Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley powered their S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX RSi to a breathtaking win on round five of the Sasol SA Rally Championship to extend their lead in the title chase to 10 points with three rounds remaining. This victory takes Serge’s career tally to 73 and was his 11th win on the Eastern Cape event.
The Castrol Toyota pair shot out of the starting blocks, taking the fastest time in the first two stages, later adding two more stage wins to end Friday’s action in a dead heat with close championship rival, Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson in their BP Volkswagen Polo.
Saturday dawned grey and cold but the ten times SA driver’s champion was in top form, scorching to a five second win on the opening stage of the day to break the deadlock at the head of the timesheets.
Over the remaining stages in the Longmore Forest, Serge and Robert extended their lead to bring the winner’s trophy back to Toyota Motorsport’s head office with a comfortable 25-second cushion.
“It’s been hard work”, said an elated Serge at the King’s Beach, Port Elizabeth finish. “The pace is really quick at the front and all the S2000 cars are so evenly matched there’s no room for error. One overshoot or wrong tyre choice may have cost a few seconds in the past, but now it’s the difference between 1st and 6th. We run pretty much flat out all the time, with just a tiny safety margin”.
The factory Castrol Toyota squad notched up the first championship of the year when Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin dominated class A7, taking the ultra successful Castrol Toyota RunX RSi to it’s 5th consecutive win, over 6½ minutes clear of Mike Nathan/Dean Redelinghuys’s AWI Toyota Corolla.
Since starting rallying in 2006, Mark and Chris have notched up two championships from eleven finishes in thirteen starts, a phenomenal record for young the former track racer.
“I’ve really enjoyed this rally a lot”, Mark said. “It’s brilliant to sew up the championship with three events in hand. Now we’ll be able to really see what the A7 RunX can do on the last three events without the pressure of the title to worry about. The stages were quite technical and tricky but a lot of fun”.
Johnny Gemmell and Zimbabwean co-driver Peter Marsh brought the second S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX RSi home in 5th place overall after a frustrating run on Friday. Johnny was drawn 2nd on the road and languished 26 seconds off the leaders’ pace. On Saturday, still running second on the road, he set about reducing the deficit over the grippier repeat stages and took two stage wins to end just five seconds away from the 4th placed Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries (VW Polo).
Johnny explained: “We’ve had an excellent day. We managed to close the gap to within 1 second of Hergen but we couldn’t do too much more without the risk of ending up off the road. On the repeated stages, we were right on the pace; we completed the short Oval stage 12 seconds quicker than on Friday, so we know our speed is there or thereabouts.”
The Team Total Toyota squad endured a less than perfect weekend. Etienne Lourens and Andre Vermeulen (S2000 Toyota RunX RSi) drew first on the road and had to contend with sweeping the road surface, ending day one in 6th place overall. Early on Saturday, trying hard to get onto the podium, he crashed into a bridge, retiring on the spot.
The second Total RunX of Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey suffered a differential problem, leaving the pair to complete Friday in front wheel drive mode and 17th place overall after taking 15 minutes of lateness to fix the problem. A day two charge brought them into 11th place and 10 valuable championship points.
Craig Trott and Carolyn stormed to their 3rd class A6 win of the year, giving them a solid 14-point lead in the championship. The Team Total Toyota RunX RS, the 2006 ex-factory car performed faultlessly all rally long.
Salie du Toit and Gert van Rensburg (Team Total Toyota RunX RS) and Eugene Lourens/Derek Jacobs (Total Toyota Conquest) retired from the event early on the first day.
Mohammed Moosa and Henry Dearlove took class N3 honours in their Team Total Toyota RunX RSi, making up over a minute deficit to the similar RunX of Rodney Visagie/Arno Lagrange. Visagie, in finishing second, shares the class N3 championship lead with Michael Houghton/Hennie Botes, who retired in stage 3.
Etienne du Toit/Patrick Vermaak (McCarthy Toyota Corolla) wrapped up the class N2 championship with their 4th win of the year.
Toyota, looking to win their 16th Manufacturer’s Championship, continues to enjoy a healthy lead in the prestigious title chase.
Final Results:
1 – Serge Damseaux/Robert Paisley – S2000 – Castrol Toyota RunX – 113:14
2 – Jan Habig/Douglas Judd – S2000 – BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo – 113:39
3 – Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson – S2000 – BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo – 113:40
4 – Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries – S2000 – BP Ultimate Volkswagen Polo – 113:43
5 – Johnny Gemmell/Peter Marsh – S2000 – Castrol Toyota RunX – 113:48
6 – Fernando Rueda/Gerhard Snyman – N4 – Total Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 – 118:51
7 – Visser du Plessis/Dave Lewkowicz – N4 – Pirtek Subaru Impreza N12 – 119:20
8 – Paul Pfeiffer/Cindi Harding – N4 – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 – 119.25
9 – Nicholas Ryan/Schalk van Heerden – N4 – Bosal Subaru Impreza N12B – 119:28
10 – Mark Cronje/Chris Birkin – A7 – Castrol Toyota RunX Rsi – 120:04
The 6th round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship is the Osram Rally on 17 and 18 August in the Bloemfontein and Dewetsdorp areas.
