Castrol Toyota launch the new Auris on Osram Rally!

The factory Castrol Toyota team will debut their long awaited class S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris on the Osram Rally, round 6 of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, heralding the start of a new era for the most successful marque in SA rally history.

The Toyota Auris has big wheel tracks to fill, following on from the successful RunX, Conquest and Corolla models that earned Toyota 16 Rally Manufacturer’s Championships, 12 Driver’s Championships and 92 rally victories between 1968 and the Volkswagen Rally last month.

The Toyota Auris will defend Toyota’s rally honour for the next five to seven years, so it is crucial that the new car is as close to perfect straight from the drawing board before its initial homologation.

The homologation system fixes the specification against which a car is evaluated for compliance to the rules before every rally. In a new car’s first year, up to five amendments may be made to the specification. “Each change costs €3000 so it must be as close to what you want the first time”, Wammy Haddad explained. “It’s only when you get the car into competition that issues crop up that no one could have foreseen”.

The FIA inspected 25 000 examples of the Auris on the UK production lines where road-going cars are built and further examined 2500 of the specific model chosen to rally, measuring the thickness of the body panels, glass and other components.

“The FIA recently banned cutting away the bulkhead which the European manufacturer’s used to move their engine further back”, Haddad related. “The ban meant we had to redesign and re-position our inlet manifold but we’ve successfully overcome that hurdle”.

The S2000 Auris has taken two thousand man-hours to create the first working prototype. The rally car’s bill of material runs to six thousand parts when stripped down to its last nut and bolt. Included in that is fifty-five metres of chrome moly tubing to create the all-important roll cage as well as eight hundred metres of wiring which forms the electrical harness.

This massive investment by Toyota will be entrusted to Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley, winners of the VW Rally last month. “Mark’s RunX had more damage than Johnny’s, so although we would like them to both have an Auris on the Osram, miracles take us just a bit longer!” said the Motorsport Manger.

Cronje is thrilled with his new mount even though he has yet to drive it. “I’m going to go out and thrash it so that we can find all the teething troubles now. If it’s going to break, it must happen this year because in 2009, we are going for the championship”.

“It has a bit more power than the RunX which is good news. I’m very positive about the Castrol Auris – I know the effort the team has put in. I think it’s going to be a rocket ship”.

“The Osram Rally is a tricky event. I think we’ll have to take oxygen masks because the stages are so high. The fast, flowing roads should suit me. I can’t wait”, said the Roodepoort businessman.

Johnny Gemmell is upbeat about his chances of claiming a maiden S2000 win this season. He and co-driver Peter Marsh have endured a challenging year in the S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX but remain bullish about their chances.

“S2000 cars have never done the mountain stages before. If there is a loss of power, it will affect us all equally. The fast bits are really quick, but there are some twisty, technical parts as well. We haven’t been there for a few years now, so it will be great to get our teeth into something new”.

Gemmell is quite sad to see the end of the Toyota RunX era. “I started my S2000 career in the RunX and we had two wins in her last year, so I will always remember the car for that. The Castrol Toyota Auris is the way forward though and I can’t wait for Cape Town next month to get my hands on one”.

“I would like nothing more than to close this chapter of the Castrol Toyota team’s history with one last win”.

Toyota remains well to the fore in class S2000 with top privateer teams behind the wheel of a brace of Toyota RunXs.

Leading the Toyota challenge on the championship log is Japie van Niekerk/Robin Houghton, 3rd overall in the standings after a full house of top ten finishes this year, including a season-opening visit to the podium. Expect Van Niekerk to maintain his run of form and add more points to Toyota’s healthy Manufacturer’s Championship lead.

Nicholas Ryan will have Andre Vermeulen in the hot seat of his re-built Philips/Jonnesway Toyota RunX for the remainder of the year as Schalk van Heerden is recovering from a badly broken leg after a horrific accident on the VW Rally last month. Ryan may take a while to recover his form which earned them a S2000 maiden podium on the Sasol Rally.

Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) will want to salvage something from their promising season, which started by setting stage winning times and leading rallies before mechanical and tyre problems dropped them from 4th to 6th in the title race.

Class A7 remains firmly in the hands of Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) with a healthy 31 class points against the 16 of their nearest rivals.

Craig Trott/Tony Ball (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) have a 12 point lead in the hotly contested A6 class, where another Toyota Auris is set to debut in the hands of Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin.

Again, the design of the smaller engined Toyota Auris has been a lengthy process as the car is earmarked for privateers and must do duty in both classes A6 and A7 in the immediate future.

Class A5 will see the Sasol Toyota Yaris of Dave Compton and stand in navigator Derek Jacobs butt heads with the Cleenwerck/De Fortier CitiGolf, where the Yaris has had the upper hand over the past few events.

Vusi Mabanga/Shaun Visser (Total Evolution Toyota Yaris) continue their progress towards the front of the class and will do well to be a podium finisher.

Class N3 is still a three-way championship fight between the identical Toyota RunXs of leader by three points Rodney Visagie/Carolyn Swan (Total Evolution RunX), Kosta Koumantarakis/Lou Zietsman and the Sasol-backed RunX of Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak. Any of these three could win the class and shuffle the leaderboard once more.

Rounding out the Toyota entry is the husband and wife team of Riaan/Hester Erasmus in their ABC Motors Toyota Corolla, winners twice this season.

The Osram Rally is based in Barkly East over the two days, starting from the quaint town’s golf course at 12h00 on Friday, 15 August. The teams face 3 stages, totalling 79 racing kilometers in the surrounding mountains before tackling a spectator friendly 2.5km stage in the Barkly East Showgrounds, starting at 14h45.

Saturday’s route will see the crews repeat the first three stages from Friday with an additional two testing stages making up the final leg of the route. A central service area will operate from the golf club throughout the rally where fans can watch the technicians at work from close quarters and collect various team posters and autographs.

The Osram Rally finishes at the golf club at approximately 14h30 and the public is invited to stay for the podium ceremony.