Cronje takes the lead in Polokwane
The Ford Performance Team of Mark Cronje in a Ford Fiesta showed this morning that he is in no mood to let the SA Rally Drivers title slip from his grasp again. On he first stage of the day, stage 5, Cronje won the stage and also took the lead of the rally for the first. He was third the second stage and but is still leading overall by 3.8 seconds from Henk Lategan in the Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo who won the stage.
The overnight leader, Giniel de Villiers in a Team Castrol Toyota Yaris gave up his lead from yesterdasy and has dropped tom third overall 13.2 seconds behind Cronje. His team mate Leeroy Poulter in the other Team Castrol Toyota, who is fighting to keep his SA Rally Drivers title, was fourth and 17.7 seconds behind the leader.
Cronje only has to finish third or higher to reclaim the championship, while Poulter has to win outright.
Fifth overall was Thilo Himmel in a Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo +27.5. Disaster struck Hergen Fekken in another Volkswagen Polo who fell out of the event having removed the back suspension of the Polo. He was in 6th position overall when that happened.
His team mate, Gugu Zulu is also reported to be suffering from suspension problems and has dropped out of the top ten overall on stage 5 after losing 8 minutes on stage 5..
In 7th overall before Fekken withdrew, was Ernie van der Walt in the Vecto Toyota Yaris +3:27.4, followed by Theuns Joubert in a NRC4 Toyota Auris +4:10.6.
Marko Himmel in a S1600 Volkswagen Polo rounded out the top ten+6:36.4. He was leading Class S1600 from Richard Leeke and Paulus Franken.