Sasol Rally (24-25 April 2009)

The third round of the Sasol South African Rally Championship is happening in Sabie on the 24th and 25th of April.

I was fortunate enough to be at the second round two weeks ago. The action was intense. Positions were being changed constantly.

Championship leader Gemmell has fond memories of the Sasol Rally as it was the first national rally he entered in 1999, then running a historic Toyota Corolla MK1 and saw him record his first victory as a works Castrol Toyota driver in 2007.

“I enjoy the Sasol Rally and have a wealth of fond memories of the event, from my first national event, a couple of production car wins to my first victory for Toyota”, Gemmell reminisced. “It is a tricky event, far more challenging than first meets the eye. Sasol put enormous effort into making it spectator friendly and the atmosphere in the stages is quite incredible”.

Gemmell added: “Last year was not a good event for us after both Mark and I went off on the first day. That is a memory we want to erase and the best way of doing that is to repeat what we did on the second day of last year’s event, when we set the fastest times on every stage running under the Superally rules. The Toyota Auris is a brilliant package, so much better then the RunX was in so many areas”.

It will definitely be an interesting battle this time around. There are several drivers that could easily take top position in this rally. Competition is very tight.

The Sasol Rally starts in Sabie at 11am on Friday, 24th April, taking in 4 gravel stages and two tarmac night stages through the heart of Sabie and White River. Saturday sees the Toyota crews tackle the Nelspruit SuperSpecial stage before hitting the dirt for another seven gravel stages.