All three Castrol Toyota RunXs made it through the 17 stage event with team leader Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley equaling their best result of the year with a fighting second overall.
Although the 2006 championship is out of the team’s reach, Serge was buoyed by the performance of his new Super 2000 Castrol RunX RSi. “The new RunX is a big improvement. I’m amazed at how much difference taking care of little details can make to the whole package” was Serge’s analysis of his new car.
“We had a good start but lost quite a bit of time in stage 6 with the sun in my eyes”, said Serge at the Port Elizabeth finish. “Above all else, we had to finish – the car is back in one piece so we can move forward with more development before the Osram Rally.”
“This result is a big morale booster for the whole Castrol Toyota team”.
After ending day one 29 seconds behind Jan Habig’s BP Volkswagen, Serge rocketed through the first two stages on Saturday morning, winning both to claw back to within 13 seconds of the leader. After one final attempt after the lunch break, Serge set about conserving his podium place.
Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich had their class A7 Castrol Toyota RunX RSi set up to perfection for the first time this year and made good use of their car. The young Pretoria marketer was the class of the A7 field on Friday, in spite of a huge off road moment in stage 6. They ended the first leg of the event some 19 seconds to the good over their rivals.
Day two saw Charl and JP Damseaux (Toyota RunX) run head to head. Charl added a further 6 seconds to his lead before his rival opened the taps in stage 13 to take the lead. The Castrol crew hung on to the Total RunX but a puncture in the penultimate stage cost Charl and Greg 20 seconds.
“I’m very happy with the car – it’s absolutely superb. We had a good fight with JP and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season””, he added.
Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin gave the Castrol Toyota RunX RS its second consecutive class A6 win, dominating their rivals from start to finish. This was the off road star’s first visit to the Eastern Cape.
“We had a good rally. The stages are unbelievable. The only problem we had was a puncture in stage 14, but it didn’t really cost us any time. We have a few developments in the pipeline, as the A6 Castrol RunX still has a lot more to come from it”, he added ominously.
After a bruising rally, Etienne Lourens and Andre Vermeulen retain their second place on the overall championship standings in their class S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX RSi after overcoming clutch problems to end 5th overall.
Total is Toyota’s official corporate motorsport sponsor and field a team of nine Toyota cars.
JP Damseaux and Cobus Vrey took their Team Total Toyota RunX RSi to its 4th class win of the year and third win in a row. Toyota continue to dominate this class in spite of the numerically greater presence from Volkswagen.
The veteran triple class championship pairing, Craig Trott and John Costa were second in class A6 in their very effective Team Total Toyota Corolla. Eugene Lourens and Derek Jacobs rolled their Team Total Toyota Conquest in stage 12 after the flying finish. They landed on their wheels and continued, ending 17th overall and third in class!
Chris de Wit and Patrick Yende led home a tight class N3 fight in their Team Total Toyota RunX RSi, leading home teammates Rodney Visagie and Arno Lagrange’s similar Team Total RunX RSi.
Visagie rolled his car onto its roof in the penultimate stage after grappling with power steering failure. Fortunately, willing spectators put the car back on its wheels and they ended 2nd in class N3.
Mohammed Moosa and Henry Dearlove, driving a third class N3 Team Total Toyota RunX RSi, were well on the pace and heading for a top result but were forced to retire in stage 16 with a broken cwp.
Michael Houghton and Bryn Doherty put their A5 Team Total Toyota Tazz into a pile of logs in stage 13 and spun later in the same stage, losing nearly a minute in that stage alone to end second in class.
Vusi Mabanga and Bongi Nkonyane overcame pre-start electrical bothers to bring their Team Total Toyota Tazz home third in class.
The twin Sasol Toyota RunX RSis, competing head to head with the Total squad, were in the thick of the action but both Claudio Piazza Musso/Greg Gericke and Kobus Roos/Niel Fourie were forced to retire.
Mike Nathan and Irma du Plooy took their AWI Toyota Corolla to the class N2 win, giving Toyota four class wins and entrenching their position at the head of the 2006 Manufacturer’s Championship.
The next round of the championship is the Osram Rally in the Free State on 11 and 12 August.
