Polokwane, Limpopo - Leeroy Poulter and Elvéne Coetzee (Toyota Yaris) finally broke Toyota's long national rally championship drought - dating back to 2004 - when they clinched the 2014 title with a win in the penultimate round, the Polokwane Motor Rally, in Limpopo at the weekend.
In a rally of attrition that saw five of the nine runners in the premier S2000 class for four-wheel drive cars and three of the 11 contenders in the S1600 class for two-wheel drive cars forced to retire on the first day, Poulter and Coetzee stamped their authority on the event from the second special stage on Friday, winning six of the 11 special stages, four on Friday and two on Saturday.
The early demise of defending champions Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton (Ford Fiesta), who damaged their suspension after hitting a gate post on the second special stage on Friday after recording the fastest time in the opening stage, did Poulter and Coetzee's cause no harm. Only the visiting Dutch driver Hans Weijs Junior, (VW Polo), fourth in the point standings before this weekend's penultimate round, Cronje and Houghton, third in the standings, and Poulter and Coetzee's team-mates Hergen Fekken and Carolyn Swan, second on the log, had a realistic chance of overhauling them in the two remaining rounds.
As it turned out, only Weijs, without regular co-driver Bjorn Degandt of Belgium, whose father was unwell and who was replaced by countryman Hans van Goor, was able to complete all 11 special stages, finishing second overall, two minutes in arrears, in his best result of the season.
Fekken and Swan's challenge was nullified when they lost 10 minutes in special stage seven after finishing Day 1 in second, 30 seconds behind their team-mates. They retired on stage 10 with alternator problems, but were classified as finishing 11th under Super Rally rules and scored half points, to put them third in the championship behind Weijs and out of championship contention.
NON-FINISHERS
Henk Lategan and Barry White (VW Polo) had started the event with the slimmest of mathematical chances of catching Poulter and Coetzee. However, they were forced to withdraw on Friday with engine problems on stage two and started Day 2 under Super Rally rules, only to retire again after stage nine and be classified as non-finishers.
Third overall - and the only finisher in the S2000 Challenge for older specification four-wheel drive cars - were Namibia's Wilro Dippenaar and South African co-driver Kes Naidoo (Toyota Auris). They improved from fifth at the overnight stop in Polokwane on Friday to record their best result of the season, finishing only 2m20s behind the winners.
Fourth were former S2000 Challenge winners Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin (VW Polo), 2m30s in arrears.
Giniel de Villiers, winner of round six in the Western Cape with Greg Godrich in semi-works Toyota Yaris, was out of luck with co-driver Pierre Arries, standing in for an ill Godrich. Electrical problems forced them out on Friday and they returned on Saturday under Super Rally rules to finish fifth and score half points.
With one round remaining in November, at a venue still to be decided, and a maximum of 25 points on offer, Poulter and Coetzee have 149 points to the 105.5 of Weijs and the 100.5 of Fekken and Swan, and cannot be beaten.
Sixth overall in the combined S2000/S1600 field and winners of the S1600 two-wheel drive class were Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle (Toyota Etios R2), who won four of the 11 stages on their way to a 1min32sec win over Paulus Franken and Henry Kohne (VW Polo). They have now wrapped up this championship and cannot be caught in the final round.
Third at the overnight stop and third at the finish were Ernie van der Walt and James Aldridge (Ford Fiesta R2) ahead of Matthew Vacy-Lyle and Schalk van Heerden (Toyota Etios R2), and Andrew Heine and Robbie Coetzee (VW Polo).