Castrol Team Toyota’s Gemmell and Sturrock lead championship after finishing second overall in Volkswagen Rally
Castrol Team Toyota’s Johnny Gemmell and Scottish co-driver Drew Sturrock provisionally lead the South African Rally Championship after finishing second in the Volkswagen Rally, fifth round of the eight-event series, in their Toyota Auris in Port Elizabeth on Saturday afternoon.
While the Toyota pair, second in last year’s championship, fell just short of winning their first event of the year, by 36,1 seconds to victors Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Fiesta), they took full advantage of the misfortunes of their closest championship rivals.
In a tough and unforgiving contest that reduced the original field of 33 cars to just 16 after two days and 175 km of high-speed special stage rallying in the Uitenhage, Longmore Forest and Port Elizabeth areas, Gemmell and Sturrock won two of the 12 stages and finished in the top five in five others.
After completing the first day’s five stages in second place on Friday, 18,4 sec behind Cronje and Houghton, and matching the lighter Ford’s pace on the first two stages on Saturday, the pair spun away their chances of overall victory on stage eight and stalled the Toyota.
They lost 18 seconds before they could get back up to speed and were still able to record the second-fastest time after Cronje. They pushed hard over the remaining four stages, winning stage nine and matching the Ford’s pace to the finish.
Team-mates and reigning class A6 champions Leeroy Poulter and Elvene Coetzee, in the second Super 2000 class Auris backed by Castrol and the Innnovation Group, started the event well and were second overall behind Cronje and Houghton when they rolled out of contention on the daunting 34-km second stage and were unable to complete the stage before being time-barred.
Poulter was confident he was heading for another good stage time when he experienced a flat wheel around the halfway mark and was looking for a suitable place to stop and change the wheel. He went wide in a tight right-hand corner and the flat left rear wheel dug into a ridge of sand on the outside of the corner and flipped the car on to its roof.
The Toyota crew battled for several minutes to get the car back on its wheels before replacing the wheel and limping to the end of the stage. Unfortunately they reached the designated service park outside the prescribed limit and were time-barred.
Their service crew was able to repair the damage and Poulter and Coetzee competed on Saturday under Super Rally conditions, which do not count for championship points.
“We decided to take advantage of the Super Rally option to give Leeroy and Elvene some valuable seat time and take advantage of the opportunity to try out a few set-up options on the car,” said team principal Glyn Hall, a former national rally champion himself.
“Some consolation for Leeroy was winning the penultimate stage and finishing second on the last stage (both of which were on tar). This rally and its intimidating high-speed stages in the Longmore Forest is where the really good drivers shine and we’re proud of the performance this weekend of both of our drivers.
“There are still three rounds remaining for Johnny and Leeroy to add to Leeroy’s debut success in the Sasol Rally in the Mpumalanga Lowveld in April (where Gemmell made it an historic 1-2 for Toyota and the team racked up Toyota’s 100th national rally championship victory).”
Toyota privateers made a valuable contribution to the marque’s lead in the prestigious manufacturers’ championship by filling two of the top 10 and a further three places among the final 16.
Best performers were Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin in an S2000 Auris, who finished ninth overall despite losing 18 minutes when they were forced to replace an ailing clutch, and track racing star Guy Botterill and Schalk van Heerden, who scored a maiden class win and a commendable 10th overall in a Super 1600 Toyota RunX in Botterill’s first year in rallying..
Castrol Team Toyota will next be in action in round six in the Southern Cape on August 26 and 27.
Toyota Acknowledges Its Sponsors and Specialist Official Supplier and Technical Partners. Toyota enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with Castrol (lubricants), Innovation Group (specialist provider of software and outsourcing solutions), NGK (sparkplugs), IMPERIAL Toyota Group (suppliers of team vehicles), SKF (bearings), Ferodo (brake pads), Spanjaard (lubricants), Edgecam (machining software specialists) and Donaldson (filtration solutions).
18th July 2011
