adminrecovery to take a comfortable 23-second victory – their third of the year – in the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally, the penultimate round of the South African Rally Championship.
They re-took the championship lead by six points, which they have led virtually since the start of the season after the weekend’s event.
The privateer Green Fuel Ford Fiesta S2000 pair – running on ethanol for the first time in South African rally history – had a slow start, dropping 16 seconds in the first stage.
The Zimbabwean/French combination was seventh after stage two. Two tarmac stages ended the day’s action, with Rautenbach setting the second-fastest stage time in the first one to end day one in a comfortable fourth overall.
“I wasn’t on it in the first stage. It was difficult to read the road and it was quite slippery but the tar stages went well. It gave us an ideal road position for day two,” said Rautenbach.
The following stage saw another Green Fuel Ford stage win to tie the rally lead to a 1/10th of a second!
Just as Rautenbach and Klinger were gearing up for a tough fight over the 38km long seventh stage, rally leader Johnny Gemmell’s factory Toyota retired with engine failure while the second works Toyota lost three minutes with a puncture in the same stage, leaving Rautenbach with a 34-second lead.
“I remember the first Saturday stage from last year,” Rautenbach related.
“It is quite technical and I decided that is where I would attack. I had a good feeling I could catch Johnny in stage seven before his problem.
“I immediately backed off but that was even harder as it’s so easy to make a mistake when you’re not at 100%. The last two stages were nerve wracking but I kept it on the road. It’s a great result for the championship.”
Rautenbach paid tribute to his hard-working team of technicians:
“We did a lot of work in Zimbabwe and had a good test before this rally.
“The hard work has finally paid off and I feel a lot of the pressure has lifted after some so-so events in the last two months.
“I’m looking forward to the last rally. It’s a new event and I do quite well in new events.”
Klinger is ineligible to score points in the South African co-drivers’ title but was delighted for his driver: “I’m very happy for Conrad. The whole team has worked very hard to achieve this result.”
Klinger enjoyed his first ever visit to the Cape.
“It’s very windy!” he laughed. “And the mountain is amazing.”
Rautenbach had the last word having won the first South African rally fuelled with ethanol: “It’s a milestone to win the first time we use it. It’s very special to me because it’s made in Zimbabwe – a fantastic result.”
Online Reporter