Laurie Steyn and Syd Brett (1977 Jaguar XJ6) carried on where they left off in 2011 by winning the opening round of the 2012 Firestone Legendary Drives regularity rally championship in Gauteng on Sunday.

Steyn and Brett, who won the last two rounds of the 2011 championship, took the overall honours in the Chicks Rally for a notable hat-trick in a tightly contested event that saw the top five covered by just seven seconds. The winners' total penalties were just 11 seconds and they were followed home for the second rally in succession by reigning champions Schalk and Susan van Niekerk (1998 SAAB 9.3) with 13 seconds' penalties. Third, a single second in arrears, were Bill Dreyer and Stewart MacGregor (1981 Triumph TR7).

Chris Andrew and Mike Altona (1981 BMW 635 CSI) were fourth with 15 seconds' penalties, three seconds ahead of David Gilson and Gary Berndt (1980 Fiat 131).

The event covered a 250-kilometre route from Rynfield in Benoni to Bapsfontein, towards Delmas, Springs, Balfour and Devon, back towards Nigel and Heidelberg and finished in Benoni.

Making up the top 10 were: 6 Robin Ross and Greg Pridgeon (BMW) 21 seconds; 7 Llewellyn Barnard and Joe Smith (1966 Alfa Romeo 146 TI) 23 seconds; 8 Steve Crook and Par Whelan (1967 Lotus Elan) 35 seconds; 9 Richard Grover and Wally Langsford (1970 Ford Escort) 41 seconds; and 10 Peter Wise and Allan McKenzie (1981 Toyota Corolla) 62 seconds.

The Chicks Rally, organised by Larina McGregor of the South African Regularity Rally Association (SARRA) was also the opening round of the Total Blind Navigators Rally Championship.

Defending champions Jerry Paice and Bonita Blankenberg (1984 Alfa Romeo Guilietta) won their second event in succession (they also won the 2011 season-ending Casa da Madeira Rally), comfortably edging second-placed Nico Kleyn and Pieter van Niekerk (2009 VW Touran) 41-113 in penalty seconds scored. Third were Patrick Mills and Jessica Grib (2007 Toyota Corolla) with 118 seconds penalties.

More information about the Firestone Legendary Drives Championship and regularity rallying in general can be obtained from the SARRA website www.sarra.co.za.

Issued on behalf of Bridgestone South Africa by Peter Burroughes Communications, telephone 082 899 0101 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .