The Team Castrol Toyota Yaris crew of Leeroy Poulter and Elvene Coetzee, took up where they left off at the end of yesterday’s stages, by winning the first stage of day two on the Bela Bela Rally this morning. Stage five was the first of six stages to be run run on the event that is the fourth round of the SA Rally Championship.
In the process he extended his lead over the second placed Ford Performance Ford Fiesta of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton to 24.4 seconds. Poulter took the stage with a time of 10:34.7. Crfonje was joint fourth on the stage with Henk Lategan and Barry White in a Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo with a time of 10:40.0.
Second on the stage was Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan in the second Team Castrol Toyota Yaris with a time of 10:37.5. De Villiers dropped from second overall yesterday to 9th overall after on overshoot and puncture on the last stage of the day.
Gugu Zulu and Hilton Auffray was third in their Sasolracing Volkswagen Polo in 10:38.5 followed by Cronje and Lategan in joint fifth.
Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman in a NAD Ford Fiesta was 7th on 10:42.5 followed by Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries in another Volkswagen Polo with a time of 10:43.9.
The rally consists of ten stages some 180km in lenght. Today the competitors will complete six stages and 126 km before the finish later today in Bela Bela.
Overall after stage 5:
Poulter 53:00.7
Cronje +24.4
Fekken + 57.8
Van Niekerk + 1:06.3
Himmel +1:10.6
Lategan 1:22.5
Zulu + 1: 25.4
De Villiers +1:32.5