Round five of the Sasol South African Rally Championship in the Eastern Cape on Friday and Saturday saw all four Team Total crews complete a tough VW Rally.
Highest-placed was the class S2000 Toyota RunX of Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin, who finished 10th overall after being slowed on the final day by a loss of brakes on the third of the day’s five special stages. “It’s disconcerting when you come down a long hill and then the brake pedal goes to the floor and nothing happens,” said the reigning class A6 champion. “We’re still getting used to the incredible speeds of these S2000 cars in our first season in the top class, so having good brakes is pretty important!”
Fernando Rueda and Dave Lewkowicz were 11th in their Team Total Toyota RunX, also competing in class S2000, after a run that the Spanish-born driver described as “not our best of the year”. “It was a beautiful route, but we had too many problems and it was difficult to settle into a rhythm. We only had once clean stage on Saturday,” he added. A puncture on stage two and a loss of power steering on stage three slowed their progress on day one and they lost time after bending a steering arm on the first of Saturday’s stages.
The ever-consistent Craig Trott and Robbie Coetzee had a trouble-free run in their class A6 Toyota RunX and the veteran Team Total driver and his co-driver maintained their clean sheet for the year with 18th overall and third in class – their fifth consecutive podium finish.
Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Carolyn Swan, looking for a second top-three finish after their fine third place in the previous round, the Rally of South Africa in Mpumalanga, were denied by a broken bolt on a suspension upright in the very first stage that resulted in the wheel and side shaft coming off on the next stage. The Team Total pair lost a crippling 24 minutes as they battled to reposition and secure the shaft and wheel.
Their service crew did a great job of getting them back into the rally, but not before they incurred a 2 min 10 sec penalty for lateness out of the service area. A puncture on Saturday’s third stage saw them lose another two minutes and they did well to finish 18th overall and 13th in class S2000 after all their problems.
Overall winners were Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock in a class S2000 factory Toyota Auris, who finished 1,5 seconds ahead of the factory S2000 VW Polo of Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson. Third were Jan Habig and Ralph Pitchford in another factory VW.
The next round of the championship is the Osram Rally in the Barkly East area on August 21.
Ends