With a 10-point deficit to the championship leaders going into the final round, Serge and Robert rose to the occasion in trying circumstances. The multiple SA Rally champions destroyed their Castrol Toyota RunX RSi on the penultimate round in September, and competed in the Tzaneen event in a borrowed car, refurbished in four weeks by the Toyota Motorsport team headquartered in Sandton.
In an historic agreement reached between Castrol and Total, Toyota borrowed the Team Total RunX usually campaigned by Etienne Lourens. On day one of the tough season-ending event, Serge and Robert had to contend with a malfunctioning front differential, leaving the RunX with rear-wheel drive only.
At the end of the first six stages, Serge had dropped 53 seconds to the pace-setting BP Volkswagen of title rivals Jan Habig/Douglas Judd. Unperturbed and with 118km of stage mileage to run on day two, Serge and Robert set about reeling in the leaders.
The car had steering problems early in day two and with shock absorber settings not set to Serge’s liking, they were unable to attack the stages as they would have liked.
“The rear of the car kicked up quite sharply over the many yumps, so we couldn’t attack them as we would normally”, said Serge. “I’m grateful to Toyota, Castrol and Total for the opportunity to compete in Tzaneen”, he added.
“The season has been very successful for us. Four wins, a second and a fourth place is a good set of results, yet still the championship eluded us. Our accident in Cape Town really hurt our chances badly”.
“Overall, I think Super 2000 is one of the best things to happen to SA rallying – it’s really good for the sport. The cars are quick, reliable and spectacular to watch. I hope we will see more cars next year”, he concluded.
Toyota became the first motor manufacturer in the world to field a rally car under the new FIA Super 2000 rules and claimed a world first victory in the category on the Toyota Dealer Rally in April.
Charl Wilken and Robin Houghton ended their first season in the ultra-competitive class A7 championship with a broken gearbox one kilometer from the end of stage 11.
The Castrol Toyota RunX RSi pair hit a rock in stage 4, which bent the steering arm and sheared a cross member bolt. With no service until after stage five, Charl limped through the stage with loose steering. Once repaired, the Castrol RunX was back up to speed but it broke again in stage 6.
Day two was no better, the car suffering a broken driveshaft in stage 7, where the car was stuck in an uphill hairpin for a minute. Again, there was no service before stage 8 so Charl and Robin were again forced to drive slowly through the stage, losing 4½ minutes.
“We got out of the stage but had lost so much time we decided not to risk destroying an expensive gearbox and withdrew”, said a disappointed Charl. “It’s been an interesting year for us. We’ve learnt a lot about the car and how to get the best out of it. We got up to speed quite quickly but have endured a lot of bad luck”.
Whammy Haddad summed up Toyota’s season: “I’m not downhearted at all. We had some problems on this event that we could have done without, but that’s the nature of rallying. Super 2000 has been a very successful formula and the Toyota and Volkswagens are very evenly matched, which is great for the sport. We’ve learnt a lot about the car and know how to improve it for next year.”
Toyota won its 14th Manufacturer’s award and claimed eleven titles in 2005, adding to its dominant position in South African rallying.
