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Mpumalanga, South Africa — The Sasol Rally 2010 will see an intensified all-out war as the top championship contenders look to open up a gap - or make up lost ground - on a very crowded leader board as South Africa's top gravel racers vie for supremacy and the title of Sasol SA Rally Champions while Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford are locked in a mega-budget battle for the Manufacturers' Championship.

The crown jewel in the eight-round Sasol Rally Championship, which features stunning scenery in the Mpumalanga Lowveld as well as the largest live audience of the year watching the largest entry of the year, marks the Sasol Rally as one not to be missed. Round two of the Sasol-backed series saw no less than five different leaders and seven lead changes and if that is a pointer to the pace on the tough Sasol Rally, the thousands of fans are in for a stunning weekend.

The three-car BP Ultimate Volkswagen team has set the pace this season, between them winning 16 of the year's 23 stages run to date. The current SA Rally Champions, Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries lead the title race by a slender 2 points after a storming drive to win the opening encounter in KwaZulu-Natal, which they followed up with a fighting third in the Toyota Dealer Rally in late March after an early puncture sent them plummeting to eighth place.

Not to be outdone, Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson in a sister BP VW Polo, have easily matched the frenetic pace set by Fekken and taken the most stage wins this season (8); the 2006 champions boast two runner-up positions to lie a menacing second on the leader board and the Sasol Rally is the lanky driver's favourite event. A resurgent Jan Habig and new co-driver Ralph Pitchford, pedaling a third BP Polo have been as quick as their teammates so far this season and led the Toyota Rally after day one only to be sidelined in Saturday's opening stage, Habig's first mechanical retirement in 23 rallies!

Tied with Kuun on points is the all-Zimbabwean team of Conrad Rautenbach/Peter Marsh, who took a measured and very popular debut win in the Cape, and gave the Ford Fiesta S2000 its maiden win on African soil. Rautenbach, a former Citroën Junior Team WRC driver, claimed fourth overall in Natal in a rented Prodrive Subaru Impreza before switching to the M-Sport-built Fiesta and leads the new Privateers' Rally Championship.

Great news for Ford fans is that the Basil Read Ford Fiesta S2000 of Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich will return to the series after the car was cruelly destroyed in a fire halfway through Sunday morning in the Tour Natal Rally. Wilken adapted quickly to the left-hand-drive Fiesta, setting times inside the top five before disaster struck. The Sasol Rally should see Wilken swiftly up to speed and challenging for stage wins.

The Castrol Toyota team, outgunned in KZN, bounced back on the Toyota Rally, where Johnny Gemmell/Drew Sturrock led the event on two different occasions in the Auris S2000 before a puncture on day two dropped them to fourth. Add in Gemmell's first round non-finish and the 2009 championship runner-up has a mountain to climb to get back on Fekken's and Kuun's coat tails. Mark Cronjé and Robert Paisley, punishing the second Castrol Toyota Auris at every opportunity, have been unlucky in many ways but lie fourth on the points log after a KZN podium and sixth in Toyota's home event.

Last year's Sasol Rally saw Gemmell claim a 4-second victory after a last stage shoot-out with Fekken so expect both Toyotas to be fully in the hunt for a repeat result. The Auris has the speed, as shown by three stage wins for each driver.

The burgeoning S2000 class will feature no less than 17 of the high-tech machines in the Sasol Rally; behind the factory VW and Toyota teams, many crews have their sights firmly set on the privateers' title.

A pair of privateer Volkswagen Polo teams is separated by just two points. After two excellent top ten results, Mokopane businessman Theuns Joubert and co-driver Carl Peskin (Salom Volkswagen Polo) are locked in a close fight with Evan Hutchison/Elvéne Coetzee's similar Motorite VW Polo. Hutchison, a multiple off-road champion and the reigning class A7 rally champion is two points behind Joubert so sparks are sure to fly between these two VW teams.

Hoping for better luck than they had in Caledon, Nicholas Ryan and Geoff Tyrer, (Avis/Gabriel VW Polo), scored a brilliant sixth overall in Natal but suffered shock absorber problems in the Cape, so will be looking to equal or better their coastal result. They are five points behind Hutchison so none of these teams can even pause for breath, let alone afford any minor problem.

A trio of equally-matched Toyota Aurises is headed by Japie van Niekerk who is the leading Toyota privateer entry; with co-driver Robin Houghton, the New Africa Developments Auris S2000 pair started the year with a strong fifth overall but finished stone last in the Toyota Rally after losing over half an hour in a stage.

The Pretoria property developer will be hunting down his biggest rival, Hein Lategan/Johan van der Merwe (Pirtek Toyota Auris) who ended fifth last time out after failing to finish the opening event. Lategan and Van Niekerk are both highly capable drivers and very evenly matched, making their rivalry as intense as any other.

The second Pirtek Toyota Auris of Visser du Plessis/Gerhard Snyman was TKO'd in Natal but put in a gritty drive over the Caledon stages as he got to grips with the S2000 pace to take a well-deserved 10th overall and should acquit himself well on stages he enjoys.

Team Total's JP Damseaux/Carolyn Swan are two points behind Van Niekerk and trying very hard to keep their older Toyota RunX in the same game as the Aurises. Sometimes, too hard. Damseaux blotted his copybook on his home rally, rolling his RunX onto its roof and losing almost half a minute before help arrived. This crew will be out to make amends on the Sasol.

Fellow Team Total Toyota RunX partners Fernando Rueda/Dave Lewkowicz were well up the order but retired in the penultimate stage of the Toyota Rally, after claiming a competent top-ten finish on the opening round.

Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin, running their first year in the top S2000 class, had a dramatic and painful start to the year in KwaZulu-Natal. The Team Total Toyota RunX left the road and set fire to the surrounding sugarcane on the first day before crashing heavily on day two. Moosa was lucky to escape with nothing worse than a broken collar bone in his multiple end-over-end roll and missed the Cape Rally. The RunX has been rebuilt so the genial Tzaneen businessman will spend the Sasol Rally rebuilding his confidence.

Rounding out the S2000 entries is the Namibian driver Jaco van Dyk and Hennie Botes. The VW Polo pair put in a convincing performance on their second appearance in the Sasol Championship, taking a strong ninth overall and will be looking for a similar result on the Sasol.

Heading up the two-wheel-drive challenge is a bevy of very quick and competitive runners, featuring the former class champions Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (Automark Toyota RunX), who won the opening round before blowing an engine in the Cape, and Toyota Rally winners, Ettiene Du Toit/Patrick Vermaak in their A&E Motorsport Toyota RunX. Both have 9 class championship points to their credit and will be looking to break the deadlock.

Both Toyota teams need to watch out for the very quick Gavin Cronjé/Van Aardt Schoeman Volkswagen Polo. The Le Mans Cup Champion was very quick on the fast Caledon stages which suited his driving style to a tee and only mechanical problems halted his charge at the top of the class timesheets.

Gugu Zulu/Shaun Visser (BP Volkswagen Polo) made a surprise return to the A7 class in the Cape and once up to speed were dealt a bad hand when forced to retire in an open section with electrical problems.

Michael Otto/Tommy du Toit are hoping their Auto Doctor Toyota Corolla's eighth engine will last the distance and if so, this five-way fight will be spectacular. Otto won the Delmas Regional Rally two weeks before the Sasol, so should be in high spirits.

Craig Trott/Robbie Coetzee (Team Total Toyota RunX) lead the class A6 title chase after two second-place finishes from two starts, just the type of consistency that wins titles. Trott's reliability sees him a close second on the new-for-2010 1600cc Championship table.

On sheer pace, Trott was left in the wake of the opening round winners Tjaart Conradie/Tiaan Rabe (Silverton Engineering/Hencom Autobody Toyota Auris) and if not for bad luck in the following rally, should have chalked up two wins. The Auris stopped 200m into the penultimate stage with a failed CV joint.

Production Car circuit racer Leeroy Poulter and the reigning Northern Regions Rally co-drivers' champion Henry Dearlove took their Randburg Raceway/Ferodo Toyota RunX to a maiden class win in the Cape in spite of a host of car problems and will be looking for a clean, fast run through the York Timbers forest stages. Conradie and Poulter are tied in third place on the 1600 cc log.

Ashley Haigh Smith and Hilton Auffrey (Team React Toyota Yaris) have raised their game considerably and the learner driver's licence matric scholar leads the class A5 championship after claiming his first-ever class win, the youngest class victor ever, after a brilliant drive in the Cape to add to his runner-up spot in Natal. Haigh Smith has a 12-point lead on the overall 1600cc Championship score sheet and comes to the Sasol Rally fresh from winning his first-ever rally, the Vlakvlei Western Cape regional in his father's A6 Corolla.

The BP Ultimate Volkswagen Citi Golf of former class champion Andre Cleenwerck and new co-driver Kes Naidoo dominated in Natal and followed that with a retirement after hunting down Haigh Smith, passing him in the penultimate stage, before the VW's engine said 'no more' in the final stage. They have ground to make up on the Sasol Rally.

Morné Janse van Rensburg/Derek Jacobs made a belated start to the season on round two, but took their BP-liveried VW Citi Golf to a class runner-up spot and will be looking at emulating Haigh Smith's pace.

Piet Bakkes/Paul van Wyk (Sasol Komatipoort VW Citi Golf) and Benjamin Pinho/Marco Ferreira (Pro Beat Ford Ka) both have 4 class points and should be looking to outdo each other at every opportunity.

Chad Lambert/Nic Prinsloo (Toyota Yaris) are hoping to open their score after a frustrating start to the season, recording two non-finishes.

In the production car classes, the team to beat should be the local pairing of Joos/Danie Stassen in their Top Gear Motors Subaru Impreza N12. The Nelspruit brothers ran as high as eighth overall a couple of years ago and know the conditions well.

They will face the similar Midas Subaru Impreza of Tjaart Coetzee/Johan Aucamp, who claimed a class podium on the Sasol Rally last year. He failed to finish in Natal and never made it to Cape Town to start round two.

Class N3 will see Abduraghman Amlay/Garth Ritsch (Toyota RunX) take on the similar class N3 RunX of Megan/Oliver Verlaque, which is how they finished the Caledon Rally. Riaan Erasmus/Herman Groenewald should feature strongly in the pair's first outing of the year, although Erasmus rolled out of the 2009 Sasol Rally.

Sasol Rally 2010 Route

Celebrating the launch of Sasol's new turbo fuels plus product range, the Sasol Rally festivities get under way on Thursday, 22 April with the Sasol Pit Stop in the Sabie town square with scrutineering of the cars. A classic car display, food stalls and arts and crafts displays will add to the Sasol Pit Stop atmosphere.

York Timbers is host to the Sasol Rally 2010 gravel stages, starting with four stages on Friday around Graskop. Stage 1 will be repeated as stage 3 with one service park operating in Graskop town.

The final gravel stage of the day is a spectator-friendly run over the foot of Long Tom Pass on the outskirts of Sabie.

A dinner break at the York Timbers Sports Ground precedes the traditional Sasol Sabie Town Twister Stage, run through the centre of the picturesque town at 18h00. The teams head to White River for another time-honoured stage, dubbed "Sasol White River Run" starting at 20h00.

Saturday's action gets under way with a quick service at the Nelspruit Show Grounds before tackling the "Sasol Sensational Stage" (07h45) at the 'spaghetti junction' in the heart of the Mpumalanga capital city.

A brand new short tarmac stage follows in Kanyamazane (08h23) before heading back to the York Timbers forests for five grueling stages. Stage 10, "Magsleigh Hendriksdal" starting at 09h43 offers the best spectating opportunity of the rally with over a kilometre of viewing available right next to the R37 Long Tom/Nelspruit road. This stage is repeated at 14h40 as stage 15.

Stage 11 (repeated as SS14) offers limited viewing opportunities as does SS13. Clerk of the Course Willie du Plessis suggests spectators catch the action at stages 10, 12 and 15 as they are all in close proximity. He described the limited spectating on stages 11, 13 and 14 as suitable "only for the brave".

The Sasol Finale, stage 16, takes the cars at full racing speed into the Nelspruit Show Grounds arena for a tight stage in front of packed grandstands. The champagne ceremony takes place shortly afterwards, offering fans the opportunity of sharing in the glory (and heartbreak) that the Sasol Rally has served up over the last 19 very special years.

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Image Copyrights: Sasol Racing
Photo: Enzo Kuun in the BP VW Polo will be amongst the many crews fighting for top honors at the Sasol Rally 2010

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