Sasol/Konica Minolta Rally Team Delivers Another Strong Performance

15 June 2009

The defending Production Car champions, Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich delivered another faultless performance on the Rally of South Africa, bringing their Sasol/Konica Minolta Prodrive car home in a strong 5th place overall, their fourth consecutive Production Car and class N4 win in the 2009 Sasol South African Rally Championship.

In their quest for back-to-back South African Production Car Championships, Wilken and Godrich have 66 points against their nearest opponent’s 25 points at the season mid-point.

The Rally of SA was arguably the easiest victory of the season so far after both their main rivals were out of the event as early as stage two of the 13 stage, 198km long rally.

Rain in the week prior to the event had teams concerned about muddy stages and tyre choices but it wasn’t as bad as expected. “The slippery stages don’t suit our car because it is relatively heavy which is very apparent under braking. Friday’s conditions were quite tricky in that they were wet and dry and it was difficult to know where the slippery bits were”, said Wilken at the Ermelo finish.

The Pretoria driver’s best stage time was in the ultra-long Jessievale stage, where they set the 4th quickest time in spite of pulling over to let Johnny Gemmell’s puncture delayed S2000 Toyota past.

Wilken is happy with the work the Sasol/Konica Minolta team did on the new shock absorbers. “They’re great”, he reported, ending the first day’s activities in 4th place.

“The rally was really uneventful for us; we elected to run the safer dry weather tyre option and used the same set for the whole event”, Wilken added.

It was a short rally for Visser du Plessis and Gerhard Snyman in their Pirtek Subaru. The pair skidded off the road in stage 2, while Tjaart Coetzee/Etienne Lourens retired in the first stage with a broken gearbox crown wheel and pinion. Zimbabwean Chase Atwell and co –driver Brian Carrihill didn’t make the start in their Subaru.

Dave Compton/Pierre Jordaan (N3 Sasol Toyota RunX) took their 4th straight class win after an uneventful rally; Compton has 36 class points to the 12 of Tony Barbosa/Kenny Hill, who brought their Ford Fiesta ST home, second in class N3.

The Volkswagen Rally in the Eastern Cape on 10 and 11 July is the next stop on the Sasol/Konica Minolta team’s schedule.

Photo Credit: Dave Ledbitter