Following their successful outing in the last round of the Sasol South African Rally Championship, a distant eight weeks ago thanks to the soccer World Cup, the four members of Team Total are confident of another good result in this weekend’s (July 23 and 24) Volkswagen Rally in the Eastern Cape.
Leading privateers in the premier class S2000 and overall are Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Carolyn Swan in a Team Total Toyota RunX. Damseaux, a multiple former Western Province champion and Swan, who has several national class championships to her name, enjoyed their best outing of the year so far with third place in the Rally of South Africa in May and will be looking to build on this performance.
Two other Team Toyota crews compete in S2000. Fernando Rueda and Dave Lewkowicz (Toyota RunX) placed fourth in the last event and Rueda, a proud Spaniard, will be looking to emulate the success of his national team in the soccer World Cup.
Making it three Team Total entries in the top six were Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin (Toyota RunX), who have recovered well from their spectacular crash in the opening round, the Total Tour Natal in KwaZulu Natal in March.
Veteran Team Total member Craig Trott and co-driver Robbie Coetzee were 11th overall and third in class A6 in a Toyota RunX, giving Team Total a perfect four out of four in what proved to be a punishing event.
The VW Rally is always a stern test of man and machine and is expected to be as tough and fast as ever, with stages on tar at the Aldo Scribante circuit in Port Elizabeth, laps of the PE oval track and the traditional fast stages in the Longmore forests near Jeffrey’s Bay.
Trott, for one, is looking forward to the event. He has been competing in national championship rallies since 1996 and aims to keep intact his proud record of never having failed to finish a VW Rally. He and Coetzee are currently third in their class and second overall in the 1 600 cc championship. Their consistency sees them third in the privateer’s standings with 51 points.
The VW Rally starts from the VW Auto Pavilion in Uitenhage on Friday at 12.30 and finishes at Port Elizabeth’s King’s Beach at around 13.50 on Saturday.
– Credit: Total South Africa