TOYOTA GAZOO Racing SA’s Guy Botterill and co-driver
Simon Vacy-Lyle showed promise during the opening rounds of the
2022 South African National Rally Championship (NRC) held in the
Western Cape last month. Unfortunately, teething problems with their all-new
Toyota Starlet rally car saw them unable to score meaningful points during either day of the event. As such, the pair will be hunting for significant points at this weekend’s
Lake Umuzi Rally, held in the area surrounding the
Mpumalanga town of
Secunda.
“The new car is clearly very fast, and we haven’t even tapped into its true potential yet,” says
Botterill. “We’ve made a number of changes to the car since the last event, and we’re hoping for better reliability this time around.”
The
Toyota Starlet rally car was fully built and developed in
South Africa, and represents the Durban-based team’s first development of this nature. Despite their relative lack of experience in terms of designing and building a car from scratch, it was immediately evident at the
Cape Overberg Rally that they’ve built a highly competitive rally car.
“Now we just need to work on the reliability, which is to be expected with a completely new car,” continues
Botterill. “We’ll be pushing hard to make up the ground we lost in the championship during the opening rally, but need to strike a balance between good results and ensuring that we finish both days of the event.”
The
Lake Umuzi Rally will represent Rounds 3 and 4 of the
2022 SANRC, with the first round taking place on Friday, June 10th. The second round follows on Saturday, utilising different stages. Details of the timing and rally itinerary will be made available via the
SANRC Facebook page later in the week.
