Castrol Team Toyota team principal Glyn Hall has confirmed that Leeroy Poulter will drive the team’s second Auris S2000 in the remaining two events in the Sasol South African Rally Championship.
“Leeroy has shown an amazing aptitude for rallying in his first season,” says Hall. “He went in at the deep end at the start of the current season contesting Class A6 in a Toyota RunX and has scored five wins in the six events held so far and wrapped up the A6 Championship in the process. Leeroy showed his potential on dirt in Class E in the ABSA Off-Road Championship last year and it was natural that he should progress into rallying. Rod Herring, with assistance from the Imperial Group, gave him that opportunity and he has certainly made the best of it.
“Leeroy is very competitive and very focused on achieving results in whatever discipline he competes in. He has a good mechanical understanding that stems from building several of his own competition vehicles and this has come through in his excellent results in his first rally season.
“He will face a challenging transition into S2000 but we are confident that he will adapt very quickly. I’m pleased to announce also that Robert Paisley will navigate for Leeroy and continue to make his vast experience available to Castrol Team Toyota.
“I would like to thank Rod Herring for releasing Leeroy before the end of the season to take up this opportunity to compete in the top class in South African rallying. Our partners Castrol, The Innovation Group, and Imperial join me in wishing Leeroy well in the top class.”
Aged 29, Leeroy Poulter has crammed an amazing 24 years of active motor sport experience into those years. His motor sport experience began on two wheels in age-group motocross championships in 1986.
He won his first national championship in this series in 1987, just his second year of competition, and went on to win another four championships in the following six years. Following on this success he graduated to Karting in 1994 and was a W60 Regional Championship that year.
As with his career in Motocross he quickly established himself as a dominant competitor in Karting and won both regional and national Karting Championships in the 100cc Stock class in 1996. Following this success Leeroy was invited to join Opel Motorsport to drive a Corsa in the Group N Championship. The youngest competitor in the series, he finished third overall in the Championship and was voted Rookie of the Year.
In 1998 parallel competition in Group N and Karting saw Leeroy win Regional and National Championships in the 125 Promo Kart class and finish and achieve second place in Class C of the Stannic Group N Championship. The following year he moved up a class in Group N and came fourth and again won Regional and National Karting Championships, this time in the 125cc GP class.
The transition into the 21st century saw Leeroy win his first Group N Championship in Class D of the Midas series. He contested the highly competitive Rotax Max World Karting Final in Puerto Rico in 2000 and came second overall. He repeated his Group N Championship win in Class D in 2001 and went on to win the 2002 Rotax Max National Karting Championship.
The 125cc Rok National Karting Championship as well as a Regional Championship in the class were added to his Karting successes in 2005 and completed the year as runner up in the Rok World Karting Final held in Italy that year. The following year he won the Bridgestone Production Car Championship while still remaining active in Karting.
Further success came in Karting with the Rotax DD2 South African Championship in 2007 and the European and World Championships in this class in 2008. His success in local and overseas competition caught the eye of the South African A1 GP team and he was given an opportunity to test as a rookie for the team.
In 2009 Leeroy added Off-Road racing to his CV and was placed fourth in Class E of the Production Vehicle category. For 2010 he moved across to the Sasol National Rally Championship to contest Class A6 in a Toyota RunX. Such was his success in the RunX that he was able to secure the Class Championship on the recent Osram Rally with two rounds of the Championship still to run.
– Credit: Toyota of South Africa.