The Castrol Toyota team came away from this weekend’s Imperial Toyota Cullinan Rally in good spirits as Leeroy Poulter and Elvene Coetzee put in a near-flawless performance to win the event with their Yaris S2000, while teammates Hergen Fekken and Carolyn Swan managed third overall.
The fifth round of the South African National Rally Championship event consisted of only six stages (each run twice) that took place on the dirt roads around Cullinan and Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng. Poulter and Coetzee took the lead on the second stage and were in command of the event till the finish – winning by a 20-second margin.
“We are very pleased with the win. This is our third win of the season, and now we just need to keep the momentum,” said Poulter, who goes into the next round leading the championship by 27 points.
Second overall were Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman in the New Africa Developments Ford Fiesta – their best ever result in an S2000 car together. Despite starting the second day in fourth position, the pair snatched the second podium spot from Fekken and Swan.
“It has been a fantastic day and a fantastic rally for us. As it progressed we focused harder and harder on just getting the best out of ourselves and the car and tried not to pay attention to what was going on around us in terms of stage times, and where we were lying overall. We just drove as hard as we could,” van Niekerk said.
The other Castrol Toyota Yaris held on to third. “Any podium finish is a good finish, especially in a rally as fast as this one. Toyota Yaris S2000 ran beautifully, and we’re really pleased with the result,” Fekken said.
“We had a good shakedown session before this rally,” said team principal Glyn Hall. “And we set the cars up specifically for the conditions we expected here in Cullinan. That, together with some other small changes, seems to have paid off.
The next round of the South African National Rally Championship, the Swartland Rally, happens around the Western Cape town of Malmesbury, on 19 and 20 September.
