GREAT WEEKEND FOR CASTROL WORLDWIDE

Release date: 21 April 2011

Castrol-sponsored teams had a very successful motor sport weekend on both four and two wheels on April 15-17, both on both rally routes and race circuits and in both national and international events.

Highlights were a very important local rally win, second place by 0,2 sec in the Jordan Rally, a WRC event, and a race win in World Superbikes.

Here in South Africa the big news was a dominant 1-2 for the Castrol Toyota team in the country’s premier rally, the Sasol Rally, which was a qualifying round in the African Rally Championship this year as well as being the second event in the 2011 SA Rally Championship.

It saw Leroy Poulter, an outstanding motor sport talent on race circuits or rally and off-road racing routes, take his maiden victory at the wheel of a factory-entered Castrol Toyota Auris after less than two years driving in rallies. In addition, it was also the first national championship win for his new co-driver, Elvene Coetzee, who became the fifth women to win a round of the SA Rally Championship in its 51st year of existence.

This victory was also the 100th recorded by the driver of a Toyota car in the SA Rally Championship, which was contested for the first time in 1960.

Leroy and Elvene’s Castrol Toyota teammates Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock took a strong second place, 8,6 sec behind the winners.

The factory BP Castrol Volkswagen team did not have a good event, with Jan Habig and Robert Paisley rolling out of contention when they were in the lead, and Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries and Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson finishing down the order in 7th and 12th positions respectively.

The Castrol-supported Ford Fiesta S2000 of Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich finished sixth in the Sasol Rally, while the S1600 Ford Fiesta of Ashley Haigh-Smith and Hilton Auffray, which also has Castrol backing, was forced to retire early in the event.

Meanwhile in Jordan the Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala and his co-driver Miika Antilla were beaten by 0,2 sec. in the fourth round of the World Rally Championship in their BP Castrol-sponsored Fiesta. This was the narrowest winning margin in World Rally Championship history.

The rally was won by Sebastien Ogier (Citroën) with his team leader, Sebastien Loeb in third place and Ford’s Mika Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen in fourth place. The Ford drivers are currently lying second and fourth in the driver’s championship standings while Ford and Citroën both have 130 points after four events.

Castrol’s second victory of the weekend came in the first Superbike race at Assen in Holland, where Johnny Rea took the chequered flag on the Castrol Honda after leading from the fourth lap to the finish. He was third in the second race. Fabien Foret finishes second in the Supersport race on the Hannspree Honda to complete another successful weekend of motor sport for the company that says “it is more than oil, it is liquid engineering.”