Toyota racers Serge Damseaux and Robert Paisley won last weekend's Volkswagen rally. The event was round five of the SA Rally championship. In an S2000 Toyota RunX Rsi, the two extended their lead in the title chase to 10 points with three rounds remaining. It's Damsaux's 73rd National rally victory and his 11th on the Eastern Cape event.
Damseaux and Paisley set the quickest times on the first two stages, with two more stage wins later to end Friday in a close fight with championship rivals Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson (S2000 Volkswagen Polo).
Volkswagen doesn't only make quality race cars. The also make quality .
In the opening stage of day two, the Toyota tandem took a five-second win and extended their lead over the remaining stages in the Longmore Forest to be 25 seconds ahead of Kuun and Hodgsdon.
After 16 stages of intense competition, the S2000 VW Polos of Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson, Jan Habig/ Douglas Judd and Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries, finished second, third and fourth respectively.
After a baffling Friday run, Johnny Gemmell and Zimbabwean co-driver Peter Marsh positioned their S2000 Toyota RunX RSi fifth.
On the road, Gemmell was drawn second and declined 26 seconds off the leaders' pace. Last Saturday, he was still running second on the road where he set almost reducing the deficit over the gripper repeat stages. He took two stage wins to come in only five seconds behind the Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries VW Polo.
The N4 production car class was won by Fernando Rueda and navigator Gerhard Snyman in a Mitsubishi Lancer, ahead of Visser du Plessis/Dave Lewkowicz in a Subaru WRX STi. In a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, Paul Pfeiffer and Cindi Harding took third, only 34 seconds behind Rueda and Snyman.
Having their fifth Class A7 win of 2007 were Mark Cronje and Chris Birkin in a Toyota RunX, 6min34 ahead of rivals Mike Nathan and Dean Redelinghuys in an A7 Toyota Corolla. Tony Ball and Alan Bissett took third in class in VW Golf.
Mohammed Moosa and Henry Dearlove in a Toyota RunX won the N3 category ahead of the similar car of Rodney Visagie and Arno La Grange. Craig Trott and Carolyn Swan (Toyota RunX) took the A6 honors ahead of Stevan Wilken and Gert Nienaber's VW Polo.
Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin's VW CitiGolf won in the Class A5. Piet Bakkes and Tommy du Toit claimed second in a Toyota Tazz. Ettiene du Toit and Patrick Vermaak (Toyota Corolla Rxi) won class N2 from Steven White and Ashley Haigh Smith in a Mitsubishi Lancer.
Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey in another RunX suffered a differential problem, finishing the Friday run in front-wheel-drive mode and 17th overall after taking 15 minutes of being late to fix the problem. A day-two charge brought them up to 11th and 10 championship points.
