JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit stamped their authority on the 2023 SA National Rally Championship by picking up two wins in the unforgiving Longmore Forest stages in the Eastern Cape at the Weekend, taking top honours in both rounds of the double-header.
Friday: Rally 1
Powering in with a time of 1min32,3 seconds to take the win on the opening Special Stage of the Algoa Rally, Jono van Wyk and navigator Nico Swartz (Toyota Gazoo Racing Starlet) laid down a marker for what looked set to be a very closely fought battle – his chief rivals JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit (Hyundai R4) a mere 0,2 seconds behind them.
Theuns Joubert and Schalk van Heerden (Salom Toyota Auris) set the third quickest time ahead of Nick Davidson/Ashley Bezuidenhout ((Volkswagen Polo) and Chris Coertse/Greg Godrich (Rally Technik Mazda2).
The 21,45 kilometre second stage of the day gave Potgieter an opportunity to stretch the legs of the Hyundai and he stormed off into the distance to win by 18,6 seconds. Unfortunately, the effort of chasing him cost Jono ‘The Swazi Cowboy’ the engine on his Toyota and forced them into retirement for the day – with an overheating engine also forcing the retirement of Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout (Toyota Auri S2000) on the same stage.
Chris Coertse was also getting into his stride and he was third quickest across the gravel stage, chased hard by Mandla Mdakane/Kes Naidoo in the second Toyota Gazoo Racing Starlet, this car was now seemingly free of the problems that it faced on the opening rally of the 2023 season in Secunda.
As always, mixing it up with the all-wheel drive NRC1 cars was the two-wheel drive NRC2 Just Tools Volkswagen Polo of Benjamin Habig and Barry White, setting the fifth fastest time across the special stage.
Stage 4 – MTO Sinkdam – saw the Coertse/Godrich pairing piling on the pressure and they scooted to the stage win ahead of Potgieter/du Toit with Mdakane and Naidoo showing good pace to finish third ahead of Habig/White with the Regional Championship pairing of Owen Jones and Aden Bredenkamp in a Subaru Impreza claiming fifth fastest time.
Stage 5, name Culturama Twist, did just that – run in the darkness it saw Mdakane forced way down the field as the Toyota driver was obliged to run the stage without working spotlights on the Starlet.
Up front, it was Potgieter/Du Toit from Coertse/Godrich and Habig/White with another skilful drive from Jones/Bredenkamp to secure fourth place ahead of Joubert/Van Heerden.
The final 1,7 kilometre Mentor’s Sprint stage saw Potgieter/Du Toit close out the day as stage winners and rally winners – for JJ Potgieter a very welcome result, breaking his duck of never having finished the Algoa Rally on previous attempts.
Second overall in NRC1 were Chris Coertse/Greg Godrich ahead of Mdakane/Naidoo and Joubert/Van Heerden. Habig/White won the NRC 2 class from Gerald Klopper/Johan Aucamp (Toyota Etios R2) and Gustav Poetgieter/Tommy Coetzee (Ford Fiesta R2).
Saturday: Rally 2
The format for the National Rally Championship for 2023 sees two separate rallies using variations of the same Special Stages being run at each round, which means anyone with a repairable problem from Friday can start afresh on Saturday – and that is exactly what Jono van Wyk and Nico Swartz in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Starlet did.
They blitzed through the opening stage of the day, albeit a mere 0,1 seconds ahead of JJ Potgieter and Tommy du Toit with Mandla Mdakane/Kes Naidoo having a stormer of a run to finish third ahead of the Subaru of Own Jone and Aden Bredekamp.
Sadly, this stage saw the end of the VW Polo of Johan Viljoen/Juane Viljoen with a broken CV joint.
Van Wyk carried the momentum into the second stage of the day, emerging victorious by a massive 54 seconds over Mdakane with Potgieter a further second behind that, but ahead of Habig/White who were still mixing it with the NRC1 cars and leading NRC2.
The misfire that started in Stage 1 for Coertse/Godrich in the Rally Technik Mazda continued and they lost time, only managing ninth fastest but still better off than Theuns Joubert/Schalk van Heerden who were forced to retire their Toyota Yaris S2000 with fuel pressure issues and Nick Davidson/Ashley Bezuidenhout (VW Polo) who retired with gearbox issues.
JJ Potgieter got the next stage of the day absolutely right and raced through to beat Van Wyk by two minutes, while Coertse had the misfire sorted and came back to finish a strong third on the stage ahead of Mdakane, Jones and Habig.
At this point, Van Wyk had the overall lead but Potgieter had managed to cut that to just 53 seconds with three stages still to run.
However, another brilliant run by Van Wyk on the Sinkdam stage saw him win that and extend his overall lead to 1min09,5sec over Potgieter with Mdakane holding third place a further 15 seconds adrift – still with all to play for.
Habig remained relentless in NRC 2 and notched up yet another stage win in the class ahead of Gustav Potgieter/Tommy Coetzee and George Smallberger/Robbie Coetzee (VW Polo R2), themselves ahead of Magriet Potgieter and Ingrid Jeacocks in a Ford Fiesta 1600.
With the repeat of the Culturama stage as the second last of the day, it was JJ Potgieter who ran through to win from Coerste with Habig a strong third quickest in the forest but, sadly, breaking a diff. This stage also saw Jono van Wyk fall by the wayside with engine problems.
Potgieter and Du Toit wrapped it up for the weekend by winning the final stage of the day, their fourth straight victory in the 2023 Championship. Coertse/Godrich finished second to rack up a good package of championship points with Mdakane/Naidoo third in the NRC1 category.
Habig and White hung on to win NRC2 from Gerlad Klopper and John Aucamp (Toyota Etios R2) with Gustav Potgieter/Tommy Coetzee third.
Alan Straton
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