There were huge celebrations for the BP Volkswagen rally team who clinched their fifth consecutive national rally title on Saturday. Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries claimed the title on Saturday 24 October at the final rally of the season. This is the duo’s second consecutive national rally title in their BP Ultimate-powered Volkswagen Polo.
“It was an awesome event!” says Fekken. “We pushed hard on Friday to get a lead on the field and put them under pressure. It worked to our advantage, even though I thought that the 19 second lead would not be enough.
“Really though, this victory belongs to our crew more than to us. The car just lasted and lasted, we finished every single event. We set out to win the championship again this year and with the hard work down in the workshops and during service, we achieved what we wanted.”
To make the victory especially sweet, the event was also the setting for a one-two-three result for the team – their second this year. Enzo Kuun and his navigator, Guy Hodgson were the first of the BP Ultimate-powered S2000 Volkswagen Polos across the line, followed by the new champions Fekken and Arries with Jan Habig and Douglas Judd rounding out the podium.
The team have won every single national rally championship since the inception of the S2000 class in 2005 – giving them five victories on the trot. It hasn’t been an easy ride and it looked as though things would go right down to the wire at the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng which took place on Friday and Saturday (23 and 24 October).
With the Toyota entry of Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh level on points with Fekken and Arries going into the final round, it looked as though the winner of this final event would also emerge victorious in the championship. Fingernails had been chewed to the quick in anticipation of the final outcome.
The unpredictable nature of rallying turned the tables on the second day of the event when Fekken and Arries’ rival for honours, the Auris entry of Gemmell and Marsh, fell out of the event on stage six.
The Toyota’s problems caused an upset and, with the fight between the championship leaders over, Fekken and Arries were able to relax. This didn’t mean a slowing of pace on the part of the BP Volkswagen team though.
Kuun and Hodgson did have their moments on the rally, their braking system had air in it and they were also fairly cautious on the first day, not willing to court disaster with flat tyres that seemed to plague much of the field.
“I’m happy with our performance this season,” says Kuun. “A victory at the final event was a good reward. We had a bit of a scare when our clutch failed four stages from the end of this event and then a flat tyre on the second-last stage. I really thought we could kiss a win goodbye.”
Between Kuun, Fekken and Habig, they posted nine of the fastest times for the event, claiming each of these as stage wins from the 12 stage total for the BP Volkswagen rally team.
While Fekken and Arries led the event on day one, on the second day it was Kuun and Hodgson who moved up to first place. This was also the finishing order for the event – which saw the team post their second one-two-three rally result this season. Their first such victory this year was at their home event, the Volkswagen Rally.
For Habig and Judd the event started on a conservative note. With conditions somewhat unpredictable thanks to evening rains that made for muddy early stages and dusty stages later on, they opted to start slowly. This did catch up with them and they worked hard to pick up the pace on Saturday.
“We had a good weekend,” says Habig. “We didn’t keep up with the guys ahead on the first day, I had a look at the conditions and decided on a more cautious approach. It just didn’t seem healthy out there.
“Trouble is, once you are out of the game, you have to work extra hard to catch up. We basically kept our head down and just concentrated on working hard to the finish, finally grabbing a stage win on 11.”
In the A5 class, André Cleenwerck and Des de Fortier were in a commanding position with a three minute lead in their BP Ultimate-powered Volkswagen Citi Golf. The pair were on form for the final event, keeping it tidy at the sharp end of their field.
The duo were flying on the event, despite a few temperature problems but had serious issues on the final stage. Cleenwerck was forced to reverse his rally car over the final yump on the event as a faulty sensor played havoc with their engine.
This forced them into second place at the finish but they still claimed second overall in class A5 for the season. For the entry of Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin, their third place by the end of day two was enough to ensure they claimed the A5 title for 2009.
This result means the team have claimed a one-two in this class with Zulu and Peskin in first and Cleenwerck and De Fortier in second place overall.
With another successful national rally season under their belt, the BP Volkswagen team have a short break before the work starts again in earnest in preparation for the 2010 season. With each successive season the team have become increasingly difficult to match or beat – and this is true even for the BP Ultimate-powered team.
Expectations for the team are high and even more effort will be demanded to ensure they keep themselves at the top of the standings.
Visuals courtesy of Motorpics.
