Round two of the Petrefuel Algoa Rally Championship saw Neels Vosloo and Rikus Fourie bounce back to their winning ways as they brought their Hella backed VW Polo home to win the EMI Paardepoort Rally against some stiff opposition. The rally that was made up of three stages covering a total race distance of 78 kilometres was based at the Wolwefontein Hotel in the Jansenville district with a mix of fast flowing stages, along with high speed jumps, mixed with some extremely technical sections on very rocky roads that lead to the demise of some of the entries.

Picture credit: Darryl Kukard
The first to fall foul to the rocky roads were Oliver de Man and Ingrid Jeacocks in their classic Ocean Truck Sales Toyota Corolla fresh from their class win in the Cape Swartland Rally as they damaged a tyre early in stage one that halted their race, Ruan and Chanell van Tonder hit a rock that damaged their suspension of their VW Polo that lead to an early retirement as well. Championship leaders Nick Davidson and Ashley Bezuidenhout set the pace in stage one in their Stu Davidson & Son sponsored Toyota Auris winning the stage by nine seconds from Vosloo and Fourie, but their car then developed a misfire that scuppered their chance of overall honours. The ever consistent husband and wife team of Juan & Tarryn van Rooyen in their Innova backed VW Polo put in another great run as defending champions to finish third in stage one.
Stage two of the rally was a virtual mirror image of stage one and Vosloo & Fourie stormed to the stage win taking 28 seconds off their stage one time with the Van Rooyen pair coming home in second followed by the hard charging Triple L Plant Hire Toyota Etios of Deon Kretzmann and Jason Schreiber in third. Disaster struck for the Daniel Pienaar Technical High School VW Golf of Tashne Wait and Wesley Schultz after they miscalculated a jump and unfortunately rolled out of contention.
Stage three of the rally was a high speed stage over a distance of 40 kilometres that continued to claim more victims as Johan & Juane’ Viljoen broke the clutch on their VW Polo, Jody van Zummeren & James Johnston suffered engine failure on their Border Towing Datsun P510 SSS Coupe and Jeandre’ Marais and stand-in navigator Henry Adams had a massive roll at high speed in their Motul VW Polo. The Vosloo/Fourie Hella Polo was unstoppable as they won the stage by 16 seconds from the Innova Polo of the Van Rooyens and the Triple L Toyota of Kretzmann in third.
The brother and sister team of Ross & Roxanne Bartle made a welcome return to rallying in their newly branded Indy Oil VW Polo and got quicker and quicker as the rally progressed leading to them securing fifth place overall as well as taking their class win.
The top ten finishers were as follows –
-1st Neels Vosloo & Rikus Fourie VW Polo
– 2nd Juan & Tarryn van Rooyen VW Polo
– 3rd Deon Kretzmann & Jason Schreiber Toyota Etios
– 4th Riekus Schmidt& Sherilee Pieterse VW Polo
– 5th Ross & Roxanne Bartle VW Polo
-6th Francois Vermaak & Handre van Schalkwyk VW Golf A1
-7th Francois Laubscher & Mark Irvine VW Polo 250 1 L-Turbo
-8th Martin Kleingeld Snr & Jnr Toyota Corolla KE35
– 9th Marco Griesel & Francois Anker – VW Polo A13
-10th Winley Martin & Kaylin Kapp VW Polo 250 1 L-Turbo
Top three per class were as follows –
ARC 5
- 1st Francois Vermaak & Handre van Schalkwyk VW Golf A1
- 2nd Marco Griesel & Francois Anker – VW Polo A13
- 3rd Winley Martin & Kaylin Kapp VW Polo 250 1 L-Turbo
ARC 4
- 1st Neels Vosloo & Rikus Fourie VW Polo
- 2nd Juan & Tarryn van Rooyen VW Polo
- 3rd Deon Kretzmann & Jason Schreiber Toyota Etios
ARC 3
- 1st Ross & Roxanne Bartle VW Polo
- 2nd Francois Laubscher & Mark Irvine VW Polo 250 1 L-Turbo
- 3rd Johan & Juane’ Viljoen VW Polo