga Lowveld on the second stage.
Cronje and Schoeman had started the two-day third round of the championship in confident style, winning the first stage on Friday by almost 15 seconds.
“We were looking good in stage two until I misjudged an adverse jump into a left-hander about six kilometres in,” said Cronje. “The landing unsettled the rear and I couldn’t get the car back in line for the corner on the loose gravel. I thought we’d be alright when I saw an escape road, but it dropped away sharply and the VW’s nose dug into the soft sand at the entrance to the road and the car went over.”
The VW Polo rolled a few times some 30 to 40 metres down the side of a hill and landed on its wheels without any injuries to its occupants. The car was too precariously positioned to drive it out and it was eventually towed back to the road.
“I made a mistake – my first real one so far this year – and we paid dearly for it. I wasn’t even pushing that hard for the conditions. It was unfortunate. These things happen,” he said philosophically.
“We’ll fix the car and be back to continue my rally apprenticeship at the Rally of South Africa in Mpumalanga next month.”
Asked to compare driving fast on gravel surfaces compared to tar, the 31-year-old from Fourways in Gauteng explained: “On a race track the surface is hard and pretty consistent and you know exactly where you’re going. With the right tyres you have lots of grip. The combination of loose and ever-changing road conditions with a co-driver shouting instructions to you about where to go and how fast to drive, is a very different proposition.”
Did his brief experience in off road racing help at all? “Not really. There you have long distances to travel between service stops and the speeds are not nearly as fast. The bakkie I drove could take a fair amount of punishment and the ground clearance was a lot higher.”
Cronje’s innate car control skills and ability to drive really fast, which has brought him success in a wide variety of circuit racing categories (karting, production cars, sports cars and single seaters) make him a driver to watch in the national rally championship.
High resolution copyright-free photographs may be downloaded from www.motorpics.co.za.
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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