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Two WP rally titles for acciDent Guru

WP rally Team acciDent Guru finished of its season in style as its cars scored two Western Cape championships in spite of a tough, dramatic, punishing and crash-ridden season ending All Tar Rally at Killarney over the weekend.

Team leader Paul van Wyk driving with Tiaan Rabe, scooped class S3 as they narrowly missed the overall title in their black and red Team acciDent Guru VW Golf 1 GTi, while Ian Long & Brian Hoskins similar white car wrapped up the S2 title en route to third overall. Brenton Crow and Theo Croy also enjoyed an encouraging guest outing in the team’s third silver Golf, but it was not easy going for any of the Gurus — nor for that matter, any other of the crews. 

“We enjoyed a good run to tenth overall,” Paul van Wyk explained. “But Shaun Jones and Craig Gray ended up second overall, which was enough for Shaun to overtake me to steal  the overall championship. “Well done to Shaun, but I am still delighted with my WP S3 class title and second overall in the championship — that’s my best result in ten years of driving in rallying!

“We tried to attack from the start,” Paul pointed out. “But we had to stop to help Shaheen Amlay and Yusuf Ganief who had totalled their Toyota in the pit lane and waiting for an ambulance while Shaheen was lights out and still in the car rattled me a bit. “Stage 1 was eventually cancelled and the rally delayed — we had fair speed in the dark after the restart, but we were off the class pace. 

“Then we were held up by a slower oval track car that ignored all the blue flags on on Saturday morning and I was forced to make a kamikaze pass in a hairpin — we made contact but I managed to get past. “The rest of the morning was clean, though we had gear selection issues later on and then we had to deal with being knocked about by that vengeful slow oval car again in the last stage, but we made it against the odds to end up 10th overall and 6th in class against the odds. Most importantly I took the class title, so I’m quite delighted!”

‘Old men’ Ian Long & Brian Hoskins must have left their spectacles at home when they selected the wrong tyres for the event and struggled with grip throughout, picked up a misfire and lost four minutes with a stage 5 puncture, but that would not stop them from bringing it home to clinch the WP S1 class title en route third overall in the championship in Tarmac Terrorist Ian’s first year in rallying. “The fact that Brian and I are still talking to each other at all after this year is probably our biggest achievement,” Long smiled. The rally was a bit of a battle this weekend, but we won the war, so that’s brilliant!”

For Brenton Crow and Theo Croy, the All Tar Rally was an adventure of development as Brenton put more mileage on Piet Bakkes’ regular car since its rebuild earlier this year. Having no seeding, the duo started at the back of the field and struggled with slower traffic in every stage. “We also picked up a couple of punctures, which cost is loads of time each time, Brenton admitted. “But we kept our nose clean and improved our times as the day progressed and we are very satisfied with a solid finish in 15th overall and 8th in class — and the car is still in one piece!”

Team acciDent Guru is almost ready to regroup and look forward to the 2017 season as each of its class winners aim to move a position or two up in the overall title, but first it seems Paul may travel to Johannesburg to compete in the final round of the SA national rally championship…

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Team acciDent Guru

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For further information please contact paul@accidentguru.co.za

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