by Colin Windell

The score now stands at 10 starts and 10 wins for Serge Damseaux and 
Vito Bonafede, their latest coming on the NGK Spark Plug Rally in 
the Western Cape - this also their seventh for the year and one away 
from becoming the first ever crew to win every national round in a 
season.

However, despite the score line which shows they brought their 
Castrol Toyota Conquest to the finish at Killarney 22 seconds ahead 
of Hannes Grobler/Pierre Arries in the Bankfin Nissan Sentra, it was 
not as clear cut as that!

The rally started in Bellville with the first of four stages for leg 
one but sans the StanBrik Volkswagen Golf of Jannie Habig and 
Douglas Judd, the Golf engine having blown on the dyno earlier in 
the week.

Damseaux was first away through the shopping centre stage and 
managed to clip the kerb fairly early in the stage to start a slow 
puncture. Towards the end of the stage this affected the handling 
enough for him to bash a bank - no serious damage recorded but 
enough to allow Grobler into an early lead.

Damseaux then took five seconds back on the second stage at 
Wingfield where Grobler had a spin.

The final stage of the first leg brought crews to Killarney for a 
dust up on the access roads and the track - the large crowd 
equalling or bettering those that turn up for race meetings.

Grobler was flying and he took seven seconds from Damseaux to finish 
the day overall leader by four seconds with Damseaux in second place 
a minute and five seconds ahead of Dabner.

However, some interesting battles were beginning to develop with the 
Tjaart Van der Walt/Cindi Harding Class B Golf beginning to put 
pressure on the Enzo Kuun/Johan Sieling Hyundai Accent while 
themselves being hounded from behind by Etienne Lourens' Class C 
Toyota Conquest who was moving pretty swiftly despite battling with 
fuel pressure problems.

The Cape's fickle weather patterns saw gloriously sunny and warm 
conditions turn to mist, drizzle and mud for the morning restart, 
the day's stages heading up the West coast to Malmsbury and 
Morreesburg.

Damseaux started the day very positively, winning the first stage of 
the morning by 17 seconds to move back into the overall lead on the 
event.

Dabner's then crashed heavily into a gate post made from a piece of 
railway track, completely demolishing the front end of the car.

For Grobler the stages were a pleasure and he claimed back 12 
seconds from Damseaux with Enzo Kuun in the Hyundai now moving up 
into third place overall as Tjaart van der Walt and Cindi Harding 
were forced to retire with clutch problems on their Golf and Nuno da 
Cunha/Thilo von Westernhagen were forced out with a blown head 
gasket on the Nissan in the last stage before lunch.

Etienne Lourens and Robert Paisley continued to dominate Class C in 
fourth spot overall with Trevor Graham and Peter Chadwick fifth 
overall and holding off the Class B leaders Paolo Piazza-Musso and 
Nic Hadden in the Fiat Uno Turbo. Barry Grobbelaar and Chequered 
Flag scribe Francois Pretorius were keeping out of trouble and 
leading the Class D battle.

The battle between Damseaux and Grobler continued unabated to the 
lunch stop with each driver scoring another two stage wins to finish 
the morning with Damseaux and Bonafede leading the event by 17 
seconds.

On the run back to Killarney for the finish Damseaux won four of the 
six stages to complete the event 22 seconds ahead of Grobler - the 
Nissan driver never giving up the chase.

A mistake on the 'round-the-houses' in Malmsbury cost him 10 seconds 
but Grobler then returned with scintillating vengeance on the 
Klipkoppies hillclimb, taking 13 seconds off Damseaux - but just not 
enough to prevent the Toyota driver from notching up his tenth 
straight rally victory.

Very much on their own in third place, Enzo Kuun and Johan Sieling 
pedalled the Hyundai Accent along to give the team a place on the 
podium.

"We will be running a completely new six-speed close-ratio gearbox 
for the next event which, hopefully, will make the car more 
competitive and better able to maximise the power it is producing," 
said Enzo Kuun. "The car is still in its first season of development 
and there are a number of things we are considering."

With this victory Damseaux now equals the record set by Sarel van 
der Merwe of seven wins in a season although he did admit to being a 
bit relieved at the end.

RESULTS

South African Rally Championship, Round 7

1. Serge Damseaux/Vito Bonafede (Toyota Conquest), 02h02m36s; 2. 
Hannes Grobler/Pierre Arries (Nissan Sentra), 02h02m58s; 3. Enzo 
Kuun/Johan Sieling (Hyundai Accent), 02h13m14s; 4. Etienne 
Lourens/Robert Paisley (Toyota Conquest Class C), 02h16m26s; 5. 
Trevor Graham/Peter Chadwick (Toyota Conquest), 02h19m06s; 6. Paolo 
Piazza-Musso/Nic Hadden (Fiat Uno Turbo Class B), 02h20m26s; 7. 
Keith Coleman/Uwe Koch (Volkswagen Golf), 02h22m40s; 8. Barry 
Grobbelaar/Francois Pretorius (Volkswagen Golf Class D), 02h26m23s, 
9. Brian Martin/Barry White (Toyota Conquest), 02h26m37s; 10. 
Blassie Franken/Tony Bosman (Nissan Skyline), 02h26m45s.

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Colin Windell  
CyberRace Inc  (c) 1995. All rights reserved
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