A broken left-front driveshaft has brought the Ermelo Rally to a premature end for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa’s Mark Jones and navigator Kes Naidoo, just as the pair appeared poised for a strong finish in Round 5 of the 2026 South African National Rally Championship.
Competing in a Toyota GR Yaris, the motoring journalist and his navigator were forced out on Stage 11 of the 16-stage gravel rally, held around Ermelo, Mpumalanga, on August 21 and 22.
The retirement was particularly frustrating after a trouble-free opening day. Jones and Naidoo completed Friday’s seven stages without damage, steadily improving their pace to finish the day 11th overall and fourth in the NRC2 class.
“We went in with a positive mindset – the car was good, and we’d put the horror of the GR Legends Rally behind us,” Jones said. “We kept improving stage by stage through Friday. We kept it clean, no damage to the car – it ran like a charm.”
Saturday initially followed the same script, with two more clean stages. Then, on Stage 11, disaster struck.
Pushing hard through a fast left-hander known to the crew as “the fast eight”, the GR Yaris hit a heavily chewed-up section of road and suddenly produced a loud clunk from the left-front corner.
The car’s warning systems immediately cut engine power – a repeat of the protective shutdown that had ended the team’s previous rally. A restart appeared to restore normal operation, but the problem quickly became obvious.
“We heard a bit of a clunk, straightened up, and the warning systems came on and cut the power,” Jones explained. “We killed the power, restarted, and everything seemed fine. But then we immediately realised the car was pulling hard right – we’d broken the left-front shaft.”
With the GR Yaris’s all-wheel-drive system unable to cope with the damaged shaft, power was redirected to the rear. But the rear differential soon overheated under the additional load and cut power again.
The crew then attempted to continue using the remaining right-front wheel, but the vehicle’s electronics would not allow a single wheel to carry the car’s full 200kW output. The GR Yaris eventually coasted to a halt about a kilometre from the stage finish.
“You go from slower, slower, slowest, and eventually it’s like having it in neutral,” Jones said. “We couldn’t limp it home. A shaft snaps, it snaps – there’s nothing you can do about it on stage.”
The damaged car was recovered to service, where mechanics replaced the driveshaft and had the GR Yaris running perfectly again in about 10 minutes.
For Jones, the failure was frustrating but also valuable in the team’s ongoing development programme.
“It’s disappointing, obviously, and we take no points, but we’re not here for points – this is about vital development,” he said. “It’s proved to us that the standard shafts are good, but under the extremes of hardcore rallying they’re maybe just not up to it.”
The team plans to strengthen the driveshafts ahead of the next event, as the GR Yaris development programme continues.
The non-finish leaves Jones and Naidoo stranded on their previous 61 championship points, having entered the weekend third in NRC2. They had been fifth in the class after Stage 10, 4 minutes 27 seconds behind leader Davids, before the driveshaft failure ended their challenge.
Meanwhile, van Wyk and Swartz claimed overall victory, while Lynton Swatton and Tommy Coetzee won the NRC2 class despite a 2-minute 30-second penalty.
Jones is already looking ahead to the next challenge – the Algoa Rally, where Friday and Saturday will each count as separate championship rounds.
“The next one’s Algoa – it’s two rounds over two days,” he said. “We’ll be there, and we’ll give it our all.”
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