Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh powered their Castrol Toyota Auris S2000 to stunning last stage win on the Sasol Rally which ended in Nelspruit on Saturday afternoon, heading a Castrol 1-3 and a Toyota whitewash of class wins on the third round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship.
Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin (Toyota Auris) led a dominant Team TOTAL 1-2-3 in class A6 of the Sasol Rally, which ended in Nelspruit on Saturday. There was also a debut class win for Team TOTAL’s Vusi Mabanga and Shaun Visser in their class A5 Toyota Yaris.
Johnny Gemmell and his Zimbabwean co-driver Peter Marsh were the provisional winners of the season-opening TOTAL Tour Natal Rally in KwaZulu Natal on Saturday afternoon, giving the class S2000 Toyota Auris its first outright national championship rally victory.
The new national rally championship season got off to a great start in KwaZulu Natal on Friday and Saturday with a class win first time out in their new class A6 Team TOTAL Toyota RunX for multiple former champion s Rodney Visagie and Carolyn Swan.
Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich claimed their 4th win of the year and Team Subaru’s 5th visit to the top step of the Production Car podium after overcoming real All Wheel Drive conditions in the Swartland region of the Western Cape this past weekend. The region was saturated after heavy rains in the days and weeks before the event, leaving vast tracts of land under water.
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.