The Osram Rally, round six of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, returns to the awesome mountain roads in the Barkly East area of the Eastern Cape on August 15 and 16. For Team TOTAL and all the other competitors, it poses perhaps the toughest challenge of the eight-round championship.
Team TOTAL’s representatives in the premier class S2000, Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey (Toyota RunX), are potential overall winners and will be hoping to overcome the disappointment of dropping from fourth to sixth in the championship after the Toyota’s gearbox broke at the start of the first stage of the recent Volkswagen Rally in the Eastern Cape in July.
Chris de Wit and Dean Redelinghuys (Team TOTAL Toyota RunX) lead class A7 with three wins in the last four events.
The ever consistent defending champion Craig Trott and driver-turned co-driver Tony Ball (Team TOTAL Toyota RunX) lead class A6 and are well ahead of their nearest rivals. Three class wins, a second and a third have given the experienced pair a full house of points-scoring finishes so far this season.
TOTAL team-mates Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin will debut a new Toyota Auris in class N3 and will be looking to regain the second place in the championship they lost in the Volkswagen Rally when their well-worn Toyota Corolla’s engine failed while they were leading.
Vusi Mabanga and Shawn Visser have shown great promise since debuting the new Toyota Yaris in Team TOTAL colours in the TOTAL International Rally in May. They finished a worthy fourth in only their second outing in the baby Toyota in the Volkswagen Rally.
Fernando Rueda and Dave Lewkowicz (Team TOTAL Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) are fourth in the production car championship and still within striking distance of the leaders after a third in the Volkswagen Rally. It might well have been their first win of the season had it not been for a puncture and a lengthy wheel change.
Team TOTAL sisters Lola and Megan Verlaque are having a good run since selling their Subaru Impreza and switching temporarily to a rented Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, finishing third in class N4 and 10th overall on the TOTAL International Rally, their best result of the season so far, and fourth in class on the Volkswagen Rally.
Reigning champion Rodney Visagie and former champion Carolyn Swan (Team TOTAL Toyota RunX) moved into the lead of the closely-contested class N3 after finishing second on the Volkswagen Rally and can expect stiff competition right to the end of the season.
The Osram Rally will start from the Barkly East Golf Club at 12h00 on Friday, August 15. With a central service point at the golf course, it will provide four stages of competition on Friday (including three in the mountains) and another five on Saturday, with the finish at the golf club at around 14h30.
