It was under these conditions that the trio of BP Volkswagen Polo S2000s tackled their home event. Stages that promised to be fast and full of action during the planning of the event became slippery and treacherous and the team was forced to just hold on and persevere till the end.
"This was our first opportunity to contest the new Volkswagen Polo S2000 under wet conditions," says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. "The events this year have thrown just about every kind of environment at us, but nothing even close to what we experienced this weekend.
"Finishing in the top five on an event that saw three stages cancelled due to the weather, and with every other stage offering extremely low grip and very little control at speed, shows that we have a good package in the new BP Volkswagen Polo S2000," says Rowe. "Our focus now is on taking the data we have collected and translating that into a performance advantage."
That fifth place finish is thanks to the efforts of Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson who pulled out all the stops over the two-day event.
"We had high hopes of a good performance in the Eastern Cape," says Kuun. "When the event turned out to be quite as demanding as this, with the rallying taking place under such severe conditions, we had to keep our wits about us. I think we've proved yet again that the new BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 is a good car, we just have to find the combination to unlock that potential.
"We produced some good stage times on the event, what has to happen now is that we have to get to the point where we can do those times consistently."
Kuun and Hodgson finished day one down in 13th place overall - and this left them with a daunting task on day two. With two stages cancelled for the Saturday they had only five stages to claw their way up the order - and the final stage, a short tarmac stage, was not going to be of any use in this endeavour.
With every completed stage they posted times within the top 10 - and for three of the stages within the top five - to achieve the best result for the BP Volkswagen team on the day.
For Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries the event didn't go according to plan. Good stage times, fourth fastest in stage four, six and 10 were just not enough to keep them in the fight and they had to accept an eighth place finish overall by the end of the event.
The Volkswagen Rally proved equally tough for the newest members of the BP Volkswagen rally team. Hans Weijs Jnr and Björn Degandt were excited at the prospect of competing in front of the team's home crowd, but were unprepared for the conditions they faced on the event.
"The stages looked fantastic on the preview," says Weijs. "This looked like our kind of event and we were really looking forward to it. As it is, this turned out to be our toughest event yet here in South Africa and probably the one we most want to forget.
"We had made our notes before the event, but with the change in the conditions we were issued with new instructions and we couldn't get this to match with our notes properly. On the bright side, we did learn a lot this weekend but we're going to anticipate the next event and rather put what happened this event behind us."
Weijs and Degandt rallied their BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 to a 12th place finish overall.
Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin used the Volkswagen Rally as an opportunity to further showcase their skills in the new S2000 Challenge category. A tough two days of competition saw them cross the finish line for ninth place overall.
"Conditions were really tough here this weekend," says Zulu. "It didn't matter what we tried with our BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S2000, there just didn't seem to be any grip available on the stages, everything was just mud. We settled into doing the very best we could but with keeping the finish line firmly in sight. We weren't going to take any chances."
This approach yielded a second place finish in their class, amassing further points in the S2000 Challenge category and helping them consolidate their leading position.
Megan Verlaque and Hilton Auffray were very happy with their performance on the VW Rally, despite being forced to finish the event under Super Rally conditions.
"This event saw us use our brand new BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S1600," says Verlaque. "It is just such a change. The new gearbox, the sequential shift, the feel of the car, everything about it is just so much better.
"We had a problem on Friday and had to re-enter the event as a Super Rally competitor on Saturday, but the potential in the new car is obvious and we cannot wait to tackle the next event and see just how well we can do!"
The BP Volkswagen rally team will next tackle the Rally of South Africa event which takes place in August.
