The Volkswagen factory team scored an emphatic 1-2 on the Tour Natal Rally, the first round of the SA National Rally championship, at the weekend.
The rally, organised by the Natal Motorcycle and Car Club, was run in very wet conditions on the Natal North Coast on Friday and in wet, but clearing, conditions on the South Coast on Saturday.
Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson drove their VW Polo to six stage wins to claim victory by 3min23 after surviving continuous rain on Friday and a number of incidents to repeat the win he claimed in 2005.
The pair left the road on stage two, got stuck and lost 20 seconds were before the car fired up again and Kuun used all his experience to stay on the road.
Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries, having their debut event in the premier S2000 class in another Polo, outlasted more experienced competitors to finish second overall and give VW a dream start to the eight-event championship.
Fekken, after 10 years with front-wheel drive cars, found the transition to all-wheel drive quite easy after a handful of stages and took two fastest stage times.
2005 champions Jan Habig and Douglas Judd, in a third Polo, retired at the end of day one with a broken engine mounting.
Multiple SA Rally champions Serge Damseaux and co-driver Robert Paisley were second overall by 17sec at the end of the first day in their Toyota RunX. Damseaux won the last two stages on Friday and set about winning more on Saturday - but you can't do that with a broken engine.
The second S2000 Toyota RunX of Etienne Lourens was time-barred after four flat tyres, apparently caused by incorrectly fitted valves, but Toyota did get a podium finish from Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey in a Class A7 RunX.
Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden outlasted other Class N4 runners to claim an unexpected win in a Subaru Impreza WRX STi; his was also the first Production Car team home despite a rash of punctures on Friday - a common complaint through the rally.
Production Car champions Johnny Gemmell and co-driver Gerhard Snyman retired their Mitsubishi with a blown engine on stage two and a second Mitsubishi, driven by Fernando Rueda/Martin Botha, led the class and category until stage 8 when Rueda went off the road while in second place overall.
Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich finished fifth overall and second in Class A7 despite a double puncture on stage five and water-related electrical problems on day two. Wilken had to nurse his car home after cracking the gearbox casing late in the rally.
Chris de Wit and Patrick Yende got their Class N3 title defence off to a strong start, dominating the class with a clean run in their Toyota RunX.
Jon and Douglas Williams, who have graduated to the top two-wheel drive class after a couple of years in Production Cars, brought their Class A7 VW Polo home seventh overall despite being 15th on Friday evening.
Claudio Piazza-Musso and new co-driver Greg Gericke brought their RunX home eighth overall and second in Class N3, Piazza-Musso's best place yet.
Craig Trott and John Costa, the current Class A6 champions, finished ninth overall and won the class; second were Eugene Lourens and Derek Jacobs in a Toyota Conquest while Rodney Visagie and Arno La Grange's RunX was 10th overall after losing time with odometer problems.
The Class A5 battle was intense between Tazzes of 2005 champions Michael Houghton/Bryn Doherty and Etienne Malherbe/Hennie Botes. Houghton won by only one second.
Kosta Koumantarakis/Barry White (Corolla) won Class N2 ahead of Mike Nathan/Rikus Fourie (Corolla).
Only 21 of 47 starters finished the rally.
- The second round of the series will be in the Western Cape over March 24/25.