The normally tranquil town of Steytlerville came alive on Saturday when the Algoa Rally Club held the fifth round of their championship there in perfect warm weather conditions.
The event that had 29 starters became a rally of attrition, with 10 cars not making it to the finish as the heat and the high-speed stages took their toll on the vehicles.
Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout put their brand new 4-wheel-drive VW Polo through its paces cautiously at first as they got to grips with the new vehicle, and then, going into the last stage, realised that they were down in about fourth place with Neels Vosloo and Rikus Fourie being the overall leaders.
Davidson then unleashed the beast during the last stage to make up the time deficit and ultimately stormed to victory by 12 seconds with Vosloo and Fourie in their two-wheel-drive VW Polo 250 in second and Mpumalanga visitors Johan Strauss and Elzaan van der Schyff in their four-wheel-drive Subaru Impreza in third.
Stage three of the rally, unfortunately, was cancelled after a medical emergency when Riekus Schmidt and Marco Griesel took a big jump in their four-wheel-drive VW Polo 270 and landed awkwardly, resulting in a spinal injury for Schmidt, who was evacuated and taken to hospital for treatment.
Well-known circuit racing champion Dawie van der Merwe made his rally debut with Steph Pieterse navigating for him in a virtually stock-standard 1.4-litre VW Polo Playa and stunned everyone by bringing the car home in eighth place overall and secured the class ARC5 win.
Another rally debutant was Pikkie Marais, who teamed up with Juandre Nienaber in a Toyota Etios 1.6-litre, and they managed a 10th overall and fifth place in the very competitive ARC4 class.
Algoa Rally Club Championship, round five results:
ARC 5: 1 Dawie van der Merwe and Steph Pieterse, 2 Francois Vermaak and Handré van Schalkwyk, 3 Leander Koekemoer and Kaylin Kapp
ARC 4: 1 Neels Vosloo and Rikus Fourie, 2 Juan and Tarryn van Rooyen, 3 JP Smit and Marisa Bernhardt
ARC 3: 1 Oliver de Man and Ingrid Jeacocks, 2 Ross and Roxanne Bartle
ARC 1: 1 Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout, 2 Johan Strauss and Elzaan van der Schyff, 3 Wade van Zummeren and Henry Adams
Clubman’s: 1 Francois Vermaak and Handré van Schalkwyk
Overall: 1 Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout, 2 Neels Vosloo and Rikus Fourie, 3 Johan Strauss and Elzaan van der Schyff.
The Herald
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