THE Castrol Toyota team finally cracked a win in the production car category when Anthony Taylor and Robin Houghton won the RFS Magalies 400, the last race in the 2009 Absa off-road series, at the weekend.

Between them Taylor and Houghton and teammates Hein Lategan and Chris Birkin have at some stage or other led every event but one this season – without a win.

But it finally all fell into place for Taylor and Houghton who battled from sixth at the start to win by just short of two minutes.

Second place went to veteran Hannes Grobler and Juan Mohr in a Donaldson Nissan Navara.

Grobler was having his last outing in a Nissan after a 33-year association with the company.

He sneaked home ahead of the second Castrol Toyota of Hein Lategan and Chris Birkin within 100 metres of the finish – with the margin between the two teams just two seconds after 400km.

It was Toyota’s second win of the season with the other victory having gone to privateers Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen in the Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux.

Provisional scoring also saw Toyota wrap up the manufacturers’ championship. Five of the six wins scored by the Donaldson Nissan team went to national champions Duncan Vos and Ralph Pitchford.

But the pair ran out of luck at the weekend.

After having started first on the road, they dropped back via a puncture.

They then ran into the back of Bertholdt and Vermeulen and damaged the radiator. A miserable day ended when the Navara’s engine went into “idle mode” and forced the champions to retire. Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst, in the RFS Toyota Hilux, led at the designated service point after the first loop, but retired with a broken engine.

That let Taylor and Houghton into the lead with Grobler and Mohr sneaking ahead of Lategan and Birkin 100 metres from the finish.

Norwegian Ivar Tollefsen and Briton Quin Evans were fourth in another of the Donaldson Nissan Navara entries. There was drama aplenty in Classes D and E where provisional scoring saw championships decided by a single point.

In Class D, reigning champion Cliff Weichelt and Johann Smalberger (N1 4x4 Toyota Hilux D4D) cruised to a comfortable win over former Blue Bulls’ scrum-half Coetzee Labuscagne and Johan Gerber in the Raysonics Nissan Hardbody.

Third place for Dewald van Breda and Johann du Toit, in the Northam Toyota Hilux D4D saw Van Breda sneak the drivers’ championship by a single point.

Du Toit had already won the co-driver championship, and the pair had to bounce back from starting at the back of the field after failing to finish the prologue.

A single point was also the final margin in Class E.

Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux (RFS Toyota Hilux) took a second successive championship despite blowing an engine and failing to finish.

The win went to Pikke Labuschagne and Rikus Erasmus, in the 4x4 Megaworld Toyota Hilux.

Meanwhile, the father and son team of Nick and Ryan Harper ended the season on a high note when they won the special vehicle category at the event, which ended at Tarlton International Raceway near Krugersdorp.

Provisional results saw the win ensure the Harpers, in the Atlas Copco BAT, finish second in the overall and Class A championships behind high-flying Evan Hutchison and Achim Bergmann in the Motorite Revo1.

Hutchison and Bergmann, who scored four wins during the year, dropped out of this weekend’s race when a string of punctures left them stranded.