Giniel wins rally but Leeroy takes title
TOYOTA Gazoo Yaris driver Leeroy Poulter was unable to win his sixth consecutive rally at last weekend’s Toyota Cape Dealer Rally, but his second place finish was enough to see him clinch the 2016 National Championship with one round to spare.
Poulter and co-driver Elvéne Coetzee trailed their Gazoo teammates Giniel de Villiers and Carloyn Swan from the rally’s start at Killarney Raceway on Friday afternoon, and a double-puncture on the event’s eighth stage put an end to a last-gasp charge and the pair’s unbeaten record in 2016. Still, Poulter managed to bring his Yaris home in second place, nearly six minutes behind Giniel, to secure his second National Rally Championship title.
De Villiers, who won his first and only previous rally at this event in 2014, had a clean run and took all but two of the race’s 12 stages. It was a sweet victory for the Capetonian, who announced afterwards that this was his last rally. His class S2000 Yaris has been sold to a buyer in Japan, leaving the 2009 Dakar Rally winner to focus on preparation for next year’s Dakar in South America.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA team announced it will enter a twowheel drive vehicle for the first time in the 2017 Dakar, and plenty of development time is required ahead of its international debut. Giniel may enter the new Hilux Evo at next weekend’s Sun City 450, as a shakedown exercise, although this is not yet confirmed. Toyota is not expected to compete in next year’s National Rally Championship (which will no longer include class S2000 cars) as a factory entry. Instead it will support class S1600 privateers Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle.
Leeroy will likely see out the rally season at the final round in Gauteng on October 21 and 22, though his Yaris is also destined for Japan.
If Poulter can score a single point at the Donaldson Cross Country Sun City round, he will also be crowned National Offroad Champ – the first driver to score both rally and offroad titles in the same year since Hannes Grobler in 1986.