Handbrakes and Hairpins Issue 11
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Serge Takes His Bow! Serge Damseaux, one of Toyota SA’s greatest brand ambassadors, has bowed out of motor sport competition as the driver to have won more South African championship rallies than anyone in history. His record of 74 wins between 1985 and 2007 surpassed the 66 victories recorded by another multiple rally champion, Sarel van der Merwe between 1974 and 1997. During his ultra-successful career Serge notched up all but one of his 74 wins in a Toyota and won 10 SA rally driver’s championships to the 11 Van der Merwe collected in his career. The quiet man from Somerset West was in with a shout to score his 75th rally win and thereby collect his record-equalling 11th driver’s title on the Toyota Dealer Rally that was held in Gauteng last weekend. But it was not to be. The South African rally “great” ended his competitive career on the first morning of the Dealer Rally when he and co-driver Robert Paisley were forced to retire their Castrol Toyota RunX when it was badly damaged after hitting a tree stump in the very muddy conditions. This was a sad ending to a great motor sport career, but Serge can still look back on an amazing run of successes, both as a rally and a racing driver. Although his major prominence was in the rally world, he was also a multiple racing champion. He raced and won in a wide variety of cars, from near-standard Group One models to highly modified cars competing in the Wesbank Challenge and also drove a Camry in the top-rated Super Touring Car Challenge. Another achievement nobody can take away from him was winning the Firestone Master Driver’s Challenge on both occasions this test of driving versatility was staged – once in Golfs and once in Toyota Conquests.