History of Team TOTAL (1996 – 2012)

What is Team Total?

The humble acorn grows into a mighty oak.  So, too, did Team Total find its origins in humble beginnings.  Created in 1996 as a vehicle for encouraging privateer rally drivers, Team Total is a unique privateer sponsorship programme in South African rallying that has enjoyed spectacular success.

Today, Team Total is a major force in the MSA National Rally Championship with four sponsored privateer crews in two of the four classes.

Total first became involved in rallying in 1957, when the oil company first sponsored the Total Rally, organised by the Pretoria Motor Club.  This event grew into what was arguably the premier rally in South Africa, attracting international participation.

Total withdrew its sponsorship of this event in 1977, as a result of the fuel crisis, and transferred its interest to the Total Economy Run.  Then, in 1991, Total returned to rally sponsorship when it once again supported the Pretoria Motor Club Rally.

By now Total had established itself as an event sponsor and there was an unwritten policy not to sponsor individuals.  At around this time an organisation called the National Rally Competitors Association was trying to encourage privateers to enter more national championship rallies.  The NRCA approached Total for assistance and the company established a petrol fund to assist privateer rally teams.

In 1993 the late Brian Duncan, then in retail market development, assumed responsibility for this initiative.  He was later to become Total's sponsorship and motor sport manager and oversaw the growth of Team Total into the considerable force it is in national championship rallying today.

Team Total really came into being as an entity after Total withdrew its sponsorship of three rounds of the national rally championship (Tour de Total in Natal, Total International Rally and Total Autumn Trial) at the end of 1995.  Not wanting to end its long and successful involvement with rallying, Total switched its traditional event sponsorship role to the support of individual rallyists through Team Total, with the accent on identifying young talent and helping it to grow.  Brian Duncan was appointed motor sport manager.

Etienne Lourens was the first official Team Total driver, competing in the team's now familiar red and white colours in 1996.  The following year he was joined by Barry Grobbelaar, and in 1998 the team grew to include seven crews (Lourens and co-driver Robert Paisley, Grobbelaar and Mike Burrows, Craig Trott and Brian Duncan, Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Pierre Arries, Gys Kleyn and Carolyn Swan, Cliff Blackman and Johan Klaasen, and Dean Sanders and Graham Hooper).

Five of the crews finished the season in the top 10 and the team took the top two places in the closely contested and prestigious Gp N championship, where all four Team Total crews finished in the top seven.

Total-supported privateers Hannes Grobler and Dave McGregor won the Gp N championship in their Nissan Sentra and were victors in class N3.

Lourens and Paisley again led the Team Total challenge in 1999 in their class A8 Toyota Corolla, with Gys Kleyn now paired with Johan Barnard and Carolyn Swan co-driving for new recruit Rodney Visagie.  Also new to the now nine-crew strong team were Allen Worms and Ashley Gericke.

1999 turned out to be Team Total's best year to date.  Five out of eight possible championships and six crews in the top 10.  Damseaux and Arries won class A6, Visagie and Swan won class N1, Sanders and Hooper won class N2 and Total-supported privateer Grobler (partnered by Nic Hadden) won class N3 as well as the overall Gp N championship for the second year in succession.

In 2000 Team Total consisted of Lourens and Paisley in a class A6 Toyota Corolla, Damseaux and new co-driver Johan Klaasen (also in a class A6 Corolla), Trott and new co-driver Gerhard Bezuidenhout, Grobler (now partnered by Duncan), Sanders and Hooper, Visagie and Swan and Schalk Burger junior and Greg Godrich.

This time it was Sanders and Hooper who emerged as overall Gp N champions (Team Total's third in a row) while winning class N2 in their Toyota Corolla.  Grobler and Duncan won class N3 and were second overall in the Gp N championship, while Visagie and Swan won their second successive class N1 title and were third overall in Gp N.

The long serving Lourens and Paisley were second in class A6.

Team Total also won the inaugural Almick Sponsors' Challenge, awarded to the team sponsor (other than a motor manufacturer) with the most points scored by all his entries combined.

The team enjoyed another good year in the dirt in 2001, but their success was overshadowed by the untimely death on September 20 of Brian Duncan after a short illness.  He and his long time friend Hannes Grobler had had a frustrating season in their class A7 Nissan Sentra, so it was a fitting end to the season when Grobler, partnered by Francois Jordaan, won class A7 (finishing fifth overall) and dedicated their victory to Duncan.

Lourens and Paisley came good in 2001, winning class A6 and finishing third overall in the national drivers' and co-drivers' championships.  Damseaux and Hooper were second in A6.

Sanders, partnered by Ashley Gericke, narrowly lost a third successive class N2 title with a mishap on the last event of the year.

Visagie and Swan contested the new class A5 in a Toyota Tazz and were almost invincible, winning seven of eight events and taking their third successive class title together.

With five of the six Team Total cars being Toyotas, South Africa's most successful privateer rally team once again made a significant contribution towards Toyota winning the prestigious manufacturers' award for the umpteenth time.

In 2002, Team Total consisted of Lourens and new co-driver Andre Vermeulen in a class A7 Toyota Corolla, Damseaux/Hooper and Trott/Bezuidenhout in class A6 Toyota Corollas, Visagie and Swan in their class A5 Toyota Tazz, Sanders and Gericke in their class N2 Toyota Corolla and newcomers Vusi Mabanga and Yende in a class N1 Toyota Tazz.

The biggest change in Team Total came at the end of 2005, when the size of the team was increased from six to 13 crews.

Last year there were 12 Team Total crews.  Highest-placed finishers in the championship were Jean-Pierre Damseaux/Cobus Vrey (9^th overall and sixth in their class S2000 Toyota RunX), Fernando Rueda/Gerhard Snyman (11^th overall and third in the Production Car category and class N4 in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) and Etienne Lourens/Andre Vermeulen (12^th overall and eighth in class S2000 in their Toyota RunX).

Chris de Witt and Dean Redelinghuys were second in class A7 in a Toyota RunX, Rodney Visagie and Arno la Grange won class N3 in a Toyota RunX from team-mates Michael Houghton/Hennie Botes in a similar car, with Mohammed Moosa/Henry Dearlove making it a Team Total 1-2-3 in their Toyota Corolla.

In class A6, Craig Trott and Carolyn Swan (Toyota RunX) won from team-mates Salie du Toit/Gert Janse van Rensburg (Toyota RunX).  Eugene Lourens was fourth in class A6 in a Toyota Conquest, while Vusi Mabanga was fourth in class A5 in a Toyota Tazz.  Lola and Megan Verlaque were sixth in class N4 in their Subaru Impreza STi

In 2008, Team Total remained the biggest privateer team in national championship rallying, with eight crews contesting each of the six classes. 

Jean-Pierre Damseaux and Cobus Vrey scored their first overall win in the S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX in the Cape Swartland Rally on their way to seventh in the championship. 

Chris de Witt and Dean Redelinghuys won the class A7 title with four wins in the eight rounds in a Team Total Toyota RunX. 

A strong two-car entry in class A6 saw reigning champion Craig Trott and new co-driver Tony Ball  win a second championship for Team Total in a Toyota RunX, ahead of team-mates Mohammed Moosa and new co-driver Grant Martin in a Toyota Corolla.

Vusi Mabanga and Shaun Visser contested class A5 in a Team Total and finished fifth.

In the production car championship, Fernando Rueda and new co-driver Gert van Rensburg in their Team Total Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 and sisters Lola and Megan Verlaque (the only all-woman crew) in a Team Total Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 finished third and eighth in class N4, with Rueda scoring a class win in the season-opening Tour Natal Rally.

Rodney Visagie successfully defended his class N3 title Carolyn Swan in a Team Total Toyota RunX.

With the exception of the Verlaques, all the members of the team returned for the 2009 season.  Damseaux and new co-driver Andre Vermeulen had a tough year, finishing just three rounds with a best result of second overall on the Rally of South Africa.

Rueda and Cobus Vrey made their S2000 debut in a Team Total Toyota RunX with a best result of fifth in the season-opening Total Tour Natal Rally.

De Wit and Redelinghuys finished third in class A7 after a frustrating season in which they were bedevilled by mechanical problems.  Moosa and Martin pipped team-mates Visagie and Swan to the class A6 title (between them they won seven of the eight rounds).  Trott and new co-driver Robbie Coetzee were third, making it a Team Total 1-2-3.

Mabanga and Visser made encouraging progress in their second season together, recording their first class win in round three.

Trott and Robbie Coetzee ensured that a reduced four-car Team Total finished the 2010 season with a championship win when they took the 1600 cc title in their Toyota RunX in the final round of the championship in the Toyota Dealer Gauteng Rally.

Damseaux, paired with Swan, was second in the privateers' championship in the class S2000 Team Total Toyota RunX..

Moosa and Grant Martin stepped up to the premier S2000 class in a Toyota RunX and finished 14^th in a season dominated by the seven factory cars from Volkswagen and Toyota.  They came back strongly from a major accident in the Total Tour Natal opening round, with a best result of sixth in the Rally of South Africa.

Fernando Rueda and Dave Lewkowicz, competing in their last rally together following Rueda's decision to retire at the end of the season, finished 12^th in S2000.  The Spanish-born Rueda's successful career in rallying in South Africa includes three Western Province championships, the African Rally Championship in 2003 and the national N4 championship, all in Mitsubishi Lancer Evos.  He joined Team Total in 2005 and spent the last two years in Toyotas.