The 2016 Toyota Cape Dealer Rally started at Killarney this afternoon when 30 cars that have entered the event tackled the first stage of the rally. The stage, 1,7km long was won by Giniel de Villiers and Carolyn Swan in a S2000 Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris. De Villiers won the stage in a time of 8 minutes 48.7 followed by his team mate Leeroy Poultrer in a similar car 2.4s slower.
Third was the NRC4 entry of Theuns Joubert in a Toyota Aurus 32.4s slower than de Villiers.Txpectation as has been on the other rallies this year, that this rally will once again be completely dominated by the two “works” Toyota’s, The event will also once again be characterised by a battle for the top honours between De Villiers and Poulter.
If Poulter wons this event, the national championship for drivers is his once again, but if de Villiers wins he is in with a chance of winning the championship for the first time. There is still one round to be completed in this years seven round championship.
Only the two S2000 Toyota’s started with the NRC4 Toyota Auris being the only other older model S2000 competing. Wilro Dippenaar in a Ford Fiesta entered the event but did not start due to engine problems.
Fourth overall is the current S1600 champion Guy Botterill in Toyota Etios R2 38.7 slower than the leader. Fifth was Ashley-Haig Smith in a Ford Fiesta TR2 +42,0 s and sixth Richard Leeke in a similar car +46,6.
The competitors will do four stages at Killarney tonight, They will restart again tomorrow morning and travel to Malmesbury to do another eight stages where the rally will finish. The total stage distance is 161km.
The entry list consist of two S2000 cars, one NRC4 entry, six NRC2 entries and thirteen regional competitors. The Clerk of the Course is Rikus Fourie.