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Successful debut for Hutchison and Coetzee in rallying’s premier class PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 09 March 2010 19:50
Successful debut for Hutchison and Coetzee in rallying’s premier class
 
Evan Hutchison and Elvene Coetzee enjoyed a successful debut in the top echelon of the Sasol SA Rally Championship when they brought their class S2000 Motorite Racing Volkswagen Polo home in a creditable 11th place overall in the season-opening Total Tour Natal Rally on Sunday.
 
It was a baptism of fire for the reigning class A7 champions, who were one of a record 17 entries in national championship rallying’s premier class, which included reigning champions Herger Fekken and Pierre Arries in a factory VW Polo and former champions Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson and Jan Habig in the other works Polos.
 
“We only got the car from VW a few days before the rally and were not quite sure what to expect,” said Hutchison.  “We made a cautious start, getting to know the new car and getting to grips with its vastly superior all-round performance compared to the class A7 car we drove last year.  But then the competitive instinct kicked in and the faster I went the more hectic it got.  We were told it’s easier to drive an S2000 car than an A7 one – and it’s true – but you are travelling that much faster that it’s not easier at all!
 
“It was a wild experience!  You think you’re doing well and just as you’re congratulating yourself you’re suddenly grabbing handfuls of steering wheel and fighting for your life.  The car is fast, really fast, and the grip and the braking is exceptional.  I battled to hit the apexes of the corners throughout the rally and often had one or two wheels off the road - it was always a battle to be smooth and stay on the road.
 
“We had a few teething problems, including losing reverse gear on day one, which lost us a few minutes. But overall the Motorite Polo performed very well and Elvene and I learnt a great deal.  We backed off in the last couple of stages as we just wanted to bring the car home in one piece.  We are very happy we achieved this at our first attempt and are both looking forward to the rest of the season and improving our performance as we learn the ropes.”
 
After the event, while the crews were waiting for the official results announcement, someone asked Hutchison – who wears a heart rate monitor – what his maximum and minimum heart rate was during the event.  “144 and 96,” he replied.  Habig, six times a national rally champion and the veteran of the factory VW team, quickly responded, “When it gets to 200, you’ll know you’re trying hard.”
 
Also making their rally debut together on the Tour Natal were former Formula Volkswagen circuit racing champion Gavin Cronje and co-driver Van Aardt Schoeman in a class A7 Motorite VW Polo.  It was Cronje’s first taste of gravel stage rallying and it didn’t last long.  Two stages into the event on Saturday the Polo developed an alternator problem and the engine died at the end of the second stage.  They had also lost the power steering in stage one and it was discovered that there was a problem with the steering rack which the team was unable to fix, resulting in a premature end to the event after just 26 km of racing.
 
“It was a short debut,” admitted Cronje, who is the reigning champion in the Formula Le Mans international sports car prototype series, “but it was enough to get my adrenalin going.  Special stage rallying is very different to anything else I have ever done and I’ve got a lot of learning to do.  I’m very grateful to Volkswagen and Motorite for this opportunity and I know I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the experience.”
 
Reigning champions Fekken and Arries won the 12-stage 168-km event in a time of 1hr 46m 43,8s, finishing 24,9 seconds ahead of team-mates Kuun and Hodgson and 1m 10,7s ahead of the factory Toyota Auris of Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley.  Hutchison and Coetzee finished 11m 13,9s behind the winners. 
 
Hutchison’s next challenge is the opening round of the Absa Off Road Car Championship in the Western Cape on March 19 and 20, where he and co-driver Achim Bergmann will be defending champions in their Motorite BAT Spec 3. The next round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the Toyota Dealer Rally in the Western Cape on March 26 and 27. 
 
Motorite Racing is the motor sport division of Motorite Insurance Administrators, the largest independent mechanical breakdown insurance and full maintenance plan service provider and administrator in South Africa. 
 
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