It was a case of what might have been for Castrol Team Toyota on the HMC Hencom Autobody Rally, round three of the South African Rally Championship, which ended in Emalahleni (Mpumalanga) on Saturday.
After two days and 172 km of gravel road special stage rallying, Johnny Gemmell and Scottish co-driver Drew Sturrock were a fast-finishing third in their Toyota Auris behind the Ford Fiestas of championship leaders Conrad Rautenbach/Nicolas Klinger and Charl Wilken/Greg Godrich.The Toyota pair had closed to within 4,6 sec of the leading Ford of Wilken and Godrich and was challenging for second place by the end of the ninth of the rally’s 11 stages, with 22 km of gravel racing remaining. However, it was not to be and a wrong slot on the penultimate stage cost them 30 seconds and saw them drop to third place behind Rautenbach and Wilken, with a gap of 34,2 s to make up in the final 4,67-km stage.
Leeroy Poulter and Elvene Coetzee, winners of the Sasol Rally four weeks ago, were 16th in the second factory Toyota after losing 12 minutes on stage nine with a flat battery while lying third. “We were looking good for another great result after our 100th national championship rally win in the last round,” said team principal Glyn Hall. “After the first day on Friday, we were well-placed in third and sixth positions. Leeroy was 7,3 seconds behind the leading Ford of Rautenbach and only six tenths of a second behind Wilken.”
In fact, had it not been for the Auris stalling in a tight hairpin on stage one, costing the pair five seconds as Poulter battled to get the car to start, they might have been second at the overnight stop. Poulter lost his third place on stage eight when he completed the 12,7-km without first gear. His service crew performed a minor miracle during the 30-minute service stop by replacing the gearbox in a record 25 minutes. “It was a heroic effort by the technicians – we had six on the job with three underneath the car and three working on top – and it enabled Leeroy and Elvene to rejoin the rally without losing any time,” said Hall.
Unfortunately a wire on the alternator was apparently pulled loose and Poulter was stranded in stage eight with a flat battery. He managed to make running repairs, but lost any chance of emulating his maiden win in the Sasol Rally. Gemmell’s progress through the field on Saturday was impressive. The 2010 championship runner-up stamped his authority on proceedings with a convincing stage win on the 22,9-km stage seven, 12,5 sec quicker than Rautenbach in the Ford.
With the Auris performing faultlessly, a first win of the season was very much on the cards for Gemmell – until the mistake on stage 10. Castrol Team Toyota will be back in action in the Toyota Gauteng Dealer Rally on June 10 and 11. – Credit: Toyota South Africa.