The 25th Sasol Rally has come and gone in a blaze of glory for Toyota Gazoo Racing with Toyota scoring a 1-2-3 on the winners podium as well as the manufacturers award.Leeroy Poulter beat his Toyota Gazoo Racing partner by 2:22.7 into second place and has made it clear that he is on his way to another national rally championship.
The surprised of the day was the performance of the current SA S1600 rally drivers champion, Guy Botterill, who took up the third spot on the podium, the best of his career so far.
A few of the other fancied competitors fell by the wayside with Ernie van der Walt ensuring for the most excitement on the rally with his spectacular crash on stage one. Wilro Dippenaar of Namibia, driving a Ford Fiesta had apparently booked the third podium place when he diverted from the route and his penalty gave third overall to Botterill. Botterill finished the event provisionally 13:39.7 behind Poulter De Villiers, such was the dominance of the Toyota’s on the event.
Dippenaar finished fourth after fighting his way back from 9th overall after the penalty. He was 16:43.3 behind the leader.
Richard Leeke in the Ford Fiesta R2 spent most of the rally in the dust of Botterill, but in the end his name disappeared from the final provisional scoresheet. It is not known what happened to Leeke.
Theuns Joubert in a NR4 Toyota Auris finished 5th +18:33.0, followed by the S1000 Volkswagen Polo of Paulus Franken.
Andrew Heine in a S1600 Volkswagen Polo R2 was 7th +20:12.4.
Muna Singh from Zambia and the current Africa Rally Champions, got his campaign to defend his title off to a strong start by winning the African Rally Championship round of the Sasol Rally in his Subaru Impreza with a time that was 21:19.8 behind Poulter and he finished 8th.Don Smith, from Kenya in a Subaru Impreza, was second in the African Rally Competition.
The full and final results will be published on www.rallystar.net once they come to hand.
The Sasol Rally was the second round of the South African Rally Championship and held for the 25th consecutive year. A rumour has it that it may just be the final Sasol Rally to be presented that will be another nail in the coffin of the SA National Rally Championship.
The rally was held over 14 stages with a total distance of 213km and started and finished in Sabie. It was organised by SAM with Willie du Plessis as Clerk of the Course.