The Basil Read/bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000 of Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich had a good run in the 7th round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, ending the Swartland Rally in 6th place overall, but more importantly, setting competitive stage times, winning stages and running at the front of the field.
Wilken and Godrich got their rally off to a good start, pushing the Fiesta to the 3rd fastest time on the opening gravel stage before heading to the Killarney racetrack for two stages on tarmac, which could have been made for Wilken and Godrich. The first 8km stage saw the Basil Read/bizhub Fiesta scorch to the 2nd fastest time, just 0.1 seconds off the winning time, which was enough to propel the Pretoria-based outfit to the head of the leaderboard.
The Fiesta pair went one better in the day’s final 14.7km stage, winning outright by 8.3 seconds to extend their overall lead to 12.8 seconds. This left the bright blue and white Ford Fiesta running first on the road over Saturday’s six stages totaling 150km of competitive racing.
The virgin farmyard stages were incredibly slippery for the Ford pair and they could only set the 7th quickest stage time, dropping to 4th overall – still a great position but with road sweeping duties all day, the prognosis wasn’t good for a top five result that the team hoped to achieve.
“We decided to take a cautious approach to this rally”, said Wilken at the Cape Town finish. “It was great to lead after the tarmac stages but the loose gravel meant we were going to get hammered by those behind who had the benefit of racing over our tracks”.
With the Basil Read/bizhub Ford in 5th place overall, Wilken felt the power draining away in the third last stage near Malmesbury and was disappointed to lose 5th place late in the day due to alternator belt problems.
“It was a very positive event for us”, added Godrich. “A great confidence booster for the whole team. We were able to work out our own braking and turn-in points instead of following other people’s tracks which was good experience for us”.
We’re looking forward to the Gauteng Rally next month as it’s our home event.
The next outing for the Basil Read/bizhub Ford Rally Team is the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng on 15 and 16 October.
STORY BY WILKEN COMMUNICATIONS
PICTURE BY DAVID LEDBITTER
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