The local champs from Letsitele told the Herald that the two-day event which started on Friday, May 20 in Bredasdorp and ended on Saturday, May 21 at Klipdale was a very technical one.
The team, also known as Salom Rally Team, recorded zero points on the Friday as they had mechanical challenges.
“We had made a modification to our car with a new turbo engine. We couldn’t test the vehicle before the event and it turned out that we had an electrical problem, which costed us the first day,” explained Joubert.
Despite the gloominess of the first day, the local team dusted themselves off and prepared for day two in Klipdale.
The pair started on a short gear ratio, which did not allow them to run as they would have liked to.
They were 20km per hour slower in topping than the other cars in their category.
However, this did not stop them from winning the second leg of the event, which surprised most people.
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“We are happy with the final turnout of the event, this has also afforded us good points in our title defense campaign for 2022,” he added.
In 2021 Joubert said his team was the first private tier team in 60 years to win the championship without factory support, out of 19 total Toyota-wins.
A private tier team is not supported by the manufacturer, but at times by a dealership.
Joubert said he attributed his success to his entire team which includes Pieter Anker who is their mechanical and race engineer and Prep Shop in Rustenberg, responsible for preparing their car; as well as owner of the car, Tjaart van der Walt Jnr. Other support comes from Lowveld PPE, Tzaneen Printing Company, NTT Toyota and Gravel Charcoal.
Another local who was part of the event was Louis Menge who was navigating for Anton Raath.
On Friday their Ford Escort Cosworth rolled in stage four and was not able to compete on Saturday.
The next leg of the championship will be in Secunda from June 11-12, in July they will go to Jeffrey’s Bay and in August the championship will take place in Tzaneen.
All photos taken by Sharon Brink.
