The Motorite BAT Viper pair of Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen completed an almost perfect weekend when they won heat two in the Special Vehicle category at the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race, round three of the Donaldson Cross Country Championship, which ended here Sunday.
Former South African champions Hutchison and Stassen finished just over five minutes clear of former winners Mark Corbett and Juan Mohr, in the Century Racing CR5, to add to their victory in the first heat yesterday. The win was ample compensation for last year’s disappointment when Hutchison/Stassen were robbed of victory three kilometres from the finish when the car caught fire.
It was a win that also moves them clear at the top of the Special Vehicle championship. The only blemish for the pair was a second place finish on Friday’s qualifying race to determine grid positions.
“This is always a tough weekend and there were parts of today’s route I did not enjoy,” said Hutchison. “But that is all part of cross country racing and after last year we got a monkey off our backs.
“For the rest it was a good result for us and we are in a good place going into the second half of the season.”
Corbett and Mohr battled with a shock absorber problem during the second of two 210 kilometre loops that made up today’s race. It saw them come under pressure from Lance Trethewey and Geoff Minnitt, in the LTE BAT Venom, and at the finish less than a minute separated the two cars.
“With the shock absorber problem we were under pressure on the second loop,” said Corbett. “We knew we had to keep it smooth and stay out of trouble.”
For Trethewey and Minnitt, who went into the race joint championship leaders, it was a solid weekend. They finished fourth in heat one and a podium finish today keeps them very much in the championship frame.
Behind the first three there was a fairy tale result for Richard Carolin. Twenty years after winning the Desert Race overall with his brother Buks, the veteran Carolin won Class P with co-driver Andrew Massey in a Zarco.
“I haven’t driven a race car for three years so it took me a little while to adjust,” said Carolin. “The technology that now goes into these cars is incredible and the sequential gearbox was an absolute joy.
“Our only problem was a loss of driver/co-driver communications during the second loop, but the biggest plus was that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the weekend brought back some very fond memories.”
Carolin/Massey came in ahead of former Class P champions John Thompson and Maurice Zermatten, in another Zarco, with the father/daughter combination of Coetzee and Sandra Labuscagne (ChemSystems Porter) the only other classified finishers on what was a tough day for the Special Vehicle brigade. The only problem for the Labuscagne’s was a broken throttle cable 40 kilometres from the end of the first loop.
The next event on the Donaldson championship calendar is the Nkomazi 450 in Malalane, in Mpumalanga, on August 7 and 8.