Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey scored their long overdue first overall win in the Sasol SA Rally Championship when they took their Team TOTAL Evolution Toyota RunX to a convincing victory in the Swartland Rally in the Western Cape on Saturday.
Visser du Plessis and Gerhard Snyman were back in their accustomed podium position in the Pirtek Subaru Impreza N14 at the end of the Swartland Rally, the penultimate round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, which finished at the Killarney circuit near Cape Town on Saturday.
Chris de Wit and Dean Redelinghuys (Team TOTAL Toyota RunX) wrapped up the class A7 championship with a commanding class win – their fourth this season from six events – in the Osram Rally in the Eastern Cape on Saturday. Also class winners were reigning class A6 champion Craig Trott and co-driver Tony Ball (Team TOTAL Toyota RunX). There were only two finishers in each of classes A7 and A6.
The Osram Rally, round six of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, returns to the awesome mountain roads in the Barkly East area of the Eastern Cape on August 15 and 16. For Team TOTAL and all the other competitors, it poses perhaps the toughest challenge of the eight-round championship.
The Sasol SA Rally Championship enters the second half of the season with the 25th Volkswagen Rally this weekend (July 11 and 12) and Team TOTAL’s band of privateers will be aiming to continue its excellent performance so far.
Team TOTAL came away from round two of the Sasol Rally Championship with a satisfying three class wins in the two-day Toyota Dealer Rally, which took place in the Caledon area of the Western Cape at the weekend. Chris de Witt and Dean Redelinghuys (Team TOTAL Toyota RunX) won class A7, defending champion Craig Trott and Tony Ball (Team TOTAL Toyota Corolla) won class A6 and former champions Rodney Visagie and Carolyn Swan won class N3.
Following the team’s strong start to the new rally season in KwaZulu Natal in March, the new-look Team TOTAL takes on round two of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, the Toyota Dealer Rally, in the Western Cape with confidence this weekend (April 4 and 5).
The climax of one of the best and closest contested Sasol SA Rally Championships takes place in Gauteng this weekend with the season-ending Toyota Dealer Rally organised by the Pretoria Motor Club.
Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley (class S2000 Castrol Toyota RunX) won a dramatic Total Swartland Rally in the Western Cape at the weekend and lead the Sasol SA Rally Championship by four points with one round remaining.
REVIEW: TOTAL SWARTLAND RALLY Subaru dominated the production car category on the Total Swartland Rally with a comfortable 1-2-4 result after Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich set the fastest time on every special stage to end an excellent 5th overall, holding off a convincing charge from Nicholas Ryan and Schalk van Heerden in their Bosal/Jonnesway Subaru Impreza N12B.