Johnny Gemmell kept his hopes of winning the 2010 Sasol South African Rally Championship alive to carry the fight through to the final rally of the year, the Toyota Gauteng Rally in mid-October. Gemmell trails Enzo Kuun in the chase for the Championship by 21 points with 25 still available for a win in the remaining event.
“It’s not over till it’s over,” said Gemmell after finishing eighth in the CPMCC Swartland Rally over the weekend. “The event started badly for us when we damaged a tie rod right at the end of the very first stage. We logged the second quickest time there but without any service we carried the damage through to the second stage and that cost us a bit of time.
“We were still well placed going into the second leg of the event, just eight tenths of a second behind Enzo and where we wanted to be on the road but lost 20 seconds with a misfire in the first stage of the second leg. The team sorted that out very quickly and we went into the next 38 kilometre long stage with a real chance of making up time. A puncture mid-way through the marathon stage dashed any hope that we might have had of chasing Enzo down in this event, though.
“It’s just so competitive at the front that event the slightest bit of misfortune costs you a whole bunch of places. Our stage times were competitive for the last four stages – we won the second last stage – but it just wasn’t enough to make up places in the field. It won’t be easy but with a clean run in the Gauteng Rally we can still chase the Championship down. It will be maximum attack in four weeks time.”
Leeroy Poulter showed his ability to adapt quickly to a new environment with a very positive first outing in the second of the two Castrol Team Toyota Auris S2000s. With only the experience of a brief pre-event test with the car and new navigator, Robert Paisley, Leeroy ended the first leg of the rally in eighth place and carried that form through to the end of the event, dropping just one place to Johnny Gemmell to finish ninth overall.
“A mixed event with a lot of disappointment for Johnny and a good debut for Leeroy Poulter,” was how Glyn Hall, Castrol Team Toyota team principal summed up the Swartland Rally. “It was hugely frustrating to see that we had the speed to match Enzo Kuun but just couldn’t put that to good effect in a good clean run. It’s a big task but Johnny is still in the fight for the championship. We will throw everything we have at the last event to give him the best chance possible in the Toyota Gauteng Rally.”
In the lower classes Toyota again showed its strength with Craig Trott winning class A6 in his Team Total RunX and Megan Verlaque taking class N3 in her RunX.
– Credit: Toyota of South Africa.