• Guy Botterill and Simon Vacy-Lyle finished the shortened national rally championship season unbeaten.
• The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA pair won six out of six rallies.
• Their most recent win was the TracN4 Rally.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA rally team of Guy Botterill and navigator Simon Vacy-Lyle rounded of their National Rally (NRC) championship in emphatic style by making a clean sweep in the TracN4 Rally held on 27 and 28 November 2020.
The duo were victorious in Rounds 5 and 6 and continued their unbeaten run in the 2020 season in their Class R4 Toyota Etios and took the shortened season with a perfect score of six out of six victories.
The pair clinched the title at the Delmas double-header in November, putting their four-wheel drive Etios on the top step of the podium with a win on Friday.
The duo won the title in 2019 started second round of the Mpumalanga double-header as the new 2020 champions.
"That makes it seven championships in a row and four consecutive South African National Championships – quite phenomenal for us as a small, privately-run team, albeit with the support and sponsorship of Toyota Gazoo Racing SA," said an elated Botteril on Friday night, with one round remaining.
The team suffered a puncture on the final stage with nine kilometres left. "We decided to keep going, which was the right call, because our lead was only 1 minute 23 seconds and we would have struggled to change a wheel in that time. We kept on going and made it to the end, winning the stage!" Botteril said.
Won with only three wheels
Botteril and Vacy-Lyle hung onto their lead in the last stage and in spite of taking it easy on three wheels, increased the gap over runners-up Theuns Joubert and Charl Peskin in a Yaris by crossing the finishing line one minute and 44 seconds ahead of the pack.
For the champions the final two rounds cemented their position as the rally leaders on the South African rally scene. "Now we are looking forward to the Africa Rally Championship early in the new year, but first a relaxed year-end break!", Botterill concluded.
