Johnny Gemmell re-staked his claim for the 2009 Sasol Rally Driver?s Championship at the weekend?s Osram Rally held in the mountainous region bordering the Eastern Cape and Lesotho. Gemmell and Zimbabwean co-driver Peter Marsh drove their Castrol Toyota Auris to victory in the fastest rally of the season, with Castrol Toyota team mates Mark Cronje and Robert Paisley making it a clean-sweep for Toyota, finishing second, just 38 seconds behind the winners.

Third was Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson in the BP VW Polo, the only bright spot in what turned out to be a poor weekend for the Uitenhage-based squad. BP VW?s title favourites Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries suffered a puncture in their Polo in the long first Special Stage of the rally, and could only manage seventh overall.

Going into the Osram Rally, the sixth round of the 2009 championship, Fekken and Arries had a 14 point lead over Gemmell and Marsh. This lead has now been slashed to just three points, thanks to fine performances by Cronje in the second-placed Toyota, and the privateer New African Development Toyotas Auris of Japie van Niekerk and Robin Houghton, who finished in sixth place, just two seconds ahead of the Fekken Polo.

This performance by the three highest placed Toyotas secured the manufacturers? award for Toyota, which also increased its lead in the overall SA rally manufactuers? championship for 2009

Finishing a fine fourth overall, despite pre-rally doubts about the suitability of their production-based car for this event, was Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich in the Konica-Minolta Sasol Subaru Impreza, who also won the N4 Production Car class. The Impreza lost time on Stage One due to a loose wheel. Just nine seconds behind the Wilken/Godrich car was BP VW?s Jan Habig and Douglas Judd, who were also delayed in the first special stage with power steering failure.

The Toytotas did not escape the first stage unscathed either, as both suffered ?nose-dive? damage on landing after the fast ?yumps? on the stage, where speeds of up to 185 km/h are the norm.

In the class tussles, Chris de Witt and Dean Redelinghuys took the A7 win in their Team Total Toyota RunX. Mohammed Moosa and Grant Martin took the A6 win in their Team Total Toyota Auris, while the class A5 tussle saw Andre Cleenwerck and Des de Portier in their BP VW CitiGolf pip team mates Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin. Celebrating a class win and a 2009 championship title was Dave Compton and Pierre Jordaan, who took the N3 Production Car Class for the Sasol Toyota RunX team, and the class championship.

This was the third championship title to be sealed in 2009 and all three of them have gone to Sasol-backed teams. The Sasol-sponsored Wilken/Godrich Subaru had sewn up the N4 championship and the overall production Car championships in the previous round at the VW Rally in Port Elizabeth.

The Osram Rally was the sixth of eight rounds counting towards the 2009 Sasol South African Rally Championship.

Competitors can count their best seven results, and the championship is still wide open. The two remaining rounds are the BP Swartland Rally in the Western Cape on September 18/19, and the Gauteng Toyota Rally on October 23/24.

Results of the 2009 Osram Rally

1. J Gemmell/P Marsh (Castrol Toyota Auris) 1 hr 31 min 47 seconds

2. M Cronje/R Paisley (Catsrol Toyota Auris) + 38 seconds

3. E Kuun/G Hodgson (BP Volkswagen Polo) + 56 seconds

4. C Wilken/ G Godrich (Sasol Konica Minolta Subaru Impreza) + 140 seconds

5. J Habig/D Judd (BP VW Polo) + 147 seconds

6. J van Niekerk/R Houghton (New African Development Toyota RunX) + 158 seconds

7. H Fekken/P Arries (BP Volkswagen Polo) + 160 seconds

8. Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Andre Vermeulen (Team Total Toyota RunX)

9. Theuns Joubert/Hennie Botes (Volkswagen Polo)

10. Fernando Rueda/Cobus Vrey (Team Total Toyota RunX)

Class Winners

S2000: J Gemmell/P Marsh (Toyota Auris)

A7: C de Witt/D Redelinghuys (Toyota RunX)

A6: M Moosa/G Martin (Toyota Auris)

A5: A Cleenwerck/D de Portier (Volkswagen Citi-Golf)

N4: C Wilken/G Godrich ( Subaru Impreza STI)

N3: D Compton/P Jordaan (Toyota RunX RSi).