Team Total will be at full strength for the penultimate round of the Sasol SA Rally Championship, the Swartland Rally, which takes place in the Killarney, Malmesbury and Moorreesburg areas of the Western Cape this weekend.
All four crews in the biggest privateer team contesting the championship will be in action with the return of Fernando Rueda, who missed the recent Osram Rally in the Eastern Cape as a result of a bout of pneumonia. Rueda and regular co-driver Dave Lewkowicz will contest the premier class S2000 in their Team Total Toyota RunX.
Also in S2000 are Team Total’s Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Carolyn Swan and Mohammed Moosa/Grant Martin, both in Toyota RunXs.
Craig Trott and co-driver Robbie Coetzee will represent Team Total in class A6 in a Toyota RunX.
With just two rounds of the eight-round championship remaining, Damseaux and Swan lead the Team Total challenge in seventh place overall. They are also second in the privateers’ championship, just five points behind Zimbabwe’s Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh (S2000 Ford Focus).
It was on the same event in 2008 that Damseaux scored his first S2000 outright win in the Team Total Toyota and he and Swan will be doing their best to upset the strong Volkswagen and Toyota factory teams again.
Despite missing the previous round, Rueda and Lewkowicz are eighth in the overall championship and in class S2000 and the Team Total combination will be keen to make up for lost time.
Moosa and Martin have had a steady run over the last four events and are 14th overall in their debut year in the top class after winning class A6 for Team Total in 2009. They will be aiming at a repeat of their good 10th overall in the recent Osram Rally at the very least.
Trott and Coetzee have enjoyed their usual consistent run of results, scoring in each round so far and holding second place in their class with six podium finishes. The class has already been won by Leeroy Poulter and Henry Dearlove in a Toyota RunX and, with Poulter moving up to a Toyota factory drive in S2000 for this event, the Team Total pair will be looking for their first outright class win this year.
They will also be aiming to improve their fifth place overall in the privateers’ championship and their third place in the 1600 cc championship.
The Swartland Rally starts from the Killarney motor racing circuit at 15.30 on Friday. A gravel opening stage 5 km from Killarney will be followed by two stages at the circuit starting at 16.25.
Rallying gets underway at 07.30 on Saturday with four stages in the Malmesbury and Moorreesburg areas followed by the longest stage (over 38,9 km) repeated back-to-back. Two more stages will see the competitors return to Killarney for the traditional final race around the circuit.
– Credit: Team Total Evolution.