A calculated drive by Guy Botterill in the Yato/Liqui Moly Toyota S1600, saw Botterill and navigator, Simon Vacy-Lyle winning the two-wheel drive class in the Goldfields Rally. The opening round of the 2016 SA Rally Championship was staged in a new area, introducing new stages to the competitors.
Botterill and navigator Simon Vacy-Lyle banked the valuable points towards the 2016 S1600 South African Championship after clocking fastest times in eight of the eleven stages. “I am extremely satisfied with the result and the overall performance of the car, seeing we had to lower the compression of the engine to run standard pump fuel” said Botterill at the end of the final day of the Goldfields Rally.
“After the recce run on Friday morning in a Toyota RAV 4, courtesy of Oranje Toyota, we could apply the route notes and make the call for right set-up for the tar stages on Friday and the more challenging gravel stages on the Saturday. “The stage at Phakisa Raceway brought back some fond memories of my track racing days, but I needed a total different driving style doing the stage in a rally car,” Guy said. Saturday morning started with Stage 3, which was fairly rocky and the remainder of the day we faced extremely sandy conditions,” said Botterill.
Saturday was tough on competitors and cars with very hot weather and dusty conditions. The biggest challenge for Botterill and Vacy-Lyle came from Richard Leeke in the Ford Fiesta R2, but Botterill led from start to finish and won the event comfortably by 36 seconds, with Paul Franken finishing third in a VW. “I concentrated on managing the gap and certainly couldn’t make any driver errors as there was a definite challenge from the other competitors,” added Guy.
“The event was particularly well organised and the number of spectators who followed the rally over the two days, was encouraging. It was great to compete on new roads and a different part of the country, and I can only hope that we will soon see an upswing in the number of competitors. It was also great that the event was in close proximity to the service park and that the event was quite condensed which at the end of the day takes off some pressure and costs to competitors.”
Simon Vacy-Lyle is in the hot seat for the 2016 season in the Toyota and some of the sponsors on board are Toyota SA, Yato Tools, Liqui Moly and RTT. “Without sponsors we cannot compete and in the tough economic climate we are grateful for the assistance from these companies as we defend our SA S1600 Championship title,” said Vacy-Lyle.
The next round of the 2016 Championship will be the 25th running of the Sasol Rally in Sabie on 22 and 23 April.