Consistently quick times by the two Team Castrol Toyota Auris Super 2000 cars of Johnny Gemmell and Leeroy Poulter, who each won one of the day’s six gravel stages, saw the factory pair complete the first day of the two-day Sasol Rally in Mpumalanga in an impressive first and third place respectively on Friday.
After the day’s six gravel stages in the Graskop and Sabie areas, covering some 105 km, and two night-time tarmac town stages in Sabie and White River, covering 1,8 km, Gemmell and Scottish co-driver Drew Sturrock finished just four tenths of a second ahead of the factory Volkswagen Popo Vivo of former champions Jan Habig and Robert Paisley.

Poulter and co-driver Elvene Coetzee’s third place, 2,5 sec behind Habig, was a superb achievement for the pair in only their second outing together and reigning  class S1600 champion Poulter’s fourth-ever S2000 rally.

“This is just the kind of result we were looking for,” said a delighted team principal Glyn Hall.  “Both Johnny and Leeroy showed great pace in the opening round in KwaZulu-Natal in our brand new Auris cars and today they got the results they deserved.  For Leeroy and Elvene to finish in the top three today and to win a stage so soon in their careers in the top, four-wheel drive class against the kind of classy competition S2000 has attracted this season is a massive achievement

The excellent Team Castrol Toyota results were achieved despite both cars suffering punctures during the day and Poulter losing time in the very first stage with a spin that dropped him from a probable second behind stage winners Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton in a Ford Fiesta to fourth behind Cronje, Gemmell and Habig.

Stage three was a repeat of stage one and Poulter improved his time by 22 sec to take second place on the stage and overall behind multiple champion Habig.  He was again second quickest behind Habig on stage four and consolidating his second position overall.

A puncture on stage five saw him drop to third behind team-mate Gemmell, who won the stage in spectacular fashion by over 10 seconds from Habig and more than 11 sec better than Poulter.

The sixth and final gravel stage belonged to an inspired Poulter, who edged Gemmell by 1,2 sec over the 11,51 km and closed the overall gap to second-placed Habig to 12,3 sec.

The two short tarmac town stages saw Habig close to within less than a second of Gemmell in an exciting finale to a great first day of the 20th Sasol Rally, with Toyota just one day and nine stages away from an historic 100th rally victory.

Leading Toyota privateers at the end of the day were Team Total’s Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Carolyn Swan in an S2000 Toyota RunX, who did well to finish sixth, 1 min 47 sec behind the leading factory Auris.  Also in the top 10 were Total team-mates Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin, 2009 class A6 champions, who were a creditable ninth in a second RunX in only their ninth rally in the top class.

Saturday’s action starts with a 1,42-km tar stage in Nelspruit and ends at the Nelspruit Showgrounds from around 16.00.