story by: Peter Burroughes Communications 26 July 2010

Disappointment for Cronje and Schoeman in VW Rally

 

Gavin Cronje and Van Aardt Schoeman continue to battle through the pain barrier as they get to grips with the harsh realities of national championship rallying in their Season in Africa class A7 VW Polo.
 
They are competing in their first season in the Sasol South African Rally Championship and once again found themselves victims of mechanical failure and pure bad luck in the VW Rally, round five of the championship, which ended in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
 
A broken shock absorber on Friday’s first stage resulted in an off-road excursion on the following stage and the VW became beached atop the low scrub that characterises the area.  The pair struggled to extricate the car and finally got going again after losing more than an hour.
 
They started Saturday’s five stages believing they were still in the rally, albeit in last position, and made the finish at King’s Beach in Port Elizabeth despite being delayed further by a broken exhaust on the day’s first special stage.  Unhappily for them, the organisers informed them that they had exceeded the time limit for completing Friday’s six stages and were consequently time-barred.
 
“We refuse to be disheartened,” said the ever positive Cronje, “but I have to admit it’s extremely frustrating.  “This is my first season in rallying and every event is an important opportunity for me to adapt to the gravel racing discipline, which is very different to what I am used to on the race track.
 
“We pushed hard on Saturday after our set-back on Friday, believing we were still in the rally, so it was disappointing when we were informed we had already been time-barred on Friday.
 
“The VW Polo is quick and I’m getting the hang of driving it, but we have to get on top of the reliability issue.  We really need a clean run to see just how much we have progressed since the opening round in March.”
 
The next round of the Sasol National Rally Championship is the Osram Rally in the Barkly East area on August 21.
 
Ends
 
Issued on behalf of Gavin Cronje by Peter Burroughes Communications.  For further information, please contact Peter Burroughes, tel 082 899 0101, e-mail bowtie@iafrica.com