Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley won the Volkswagen Rally 2003 in Port Elizabeth on Saturday in their Team Castrol Toyota RunX RSi, taking the lead after stage 4 and never coming under serious threat from their pursuers. The winning margin over the second-placed Fernando Rueda and Pierre Arries in their Motion Vehicle Sasol DualFuel Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 was ultimately 1 minute and 39 seconds. –
– Damseaux and Paisley, the current championship points log leaders, held a 30 second gap over the sole remaining Sasol DualFuel Volkswagen Golf of Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson throughout the second day of the event, before Kuun and Hodgson were forced to retire their car just 2km from the end of the penultimate stage at the Aldo Scribante race track when their clutch failed. –
– The Volkswagen Rally, round 5 of the Sasol DualFuel SA National Rally Championship, was not a happy hunting ground for hosts Volkswagen, as the Sasol DualFuel Golf of the current SA champions, Jannie Habig and Douglas Judd was forced out of the event with engine problems in stage three while holding down a two second lead. –
– Rueda and Arries won the Production Car category and class N4 with their best finish of the season. The Lancer crew ran without a front limited slip differential throughout day two, which saw the genial Spaniard slip further off the front running pace as a result, but quick enough to stay in a podium position. –
– Scoring their fourth consecutive podium placing out of five rallies this year was Etienne Lourens and Andre Vermeulen, 3rd overall in their class A7 Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi. Lourens had brake problems on day one of the event, but slipped from an overnight second overall to sixth on the first stage of day 2 after overshooting a corner and losing 20 seconds. –
– The hard charging Corolla reeled in Hergen Fekken and Dave Lewkowicz in the factory-entered Sasol DualFuel Volkswagen Polo Playa and by the end of stage 10 the two top class A7 contenders were dead-heated on overall elapsed time. Lourens pulled out 13 seconds on his class rival in stage 11, the final gravel stage of the event Fekken and Lewkowicz scored their second finish of the year with 4th place overall, 30 seconds behind Lourens. The second Sasol Polo Playa entry of Tjaart van der Walt and Mike Burrows retired in stage 3 after their wheel-studs sheared off. –
– Schalk Burger and Vito Bonafede took their Bridgestone Sasol Dual Fuel Subaru Impreza WRX Sti to 5th place. Burger was suffering from a bad bout of flu, which kept him off the pace. “The car is fine, but I’m exhausted after 10 km of a stage”, said a disappointed Burger. –
– The other leading class N4 Subaru of Johnny Gemmell and Greg Godrich (L&J Plant Services) lost 4 minutes on day 1 with a puncture, dropping to an overnight 19th overall. After stage 11, Gemmell was up to seventh position, but was forced to retire in stage 12 with gearbox failure. –
– 6th overall was the current class N4 champion Leon Botha and stand-in navigator Gerry Gericke in their Pretoria Subaru Impreza WRX Sti. Botha had an anxious moment in stage 3 after suffering from brake failure, which saw the Impreza head off the road backwards. A loose fuse box cover jammed against the gearlever on day two, again causing a time loss. –
– Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey ended the Volkswagen Rally in 7th place overall in their class A7 Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi, after losing over two minutes on day one with two broken driveshafts. Damseaux raced back up the leaderboard on day two’s stages to score another healthy points haul. –
– Callie van der Merwe and Gideon Trollip drove a steady race in their Mobil Subaru Impreza GT to 8th position in only their second event in their newly acquired car, while Jacques Botha (son of Leon) and Henry Dearlove brought their Silverton Spar Subaru Impreza Sportwagon WRX home in 9th place. A trouble free run for the younger Botha saw them score their second consecutive top 10 finish, just one week after winning the Tzaneen regional rally outright. –
– Rounding out the top 10 was the Topcar Bosch BMW 320i of Cliff Blackman and Johan Klaasen. The BMW, the only rally version of the German marque in the world, has been unreliable this year, it’s first in competition in this guise, but steady development has found a new level of reliability. –
– Class A6 was won by Craig Trott and Gerhard Snyman in their Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi, ending 12th overall ahead of Andy Haigh Smith and Gerald Brace in their similar Team React Corolla RSi. –
– Charl Wilken and Robin Houghton were the first two-wheel drive Production Car home and won class N3 in their Team Castrol Toyota RunX RSi. Two punctures in the last two gravel stages dropped the class points leaders down the order, but they remain on track to win their class championship this year, after their only rivals Wiley Harrington/Willie van Straaten (Friendly Grocer Renault Clio) retired early on day 1. –
– Rodney Visagie and Carolyn Swan (Team Total Toyota Tazz) resumed their classing winning ways by triumphing in class A5, ahead of a flu-ridden Gugu Zulu and Dave McGregor in their Sasol DualFuel Volkswagen Chico. Zulu suffered from various problems along the way including suspension, fuel surge and running on three cylinders.Fellow Sasol Chico runners, Nkosinathi Nzimande / FaniFani Meyiwa were 3rd in the closely-contested ‘ Junior’ class. –
– Chris de Wit and Janine Labuschagne (CTH Transport Toyota Corolla RSi) won class N2 ahead of the current overall Production Car champions Dean Sanders/Rod Hering (Team Total Toyota Corolla RSi). –
– Bryan and Keith Heine scored their 7th consecutive class N1 win in their Penny Pinchers/Sasol Volkswagen Chico ahead of Team Total Sowetan duo of Vusi Mabanga/Patrick Yende (Toyota Tazz). –
– 37 finishers from 56 starters made it to the finish of the Algoa Motorsport Club organised event. –
– The Volkswagen Rally will be screened on Topcar on Supersport on the MNET channel on Saturday, 26 July with various repeats thereafter. Check the exact screening times in the local press. –
– The Volkswagen Rally will also be featured on “Sasol Rally Scene” on SABC 3 on Saturday, 2 August, directly after the German Grand Prix qualifying. –
– For more information and results of the Volkswagen Rally, or any aspect of South African rallying, log on to www.sasolrallyscene.co.za or call 08-22-33-4321. –
– Round 6 of the Sasol-sponsored championship is the MotorPics Mountain Trial, a one-day dash around Aliwal North / Barkly East, on Saturday 16 August.