toyota

South Africans are known for making their mark internationally. The latest South African to join the ranks of international heavy-hitters is Dr. Johan van Zyl. Currently the President and CEO of Toyota SA, he has now become one of only five non-Japanese to be promoted to the position of Managing Officer within Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC).

Following a board meeting scheduled for June 2009 to confirm this appointment, Dr van Zyl will take office as Managing Officer, but will also remain President and CEO of Toyota SA. TMC has only 50 Managing Officers globally and this appointment essentially makes Dr van Zyl part of the company’s global management team, reporting to the TMC Board. It sounds like he's going to be quite a busy man.  read more »

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.  read more »

What a hectic weekend of rallying. I flew down to Cape Town at 6am on Friday morning, and I managed to make it to the first stage just minutes before it started. The driving was impressive to say the least. I covered a rally last year, but I had forgotten the kind of speeds that these guys hit. It's a rush just watching the cars speed past.

The track was dry and exceptionally dusty. It was actually incredibly easy to see the progress of the rally, I just had to follow the dust clouds on the horizon. This did cause a problem for a lot of the drivers though. Reduced visibility meant that caution had to be exercised and valuable seconds were lost.  read more »

The morning started out very wet. That changed dramatically. The sun came out and temperatures soard to 34 degrees. This made the track incredibly dusty.

The battle for top spot raged on for most of the day. Gemmel entered stage 5 as the leader, but that soon chenged. Fekken put on an incredible display of rally prowess, and he lead stage 5 by 15 seconds. Very impressive. This performance ensured that Fekken would walk away with the lead.

These results are provisional :

1. Hergen Fekken, Pierre Arries (VW Polo)
2. Jan Habig, Douglas Judd (VW Polo)
3. Johnny Gemmel, Peter Marsh (Toyota Auris)
4. Mark Cronje, Robert Paisley (Toyota Auris)
5. Enzo Kuun, Guy Hodgson (VW Polo)
6. Wilken/van Niekerk (Subaru Impreza, Toyota RunX)  read more »

What a great day of rallying it was. The sun was out, conditions were a little dry (and very dusty), but perfect for a brilliant rally. This one was close.

The rally took place near the quaint town of Caledon. Although it is quite some distance from Cape Town (around two and a half hours), it is quite a spectacular setting for this rally.  read more »

I am looking forward to this coming weekend for quite a while now. Why? Well, it's the opening round of the 2009 Sasol SA Rally Championship. I'll be off to the Caledon region in the Western Cape on Friday, armed with my cameras and laptop to make sure that I can get as much coverage as possible. You'll recall that I went to cover the final round in the Cape last year and it was an immense amount of fun.  read more »