Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich scorched through 12 stages in Gauteng - winning six of them - to dominate the final round of the 2010 Sasol South African Rally Championship, giving the Basil Read/bizhub Ford Fiesta S2000 its maiden win. The winners finished 1 min. 24,8 sec. ahead of their nearest competitors, the similar Ford Fiesta of former World Rally Championship driver Conrad Rautenbach and navigator Peter Marsh.
The route of the Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally featured five tarmac stages on the opening day, which the Basil Read/bizhub Ford team identified as their best chance of an outright victory, and so it proved with the former double production car champions leading from start to finish.
Wilken and Godrich opened up a lead on the opening hill climb stage at Gerotek, west of Pretoria, maintaining Wilken and Godrich’s” King of the Mountain” title over the notorious concrete-surfaced stages that saw the national champion-elect Enzo Kuun crash his VW Polo and retire from the rally. Setting four of the five fastest stage times on Friday, the Ford Fiesta pair went to sleep happy they had a defendable cushion over the chasing pack.
Saturday’s seven gravel stages saw Rautenbach fight back, winning the first two stages, but Wilken responded by winning the next two stages. With a comfortable lead after the first four gravel stages, Wilken could afford to relax over the last three stages of the event.
“It’s awesome to win our first rally overall after only three full events in a top class car and repay our sponsors for their unstinting support. We owed them something special”, said an elated Wilken.
Wilken continued: “We pushed hard in the first couple of gravel stages on Saturday, to make sure no one behind us took time away and then took it comparatively easy over the rough and rocky parts of the route. The Ford Fiesta was perfect the whole weekend which made our job so much easier”.
Team Director Flip Wilken added: “I’m over the moon. It’s been a terrible year and really pleasing to win from the front on merit. It’s a level we want to carry through to next year. The greatest satisfaction for the Basil Read/bizhub Ford team was beating the works teams of Volkswagen and Toyota over concrete, tar and gravel surfaces with our privately run team.”
STORY COURTESY OF WILKEN COMMUNICATIONS
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