The Castrol RunX pairing were embroiled in a rally-long fight with Enzo Kuun’s BP Volkswagen who had a slender four second advantage after Friday’s four stages. On day two, Serge’s RunX developed a misfire, which cost around 25% of the available power. Further frustration for the ten-times rally champion occurred when they caught slower, ailing competitors in consecutive stages on Saturday, letting the VW crew grow their lead.
In his efforts to catch the leader, Serge and Robert had an overshoot at over 180km/h. Each incident cost Serge 10 – 15 seconds, leaving the local hero frustrated.
After the final stage, Serge was 23 seconds behind his rival, but a one-minute penalty for jumping a stage start was applied to Kuun and he was relegated to 2nd overall.
“I had to stick my neck out plenty of times today to make up a few seconds. I’m glad the officials still apply the rules, because it sends out a message that they’re not negotiable”, said Serge at his hometown finish in Somerset West.
“We had a great fight with Enzo, and I feel sorry for him because I know how hard we were pushing each other, but the rules application keeps the sport healthy and prevents chaos in future”, Serge added.
Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich claimed their maiden class A7 win, taking their Castrol Toyota RunX RSi to a 2½ minute win over their nearest rivals. The car suffered from overheating problems throughout the two-day event, leaving Charl trailing JP Damseaux’s similar Total RunX, which led the class after a clean run. In the final stage, with 3km to run, Damseaux Junior retired with a broken tie rod end.
“I’m really happy – a win is a win. The car is strong and there’s not a scratch on it. We still have quite a bit of work to do on it before the next event. I haven’t driven the car very much, so I’m still trying to find the limit, especially over the rough stuff”, said the delighted Pretoria driver.
Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin swapped their off road Castrol Toyota Hi Lux for a class A6 Castrol Toyota RunX RS, making their national rally debut in fine style. Mark and Chris laid down a marker of their intentions by leading class A6 at the end of Friday’s action.
Unfortunately, Mark’s enthusiasm and inexperience led him to a parc ferme rule infringement on Saturday morning and the pair was excluded from the results.
Mark ran the Saturday stages under the SuperRally rules to get some mileage under his belt, setting competitive times. “Parc ferme is open on off road events and I thought the same applied in rallies. Clearly this is not an off road event”, said Mark of his weekend schooling. Mark was forced to retire in stage seven when the fan belt came off.
The new A6 Castrol RunX RS only turned a wheel for the first time on Wednesday before the event. “The set-up was calculated guess work and I was really surprised to be leading at the end of Friday”, said the young driver. “ There’s lots of potential with this car and a lot of work to do before the Sasol Rally, but I’m really looking forward to it”.
Toyota’s second class S2000 RunX, the Team Total version driven by Etienne Lourens/Andre Vermeulen, ended the rally 4th overall after a trying time, losing out on day one with a broken gearlever mechanism and a broken shock absorber leaving the Centurion driver 10th overnight. A broken driveshaft in the penultimate stage cost Etienne a podium place after losing 1½ minutes.
Chris de Wit and Patrick Yende led home a Team Total 1-2 in class N3 and a Toyota clean sweep of the top four places in class. The reigning class champions had another brilliant, clean run to end 11th overall, claiming their second consecutive class win this year.
De Wit finished 29 seconds ahead of their more experienced teammates Rodney Visagie/Arno Lagrange in an identical RunX RSi. Visagie lost 2 minutes before stage 10 with a flat tyre, costing him a maiden 2006 win.
The two Sasol-backed Toyota RunXs had a torrid time but ended 3rd and 4th in class. Kobus Roos/Irma du Plooy lost 2 minutes replacing a cracked control arm, while Claudio Piazza Musso/Greg Gericke lost a massive 16 minutes fixing a broken engine mounting. The service time excess earned them a 2 minute 40 second penalty.
Class A5 saw a role reversal with the 2005 championship runner up beating the current champions. In a 1-2 finish for Toyota, Etienne Malherbe/Hennie Botes (Aprilia Racing Toyota Tazz) beat Michael Houghton/Bryn Doherty (Total Tazz) by nearly two minutes.
Schalk Burger/Wimpie van Greunen were awarded the class A6 win, the SBinvest Toyota Corolla crew benefiting from the exclusion of Team Total’s Craig Trott/John Costa, following a routine technical inspection after the event. Trott and Costa are the current class A6 titleholders.
“This was a super fast and very competitive rally”, enthused Wammy Haddad, Toyota Motorsport manger. “Serge easily lost 20 – 30 seconds behind slower cars and the misfire cost him a lot of power, so I’m reasonably happy that we have the right package to win rallies”.
“It’s always a pity that an event has to be soured by a penalty as it causes confusion amongst the public, but it is very important that the rules are applied consistently. JP drove very well and I’m very pleased with Mark’s showing. I guess he’ll have to study the rule book before the Sasol Rally next month”.
Toyota has extended their early season lead in the Manufacturer’s Championship, which Toyota has won on a record 14 occasions.
