Benjamin Habig storms to Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Ermelo Rally victory
Benjamin Habig and Barry White took a comfortable victory on round five of the SA National Rally Championship after powering their Volkswagen Polo NRC1 to a clean sweep of six stage wins from six, boosting their championship hopes with three rounds remaining.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Ermelo Rally promised a furious three-way fight between Habig and seven-time class champions Guy Botterill who was re-united with his long-time navigator Simon Vacy Lyle in their Toyota Gazoo Racing Starlet NRC1 and Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz in their Rally Technic Mazda2 NRC1.
Habig had to deal with some overheating issues and a loss of anti-lag in an otherwise clean run to a dominant 1:55, 6 victory margin.
Newcomer Paul van Niekerk and Willemjan Human had a new Volkswagen Polo NRC2 machine at their disposal and put it to good use, keeping the top runners honest across the 84km kilometres of timed stages taking the class win and second overall on only his second National rally.
Botterill took third overall after losing nearly half a minute in the first stage after a big overshoot and later suffered a broken driveshaft across two stages, blunting their victory fight. They were later handed a two-minute penalty which dropped the Toyota pair to fifth in the final standings.
Johan Strauss and Caro Storm debuted their new Subaru Impreza WRX STi and in spite of minimal testing, took the final step of the overall podium notwithstanding some overheating niggles in a quick, clean run across the dusty and technical stages in the forests around Panbult.
Gustav Potgieter and Tommy du Toit raced hard to take fourth overall and the class NRC3 win in their Ford Fiesta; the pair suffered a driveshaft issue in the day’s opening stage and had overheating brakes but were happy with their outing despite missing out on the overall podium by a slender 12, 8 seconds.
Behind Botterill, debutant Juan de Wet and Juandre Nienaber took an excellent sixth overall in their Subaru Impreza after a trouble-free run, ending just under two minutes ahead of the Martini-liveried Ford Escort Cosworth of Anton Raaths and Kes Naidoo.
Eighth overall went to Johan de Bruin and Wally de Bruyn in their unique Nissan 350Z, pipping Russel Stone and Jonty Brown who took NRC4 honours in their Toyota RunX.
Johan Fourie and his daughter Natasha Fourie Kotze brought their Castrol Toyota Tazz home in tenth overall and second in class NRC4. The father and daughter pairing were due to race their Toyota Celica but a last minute technical issue forced them into their Tazz.
Jono van Wyk retired his Mazda2 with fuel pressure issues in stage three, while Lynton Swatton retired his Toyota Auris in the first stage with a steering issue.
The exciting new Toyota GR Yaris NRC2 of Ismaeel Davids and Yusuf Ganief failed to start after a recurring steering rack seal issue.
The NRC is proudly supported by Dunlop Tyres, ATS Motorsport, Trac, Ctrack, Fixed Mobile telecoms and Mibern Medi-Call