And then the end arrived and Leeroy Poulter in a Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Yaris beat his teammate, Giniel de Villiers on the Secunda Rally to secure his hattrick of wins so far this year. He won by 2.1s.The two Toyota works drivers dominated the event from the beginning and towards the end it became even easier as their main competition fell out of the event that took a huge toll on the entries.
It was another 1-2-3 for Toyota and it is difficult to see Toyota’s domination of the championship ever being in danger for the rest of the season.
And being the only manufacturer that is competing, they will bag another manufacturers championship.
With four rounds to go, Poulter could join the few competitors who over the years have won six or more national events in one year. Competitors like Sarel van der Merwe and Serge Damseaux. Damseaux won six events in a year twice and seven events in a year also twice, but then he had some very stiff competition to cope with.
Guy Botterill in a Toyota Etios R2 won the S1600 class and finished fourth overall to give Toyota a 1-2-3-4 finish. AC Potgieter in a Volkswagen Polo R2 was second followed by Andrew Heine in another Polo R2.
The event took its toll on the competitors with less that ten of the original 24 starters making it to the end.
S2000 overall provisional standing:
Poulter 1:44:57.9
De Villiers +2.1
Van der Walt +2:12.9
S1600 overall standings provisional:
Guy Botterill 1:55:53.5
Potgieter +1:04.2
Heine +1:39.6
Coertse +2:45.2
Franken +3:14.8