Production Vehicle category will again be ultra-competitive
Two factory heavyweights slugging it out, with a number of talented privateers trying to steal their thunder, make for an inviting Production Vehicle category bill of fare when this year’s Donaldson Cross Country Championship gets underway with the RFS Endurance in Harrismith on March 27 and 28.
The Free State event also ushers in a new-look Donaldson series with six instead of eight events with sprint and endurance races and a marathon race providing competitors with new challenges. What has not changed, however, is the competitive nature of the championship and there are some stirring battles waiting to be fought as the season unfolds.
Team Castrol Toyota and Ford Performance provide the factory muscle in the premier Class T for vehicles above four litres with independent suspension, but there is no shortage of privateers who could turn out to be a pain in the neck for the big guns. The situation in Class S, for vehicles up to four litres with solid axle rear suspension, is more straightforward with a no holds barred confrontation between Toyota, Nissan and Ford teams who will engage in a turf war.
Reigning champions Anthony Taylor and Dennis Murphy, looking to make it three titles in a row, and Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie give the Team Castrol Toyota Hilux squad a powerful hand. The two crews will be out in Dakar Rally spec machinery, and you would have to be out of your mind to leave them out of the championship equation.
Much the same goes for the Ford Performance team where the status quo is restored with Chris Visser/Japie Badenhorst and Lance Woolridge/Ward Huxtable out in a pair of Ford Rangers. Visser missed most of last season and Woolridge the entire season recovering from neck and back injuries, and motivation levels will be high.
And then there are the privateers. Mpumalanga brothers Johan and Werner Horn, in the Malalane Toyota Hilux, conjured up a dream Class T debut season last year to finish second in the overall and Class T championships.
The trick will be to produce the same high levels this time out, and that will be no easy task. High standards will also be expected of Gary Bertholdt and Siegfried Rousseau (Atlas Copco Ford Ranger) who were part of the Ford factory setup last season, and Johan van Staden/Mike Lawrenson (Regent Racing Nissan Navara) who switch allegiance after campaigning in recent seasons under the Atlas Copco banner.
Two other youngsters in Jason Venter and Vincent van Allemann (4×4 Meg World Toyota Hilux) will be out to prove their championship potential, and to demonstrate a growing maturity. On the subject of youngsters, another Woolridge will appear on the scene with Gareth Woolridge, younger brother of Lance, linking up with Boyd Dreyer in another Ford Ranger with an influx of talent for the future always a pleasing development.
Dewald and Anton Nienaber (Toyota Hilux) also fall into the newcomer category with the likes of Malcolm Kock/Johann Burger (Kock and Sons Toyota Hilux), Hennie de Klerk/Johann Smalberger (BMX X3) and the Harrismith-based brother/sister team of Jacques and Lizelle van Tonder (Uni Freight Ford Ranger) among those who know their way around the Donaldson championship. The Regent Racing Nissan Navara challenge in Class T is also rounded out with a touch of experience via drivers Terence Marsh and Jurgen Schroder.
Former Special Vehicle champion Marsh will be accompanied by television personality Marius Roberts, the first of the Imperial Auto Celebrity Challenge co-drivers, while Schroder will link up with Michael Abramson. Schroder, like van Staden and Lawrenson, will also be pumped up after a finish on the Dakar Rally early in the year.
Bookmakers, in setting up the Class T odds for the RFS Endurance and the rest of the season, would without a doubt favour the factory heavyweights. The beauty of cross country racing, however, is the unpredictable nature of human error and mechanical failure that levels the playing field.
In choosing the Class S odds the bookmakers would have a far more difficult task. There is no single crew that would dominate the betting in a category that looks to have the potential to develop into a dogfight.
Deon Venter (4×4 Mega World Toyota Hilux), runner-up in last year’s driver championship, will fancy his chances to go one better. Venter is never short of self-confidence, and will link up with Jaco van Aardt in a category given added impetus by Portuguese pair Rómulo Branco and João Serôdio in a Regent Racing Nissan Navara.
The Portuguese pair have two class wins in the FIA Cross Country World Cup, and link up with Luke Botha/Andre Vermeulen and Sean Reitz/Gerhard Schutte in the Regent Racing squad. Local crew Freddie and Sune Kriel (Uni Freight Ford Ranger) will be looking to exploit local knowledge, and family ties continue via another husband/wife team in Marius and Jolinda Fourie in the PHB Toyota Hilux.
The opposition ranks also include the likes of Etienne Nienaber/Gabriel de Wet (Toyota Hilux), Heine Strumpher/Henri Hugo (Toyota Hilux) and Piet Kotze/Dawie Lange in another Toyota Hilux.
Under the new Donaldson Cross Country Championship race format, the RFS Endurance will be run over a distance of 698 kilometres. This will be made up of a 196 kilometre qualifying race to determine grid positions, and two laps of 251 kilometres with a compulsory 20 minute halt at the end of the first loop.
It is a format that provides teams with a new slant on overall race tactics. How the various teams approach matters simply adds to the intrigue.
Race headquarters, the start/finish and the designated service park will all be located at the La La Nathi resort on the outskirts of Harrismith. Public entrance to these areas and spectator viewing points along the route is free of charge.
The qualifying race will start at 10:30 on March 27 and the race at 07:30 the following day.
SPECIAL VEHICLE TACTICAL BATTLE LOOMS ON RFS ENDURANCE
Crews competing in the Special Vehicle category in the Donaldson Cross Country Championship, which opens with the RFS Endurance in Harrismith on March 27 and 28, will need to call on plenty of tactical acumen and the ability to think on their feet.
The event ushers in changes to the championship calendar – with a reduction in events from eight to six – and new race formats. These include sprint and endurance races and a lone marathon event with the Free State event to be run over a distance of 698 kilometres.
This is made up of a 196 kilometre qualifying race to determine grid positions, and two 251 kilometre loops with a compulsory 20 minute halt after the first lap. The length of the qualifying event and a tad over 500 kilometres of racing distance open up new tactical options and crews will have to be able to adapt their game plans.
The premier Class A and Class P fields look to be more open than in previous seasons, and that sets up an interesting scenario for the rest of the series. It also highlights the need for a fast start to a season where the constant change of race format is going to provide teams with an additional challenge.
In Class A there are a number of crews who one would single out as championship contenders. They are led by former champions Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen in the Motorite BAT Viper, Sarel van Biljon and Phillip Herselman in the Atlas Copco BAT Spec 5, ), Mark Corbett and Juan Mohr in the Century Racing CR5 and Lance Trethewey/Geoff Minnitt (LTE BAT Venom).
Of that quartet Hutchison/Stassen, over an entire season, would probably carry the smart money but the Atlas Copco pair, Trethewey/Minnitt and Corbett/Mohr and the all have the ability to win races. However, the ability to win races has to be accompanied by reliability and consistency and therein lies the key to championship success.
Brett Parker and VZ van Zyl, in the Sizanani Plastics Jimco, had their moments last season, but will need to up their game if they are to challenge for race wins. Much the same applies to Andre Fourie/Hendrik Pienaar (PHB BAT), Keith Makenete/ Moalosi Borotho (BAT) and Jimmy Zahos and Zaheer Bodhanya in the Cobalt Racing Stryker.
Newcomers Lourens and Carien Booysen (BAT) are an unknown quantity, while the father/daughter combination of Coetzee and Sandra Labuscagne move up a notch after a couple of seasons in Class P. The pair has taken over the race winning Porter previously campaigned by Philip de Vries and Johan Viljoen, and in the plus column can tick off the experience box.
There is, of course, always a crew capable of throwing matters into disarray. In this case it is Class P pair Colin Matthews and Rodney Burke in the Century Racing CR3.
None of the other Class P crews can match Matthews/Burke for sheer pace. And when they manage to put together a trouble free run, the Century Racing pair pose a major threat to the Class A brigade.
Reliability is the key for Matthews and Burke with little to choose between the other Class P championship contenders. Swazi-based driver John Thomson and Maurice Zermatten (Zarco Magnum) and KwaZulu-Natal pair James Watson and John Thompson (BAT) will resume a rivalry that last season saw Thomson win the driver championship, and Thompson the co-driver title when Zermatten missed the final race of the season.
Andrew Makenete/Ntoate Bereng, Nic Goslar/Andrew Massey and Grant Watkins/Mark Irvine will be out in a trio of Zarco models, with another KZN crew in Leon Bothma and Quinton Brand out in a BAT. The BAT challenge is bolstered by John Telford/Victor Ntsekhe in the Calcamite entry, and veteran Ernest Corbett and Martin Hermida will also make a rare appearance in the Century Racing CR2.
Race headquarters, the start/finish and the designated service park will all be located at the La La Nathi resort on the outskirts of Harrismith, with public access to these areas free of charge. There is also no entry fee to spectator points along the route, and spectator guides and catering by local schools will be available at race headquarters.
The qualifying race will start at 10:30 on March 27 and the race at 07:30 the following day.