Adding to the team’s brilliant victories in classes S2000 and A7 in trying conditions, Toyota clinched an unprecedented 15th Manufacturer’s Championship, entrenching their leading position in South African rallying.
The penultimate round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship started badly for the S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX RSi-mounted former champions, picking up a puncture in stage 1 after a conservative tyre choice.
“After that, we decided to give it a bash in stage 2 and really attacked”, Serge related. The tactic worked, for the ten times SA Rally Champion snatched the lead and was never headed again.
Saturday dawned grey and very wet, with Serge adding to his overnight 21-second lead. Disaster struck Serge in the long 46km stage 8 when a tyre punctured, costing the rally leaders 18 seconds which cut their lead to 11.
Once fixed, Serge and Robert picked up the pace again and rebuilt their lead by ten seconds, thereafter controlling the pace from the front, and concentrated on keeping the car on the road in the soaking wet stages.
“I really wanted that 70th win – it’s a nice round number”, said an ecstatic Serge at the Killarney finish. “I’m especially happy for the team who have worked so hard all year for very little reward – they deserve a good result”, Serge smiled.
Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich rocketed their Castrol Toyota RunX RSi into the class A7 championship lead, taking charge in stage two and cruising to the end of the 11-stage event.
“We had the wrong tyres in stage 1”, said Charl, who lost 10 seconds to their rivals as a result. “After the class self-destructed, I could concentrate on driving for the championship. It wasn’t that easy though, because we picked up a misfire with all the water lying around, and had no intercom in stage 8. Luckily we had lots of time”.
With a five-point cushion on the class title log, Charl and Greg are exuding confidence ahead of the Tzaneen Rally in October.
Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin moved into strong contention for the class A6 championship in their debut year after bringing their Castrol Toyota RunX RS home second in class. The young off road star lost two minutes in stage two with a broken driveshaft and went to the Killarney stages with that deficit intact.
The former karting champion slashed his shortfall to thirty seconds but the team was penalized by nine minutes for a navigational error.
“I’m very disappointed about the penalty – that knocked us out of the rally – but it’s part of our learning curve. It was our first ever wet rally and I’m very happy with the times we set. We put Eugene (Lourens) under a lot of pressure. After he crashed out and the others got stuck or broke, we settled for the points”, Mark said.
With one round remaining, Mark and Chris are a single point off the A6 lead, and the championship is firmly within their sights.
Other top performers in the Toyota stable included Andy Haigh Smith/Carl Peskin, the oldest driver in the field, taking his maiden class win in his Team REACT Toyota Corolla.
Michael Houghton/Bryn Doherty successfully defended their class A5 title, taking the event class win in their Team Total Toyota Tazz. The victory put the title in the Pretoria youngsters’ pockets for the second consecutive year.
Class N3 results are provisional at the time of writing, with either Kobus Roos/Niel Fourie (Sasol Toyota RunX RSi) or Chris de Wit/Patrick Yende (Team Total Toyota RunX RSi) taking the event class win.
Either way, Chris de Wit and Patrick Yende have wrapped up their second N3 title with one round spare, giving the pairing their second consecutive N3 crown and third title in a row (N2 – 2004).
Two Toyota teams are tied on points for the class N2 crown: Mike Nathan/Rikus Smit, the current champions in their AWI Toyota Corolla have caught up to the early season runaway leaders, Kosta Koumantarakis/Barry White (Toyota Corolla).
Toyota Motorsport Manager, Wammy Haddad said: “It’s been a long, hard year for the Castrol Toyota team. Everyone has put in a superhuman effort, so this win is for them as much as it is for Serge and Robert. It’s good to be back. Winning our 15th Manufacturer’s Championship is also very satisfying”.
The final round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the PMC Tzaneen Rally on 20 and 21 October.
