Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley (class S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX) won a dramatic Total Swartland Rally in the Western Cape at the weekend and lead the Sasol SA Rally Championship by four points with one round remaining.
It was another close finish in what is turning out to be one of the most keenly contested championships in years. Damseaux and Paisley, twice champions together (in 2003 and 2004), finished the 10-stage 200-km event in a time of 1hr 40 min 58sec, 26 seconds ahead of former champions Jan Habig and Douglas Judd (class S2000 BP VW Polo).
Third were Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh (class S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX), a further 27 seconds in arrears. Fourth and scoring their best result of the season were son and father combination, Jon and Doug Williams (class S2000 Trident Press VW Polo).
Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich (Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza WRX) were an impressive fifth overall and winners of the Production Car category. They finished 1 min 37 sec ahead of defending champions Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden (Bosal/Jonnesway Subaru Impreza WRX), who were in turn were just 4 sec ahead of Fernando Rueda and Gerhard Snyman (Team Total Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) and 22 seconds in front of championship leaders Visser du Plessis and Dave Lewkowicz (Pirtek/Kreepy Krauly Subaru Impreza WRX).
Damseaux and Paisley now go to the final round, the Toyota Dealer Rally in Gauteng on October 26 and 27, tantalising close to their third championship together. The weekend’s win was Damseaux’s 74th (eight more than the previous record of 66 held by Sarel van der Merwe) and should he win the championship it will be for a record 11th time, a record he will share with Van der Merwe.
It was not all plain sailing for Damseaux, who is expected to retire at the end of the season. He led team-mate Gemmell by four seconds and reigning champions Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson (class S2000 BP VW Polo) by eight seconds after Friday’s five stages.
The first two stages, on dirt in the Mooreesburg area, were won by Kuun and Damseaux respectively, while Gemmell dominated the three tar stages at Killarney motor racing circuit near Cape Town by winning stages three and five. Honours on stage four were shared by Kuun, Etienne Lourens and Andre Vermeulen (class S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX) and Jean-Pierre Damseaux (son of Serge) and Cobus Vrey (class S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX).
Kuun was co-leader with Damseaux at the end of stage 4, but dropped to third at the end of the first day after a lurid spin in the pit complex on stage 5. Team-mates Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries and Habig/Judd were fourth and seventh respectively at this stage, Habig having suffered from an engine misfire after a water crossing.
Damseaux and Paisley won the first two of Saturday’s five stages, with Habig recovering from his problems to take stages three and four and improve from sixth place to second (just 23 seconds behind Damseaux) in the process. This was partly due to Damseaux losing time in stage 9 when his way was blocked by a herd of cattle and Gemmell picking up a 50-second penalty for lateness after having to replace shock absorbers and a drive shaft. Gemmell came back with a bang to win the final stage and prove to be the master of Killarney.
Stage 9, over a distance of 46 km, was to prove to be a pivotal one. Lourens, lying sixth after also experiencing shock absorber and drive shaft problems, rolled spectacularly over the infamous ‘jumps’ that characterise this stage. Both the VW Polos of Kuun and Fekken retired with engine damage, Kuun as a result of a particularly heavy landing over one of the yumps (which resulted in subsequent loss of oil) and Fekken as a result of scooping up too much grass and resultant overheating.
While Wilken and Godrich dominated the Production Category, winning all 10 stage, Du Plessis and Lewkowicz clinched the class N4 championship despite losing a lot of time on the tar stages after making a suspension adjustment that compromised the Subaru’s handling. They also lost time and had a narrow escape when they left the road at maximum speed (around 180 to 200 km/h) after overshooting a turn and crashing through a fence. They retained their lead in the Production Car Championship, but their advantage over second-placed current champions Ryan and Van Heerden has been reduced to 16 points.
New class A7 champions Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin (Castrol Toyota RunX) scored a commanding seventh successive win and finished 10th overall. Second were Theuns Joubert and Llewelyn Fourie (VW Polo), who finished ahead of Mike Nathan/Robin Houghton (Aluminium Window Industries Toyota Corolla), Chris de Witt and Dean Redelinghuys (Team Total Toyota RunX) and Barry Grobbelaar/Grant Martin (Sasol VW Golf).
Stevan Wilken and Gert Nienaber (Team Pannar VW Polo) won class A6 ahead of Andy Haigh-Smith/Eugene le Roux (Toyota Corolla) and Charl Strydom/Sakkie Bosman (VW Polo). Championship leaders Craig Trott and Carolyn Swan (Team Total Toyota RunX) were fourth and retain their championship lead, nine points ahead of Wilken.
With new class A5 champions Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin having swopped their BP VW Citi Golf for a brand new A7 Polo (they made an auspicious debut in the higher class before retiring with a broken gearbox), it was the Sasol Toyota Yaris of Claudio Piazza-Musso and Greg Gericke that took an impressive maiden class A5 win ahead of the more powerful fuel-injected Techwood Toyota Tazz of Tjaart Conradie and Elvene Coetzee. Third were Piet Bakkes and Tommy du Toit (Toyota Tazz).
Class N3 was won by Rodney Visagie/Arno la Grange (Team Total Toyota RunX) from team-mates Mohammed Moosa/Henry Dearlove and Michael Houghton/Hennie Botes. Kosta Koumantarakis and L Zietsman lost a certain class win when they clocked in nine minutes early at the start of a stage and incurred a nine minute penalty that dropped them from a comfortable first to fourth
The win in class N2 again went to already confirmed champions Etienne du Toit and Patrick Vermaak (McCarthy Toyota Corolla), their sixth win in a row in a class that is so poorly supported it has been decided to drop it next season.
The 8th and final round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the Toyota Dealer Rally in Gauteng on October 20 and 21.
