Gemmell grabs victory for works Toyota team
Gemmel overtakes Cronje to lead the championship table
IT WAS a sponsor’s dream as Johnny Gemmell and Carolyn Swan in a Castrol Toyota Auris won the Toyota Cape Dealer Rally in Caledon on the weekend.
Second, in their best performance so far this season, were former national champions Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson (BP VW Polo), who finished 45 seconds behind the winners and five seconds ahead of a fast-closing Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Sasol Ford Fiesta).
Gemmell took over the lead of the championship from Cronje with two rounds remaining and now enjoys a five-point advantage over the Ford driver.
Cronje dominated the sixth round of the championship in terms of stage wins, winning three of Friday’s six stages and five of Saturday’s stages, but a mistake on Friday’s penultimate stage cost him when he went off the road and punctured a tyre. This left him in sixth place on Friday evening, one and a half minutes behind the leading Toyota of Gemmell. cars were Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich (Basil Read Ford Fiesta), Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin (BP Polo) and Henk Lategan/Barry White (Q8 Oils VW Polo).
Zulu, who struggled with intercom problems on Friday, won the Super 2000 Challenge for older specification four-wheel drive cars from 18-year-old rising star Lategan.
Provisional winners of the Two Wheel Drive category for S1600 cars were Guy Botterill and Simon VacyLyle (Yato Tools Toyota RunX).
The next round of the championship is the Polokwane Rally in Limpopo on October 6 and 7.