A Day in the Life of Team Total

The world of top-flight South African motorsport is an exclusive one. Rallying is a specialised discipline and requires a different set of abilities when compared to their counterparts in other forms of the sport. To experience the thrills, the adrenalin surge and the talent it requires to perform at the top level of any sport is something to behold, and to sit beside a driver in full control of a rally car sideways through a fast sweeping bend is a moment to savour for life.

This is exactly what Total South Africa employees, media and the nine lucky competition prize winners revelled in on 7 September: “A Day in the Life of Team Total.”

Team Total is South Africa’s largest privateer rally team with four crews proudly flying the flag for the oil giant in the eight-round 2011 South African Rally Championship. Comprised of Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin (#9 Team Total Toyota Auris S2000), Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Carolyn Swan (#10 Team Total Toyota Auris S2000), Craig Trott and Robbie Coetzee (#52 Team Total Toyota RunX S1600) and the only all-female crew in South African rallying Stefanie Botha and Angela Shields (#60 Team Total Toyota RunX S1600), the team contests two Classes within the National Championship. Class S2000 is our country’s premier rally category, with a total of 18 of these 2.0-litre, four-wheel drive, purpose-built machines doing battle on events around the country. Class S1600 ranks as the fastest two-wheel drive Class for 1.6-litre cars that have often finished within the top ten overall on rallies.

These high-powered cars were on demonstration at RallyStar Academy near Bapsfontein, Gauteng over a tight and twisting stage set out to showcase the abilities of man and machine on the dusty and slippery route. When the rally drivers don their helmets and strap themselves into their cars, the adrenalin is dumped in huge dollops into their bloodstream and they attack the stage as if it was dependent on a rally win. However, the best gauge of this was not witnessing the sideways driving, the screaming engine note or the thick plumes of dust kicked up by the tyres as they hunt for traction in the soft gravel, but in their speechless passengers when they return to the service park. “Wow, wow, wow” and “I cannot believe what was happening before my eyes” were just two of the most common replies when asked about their experience. SABC1’s Mzansi Insider and Eastern Mosiac’s bubbly presenters were left at a loss of words after climbing out of the cars. The drivers were all excited that new fans of the sport have been cemented after this event as well as bringing awareness of Team Total to the media’s attention. When asked how he is able to drive a car at it limits, and the car’s capabilities, Damseaux succinctly summed it up best: “Welcome to my office.”

Having completed six rounds thus far of the South African Rally Championship, Moosa leads the Team Total charge in 13th overall with teammate Damseaux 14th in the overall Drivers’ Standings. Trott is 2nd in Class S1600 as well as in the Two Wheel Drive Championship and Botha is 12th in Class S1600 and 14th in the Two Wheel Championship’s leader board.

After recording two top ten finishes in last month’s Garden Route Rally, Team Total demonstrated their skills to all. Their focus now turns to the upcoming Toyota Cape Dealer Rally on 23 and 24 September in Malmesbury and Killarney areas of the Western Cape.

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