It was a tough weekend for the Castrol Toyota rally team in the Eastern Cape who had high expectations for Johnny Gemmell and Peter Marsh to close down their small championship deficit but it was not to be.

The S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris title challengers snatched the initiative when the crews hit the gravel stages with Gemmell storming into the lead of the Volkswagen Rally after six stages, ending Friday’s run with a slender three second lead over title rivals Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries’ VW Polo.

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Toyota South Africa warns the public against fraudulent emails informing recipients that they have won a Toyota.

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It seems like we only just got back from the South Africa Rally in Ermelo and it's already time for the next one. The Volkswagen rally kicks off the second half of the 2009 Sasol South African Rally Championship and it's sure to be a nail biting affair.

The Castrol Toyota team have won six of the last nine rally's heald there so the odds are good for another victory. Gemmel and Marsh are currently sitting second on the overall championship, this could be their chance to climb back up in the standings.

"It was a disappointing result for us and we will be looking to put that right and get our championship lead back", said an upbeat Johnny of his 6th place in Ermelo.  read more »

As you may have seen from previous posts, the Auris Blog team attended the Rally of South Africa last week in Ermelo.

Andrew Crawford and Craig Hannabus blogged live from this event as well as provided up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter (@ToyotaLive). They've also captured captivating images of the excitement of this event. See the full gallery on the Auris South Africa page on Facebook. Don't worry, you don't need to be signed in to view it.

If you'd also taken pictures at the event, please share them here on the Blog.  read more »

Within 30 seconds of arriving at the first stage this morning, Andrew managed to get himself covered in mud again. Perhaps he's a little too eager to get near the action.

Down to the business of rallying, today saw very little change in the top ten rankings. There were a few position shifts here and there, but the top 3 remained just about the same the entire day.

What was interesting to note is that several of the stages were repeated throughout the day and the drivers managed to improve their times quite dramatically the second time around. This is possibly due to the drier conditions in the afternoon, but also probably due to track familiarity. The results were impressive with some shaving almost 10-15 seconds off their times (Gemmell).  read more »

Andrew and I set out this morning in the hopes of catching the opening ceremony of the Rally of South Africa. Unfortunately our trip so far has been plagued with bad luck. As we drove, I mused about the movie 'Dumb and Dumber'.

"Remember when they drove halfway across the country the wrong way and had to to turn around? That was pretty funny."  read more »