Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley gave the factory Castrol Toyota team their third win of the season and rocketed back into the lead of the 2007 SA Rally Championship points log, finishing 26 seconds ahead of the chasing pack on the Total Swartland Rally, the penultimate round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship.
Damseaux claimed his career 74th win, extending further his unique record and is finely poised to challenge for his 11th driver’s title, while Robert is looking for his 3rd co-driver’s crown. Toyota now has 89 rally wins to their name. The Somerset West based driver has a four-point cushion over rivals Jan Habig/Douglas Judd in a BP Volkswagen Polo, while the other two S2000 Polo teams are title outsiders at best.
After four stages on Friday, Serge and Robert’s Castrol RunX RSi was tied with title rivals Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson (BP VW Polo). “I decided to apply a bit more pressure to see what would happen”, said the rally winner. “It seemed to work for us”.
The Castrol pair won three stages as they built up a comfortable 1 minute 23 second lead that nearly unraveled in the final 46km long stage.
Serge explains: “We were running flat out on a long straight piece of road. I thought I saw something ahead and it turned out to be a herd of cows. Normally the engine noise scares them away but they just stood there. I thought I was going to lose the rally. Eventually I had to nudge them to get them to move. We lost nearly a minute”.
“It’s great to be in the lead going into the last round. Toyota thoroughly deserves their 16th Manufacturer’s title. They have consistently supported rallying – not just with a factory team, but extending assistance to a whole generation of privateers as well. The Team Total squad has also played a big part”, Serge added.
Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh brought the second S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX RSi home 3rd overall after holding down second place for most of Saturday’s stages. Riding shotgun for Serge and comfortably keeping the opposition at bay, both left hand side shock absorbers failed. The experienced Castrol squad did all they could but the repair took 5 minutes longer than allowed and Johnny incurred a 50 second penalty.
“We dropped from 2nd to 5th”, Johnny recounted. “By the end of stage nine, we were back up to third but with only 6km left to run, we couldn’t make up the 33 seconds we needed. It’s a pity because we had an excellent Friday and we were aiming for a Castrol Toyota 1-2.”
Johnny and Peter have already won a rally for the Castrol Toyota team and claimed a pair of podium places in their first year in the premier S2000 class.
Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin brought their remarkable class A7 Castrol Toyota RunX RSi home to its 7th consecutive win this season – the Toyota RunX remains unbeaten since entering the class! The Castrol youngsters have won two championships in their two years in rallying.
Mark told his story: “We had an excellent day on Friday. Our tyre choice was a bit conservative and after winning the first stage by only 10 seconds, we thought we had a real race on our hands. In stage two, we paralyzed everyone and never looked back. We had a puncture 15km into the last 46km stage, but decided to drive on. It was nerve-wracking; we finished on the rim and lost two minutes. It was a bit of a gamble but we lost less time than if we had stopped to change the wheel”.
“It’s been a great year – easily my best since 2002 when I won the off road title as well as the SA and world karting championships”.
After stage seven, Toyota held a commanding 1-2-3-4 but the two Team Total Toyota RunXs of Etienne Lourens/Andre Vermeulen and Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Cobus Vrey respectively hit trouble in stage 8.
Damseaux Jr also had shock absorber problems, while Lourens needed a new gearbox. Both teams dropped down the order with Damseaux ending 9th overall while Lourens and Vermeulen rolled out of the event in the final gravel stage. The Total duo escaped from their heavily damaged RunX without injury.
Chris de Wit and Dean Redelinghuys brought their Team Total Toyota RunX RSi home 4th in class A7 after a difficult event, one place behind the AWI Toyota Corolla driven by Mike Nathan and Robin Houghton.
Craig Trott and Carolyn Swan need one point from the final round to win the class A6 championship. The veteran Team Total Toyota RunX RS pair was well on track until they had shock absorber problems that dropped them to 4th in class after losing 4 minutes in the final long gravel stage and tantalizingly close to another title. Salie du Toit/Gert van Rensburg (Team Total Toyota RunX) were forced to retire after stage five.
The Sasol Toyota Yaris claimed its maiden class A5 win on the Swartland Rally. Having shown immediate class winning pace since its debut in April, the fresh new car from Toyota has undergone a steady development programme, culminating in Claudio Piazza Musso/Greg Gericke’s timeous win.
Tjaart Conradie/Elvene Coetzee (Techwood Toyota Tazz) ended second in class. The Tazz has been fitted with fuel injection, giving the venerable entry level Tazz a new lease on life. Piet Bakkes/Tommy du Toit (Dent Doctor Tazz) completed a Toyota 1-2-3 in the junior modified class.
The title chase in class N3 is as intense as ever; Rodney Visagie/Arno Lagrange (Team Total Toyota RunX RSi) inherited the class win and title lead after Kosta Koumantarakis/Louis Zietsman Toyota RunX RSi) won on the road. A navigational error clocked the pair in early at the final control, which dropped the distraught driver out of the championship chase.
Mohammed Moosa/Henry Dearlove (Team Total Toyota RunX RSi) are a single point off the title race lead with nine still up for grabs on the final round. Michael Houghton/Hennie Botes’ third Total RunX was beset with overheating troubles and finished 3rd in class N3, well off the leaders’ pace.
Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak (McCarthy Toyota Corolla) took an unchallenged sixth class N2 win.
The Toyota Dealer Rally – Gauteng is the final round of the thrilling 2007 rally championship, to be held on 26/27 October around Bapsfontein.
Final results:
Pos, Class, Team, Vehicle, Time
1 S2000 Serge Damseaux/Robert Paisley Castrol Toyota RunX RSi 1:40:58
2 S2000 Jan Habig/Douglas Judd BP Volkswagen Polo 1:41:24
3 S2000 Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh Castrol Toyota RunX RSi 1:41:51
4 S2000 Jon/Douglas Williams Guma Volkswagen Polo 1:43:24
5 N4 Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich Sasol/Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza N12B 1:43:49
6 N4 Nicholas Ryan/Schalk Van Heerden Bosal/Jonnesway Subaru Impreza N12B 1:45:26
7 N4 Fernando Rueda/Gerhard Snyman Team Total Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 1:45:30
8 N4 Visser du Plessis/Dave Lewkowicz Pirtek/Kreepy Krauly Subaru Impreza N12 1:45:48
9 S2000 Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Cobus Vrey Team Total Toyota RunX RSi 1:45:50
10 A7 Mark Cronje/Chris Birkin Castrol Toyota RunX RSi 1:53:02
