It was a disappointing event for the factory Castrol Toyota squad with both cars out of action by the end of stage two. Friday’s five gravel stages featured very slippery conditions following heavy overnight rain around Sabie. Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley clipped a bank 1 kilometere into the first stage on a ‘left-six’ corner, which damaged a tie rod end on their S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX. Continuing at reduced pace, the tie rod broke just before the end of the stage and they were out of the rally.
“Motorsport is a tough arena”, said a disappointed Cronje. “We were really looking forward to this one. It’s strange, but the Sasol Rally has never really been kind to the Castrol Toyota team”.
Running on Saturday under the non-points scoring Superally rules, Cronje gave the thousands of spectators lining the stages a spectacular display of the Castrol Toyota’s abilities. “I felt the car’s balance wasn’t great and by a process of elimination, we ended up changing the steering rack. After that, I set the fastest time on stages 12, 13 and 14, so I’m encouraged by our pace. I can only put this one behind us and look forward to the next one at the end of the May”.
Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh suffered a near identical fate in stage two when the Castrol Toyota RunX clipped a rock that also damaged a tie rod end. It broke three kilometres later and the car slewed to stop broadside across the stage.
Johnny takes up the story: “ We managed to get the car out of the way and fix the tie rod but we couldn’t get out of the place where we’d parked. I guess you could describe Saturday as a relaxed drive with no pressure. We conducted some very beneficial testing while giving the fans a show, which was great for Castrol and Toyota as they really appreciated us being out there”.
Although not officially recorded, the Castrol Toyota RunX team set the fastest stage times on every stage on Saturday: Cronje tied the tar stage win in Nelspruit, then won stage 9. Gemmell and Nicholas Ryan tied stage 10; Gemmell was quickest in stage 11, while Gemmell and Cronje tied stages 12, 13 and 14.
Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden stood on the podium after fighting their way to third place in their class S2000 Philips/Jonnesway Toyota RunX after a rally-long fight with the similar Total Evolution-backed Toyota RunX of Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Cobus Vrey.
After starting the rally on the wrong tyres, they had an overshoot and stall on stage three before a puncture cost the Philips Toyota pair a minute in stage 4. By stage 5, a misfire had set in, costing another 20 seconds and they ended day one in 5th place overall.
Saturday went much better and Ryan took three stage wins to jump into 4th after stage 12 and into 3rd after stage 13 to give Toyota three podiums in three events, two for the new privateers in class S2000 RunXs.
“Toyota was great”, said Ryan. “When they realized we were chasing hard for the podium they really came to the party with some tyres and an engine technician to help us”.
Damseaux had two punctures in stage five and ended Friday’s action in 4th place. The Toyota RunX pair jumped into 3rd after stage 11, before a misfire started midway through stage 12. The pair lost a minute before the next service and had to settle for 5th at the finish.
Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton ended 9th overall in their S2000 Toyota RunX after overcoming a host of niggling issues on Friday, including two flat left tyres in stage 2. With no service before stage 3, the pair tackled the 15km stage on three wheels. “It was a character-building day”, said Van Niekerk.
Chris de Wit/Dean Redelinghuys dominated class A7 taking 13 stage wins out of 15 to claim their second consecutive win of the season with their formidable Total Evolution Toyota RunX and edge further ahead in the class championship log.
After nearly rolling on day 1, Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin brought their Total Evolution Toyota Corolla to a maiden class A6 win ahead of Craig Trott/Tony Ball’s Total Evolution Toyota RunX and extend their class lead to nine points.
The Sasol Toyota Yaris celebrated its first anniversary as a rally car with a fine class A5 win, Dave Compton and Paul Leslie’s first in only the track racer’s third ever gravel event.
Rodney Visagie/Carolyn Swan (Total Evolution Toyota RunX) saw off the class N3 Ford challenge to take line honours ahead of the Sasol Toyota RunX of Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak and privateers Kosta Koumantarakis/Alan Bisset’s Toyota RunX. Young Zimbabweans Chase Attwell/Dave Milner brought their Jonnesway Toyota RunX home 4th to give Toyota a clean sweep in the class.
Riaan/Hester Erasmus gave Toyota their 5th class win on the Sasol Rally, finishing the tough event in their Toyota Corolla RSi.
Wammy Haddad, Toyota Motorsport manager, summed up the Sasol Rally: “It was a wonderful event for us – if you cancel Friday! The drivers had an over-enthusiastic start and they paid the price but we came back and enjoyed it. The drivers got some good seat time and the technicians had a chance to practice a bit”.
“They need the practice because they took too long to change Mark’s steering rack”, he quipped.
The next outing for the Castrol Toyota team is the Total International Rally from 29 – 31 May.
