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Two hard, punishing days of rally competition took its toll on the field of national racers at the Rally of South Africa on 29 and 30 May. By the close of the action in Ermelo, there were just 23 finishers – with the BP Volkswagen S2000 Polo of Jan Habig and Ralph Pitchford in second place overall.
 
Habig and Pitchford crossed the finish line just 0.7 seconds behind the rally winners, Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock in a Toyota Auris. As close as this finish is, it does not begin to describe the drama of the event – or the hard-charging display of rallying skill displayed by Habig and Pitchford.
 
At the end of the first day, the BP VW pair 108.8 seconds (1 minute 48 seconds) off the leaders – or 79.1 seconds (1 minute 19 seconds) behind the eventual rally victors. After the first stage of day two the gap to the leaders was 46.8 seconds, by stage five it was 47.1, after six it was down to 38.0, stage seven it rose to 41 seconds, at the end of stage eight it was 25 seconds, then at the end of stage nine it was down to 14.3 seconds, while at the end of stage 10 it was up to 19.2 seconds, setting the scene for a nailbiting finish.
 
And nailbiting it certainly was, with no-one quite sure who had actually claimed the victory until the cars pulled up at the podium.
 
Looking at the list of fastest stage times, Habig and Pitchford claimed three stage wins. To get an indication of just how tough this event was on the competitors, the bulk, 10 of the stage wins, appear amongst the competitors on the DNF (did not finish) list. One of these belongs to the defending champions, the BP Volkswagen S2000 Polo entry of Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries.
 
The pair damaged a castor suspension arm in stage three of the event and, despite the best efforts at nursing the car back to the service park, the damage had been done. The knock-on effect of this damage caused enough other mechanical problems to bring them to a halt, ending their Rally of South Africa hopes.
 
In that same stage misfortune befell the 2010 championship leaders, Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson. They had been on form at this event, but were robbed of posting any result by engine problems.
 
Kuun commented that it was an especially bitter pill as the BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 engines had “proved themselves bulletproof” through season after season. Engine failures are an extreme rarity for the team – this was in fact the first in six years.
 
With two BP Volkswagen S2000 Polos out of the running, it fell to Habig and Pitchford to fly the blue and green BP Ultimate colours to the finishing line. This was a tough task – made all the more difficult when, at the closing stage of day one Habig got things a bit wrong and slid into a bank.
 
His service crew went into overdrive replacing the necessary parts, including front and rear suspensions, springs and a number of other damaged components on his BP Volkswagen S2000 Polo – all in the 45 minute service time to prepare it for day two.
 
This successfully completed, Habig and Pitchford mounted perhaps the most spectacular comeback of the season to produce a rally finish that will go down in South African rally history annals as amongst the closest, if not the closest, rally split between the top two competitors ever.
 
In the A7 class the new driver and navigator pairing of Gugu Zulu and Cindi Harding were hard at work in their class A7 BP Volkswagen Polo. This was the first rally event for Harding this season and, with Zulu behind the wheel of a new rally car and in a new class for 2010, there were a number of challenges the pair had to overcome.
 
On the event itself the added burden of a broken gearbox mount and then later a power-robbing hole in the exhaust system ensured their work was certainly cut out for them. They responded in time-honoured BP VW rallying tradition – by winning their class despite the obstacles in their path.
 
While their A7 BP Volkswagen Polo might not have sounded its best by the end of the event, it was in the place that counts most – at the finish line and in first place in class and 12^th overall to boot.
 
For André Cleenwerck and Kesevan Naidoo it appears there has been a change of fortune. The pair have struggled this season, finishing only two of the three events prior to the Rally of South Africa. At this event a puncture on the first day of rallying made it look like it would be business as usual.
 
The duo soldiered on through day two – which saw their service crew replacing the lower control arms on their A5 BP Volkswagen rally car – to claim the A5 victory at the end of the event. This has certainly broken their rally completion drought and doing it with a win has made all the difference.
 
The BP Volkswagen team now have a break from competition during the soccer world cup and will be back in action at their home event, the Volkswagen Rally on Friday and Saturday, 23 and 24 July.