The iron grip the Toyota Gazoo Racing SA factory team has on the Production Vehicle category showed no sign of slacking when Leeroy Poulter/Rob Howie led home team-mates Anthony Taylor/Dennis Murphy on the RFS Endurance Race, opening round of the Donaldson Cross Country Championship, in Vryburg Sunday.
Reigning champions Poulter and Howie finished three minutes and 17 seconds clear of former champions Taylor and Murphy to take the overall and FIA Class honours. Toyota went through last season unbeaten, with the new FIA Class allowing teams to run cars to FIA Group T1 specifications that apply to the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup and the Dakar Rally.
“It was a near perfect weekend for us,” said Poulter. “It was a very fast route but we did not pick up any problems, and it was a good start to the season for the whole team.”
The race was run over two laps of 245 kilometres, and behind the two Toyota Hilux big guns there was a terrific result for young privateers Jason Venter and Vincent van Allemann in the 4×4 Mega World Toyota Hilux. The pair has worked their way through the Production Vehicle ranks, and the final place on the podium also gave them overall honours in Class T where cars must now run with solid axle rear suspension and commercially available tyres.
The young North West crew were followed home by the consistent Johan van Staden and Mike Lawrenson (Red-Lined Motorsport Nissan Navara), with former champion Chris Visser and Ward Huxtable completing the top five in the Neil Woolridge Motorsport/Ford Performance Ranger. Both crews profited from the demise of Pretoria crew Christiaan du Plooy and Henk Janse van Vuuren, in the RFS Amarok, who started the day in third place after a strong showing in the qualifying race.
Behind the Class T cars Brazilian crew Cristian Baumgart and Beco Andreotti (NWM/Rally X Ford Ranger) again produced a solid performance. The pair started and finished the day in sixth overall and did enough to make sure of third place in the FIA Class.
The Brazilians were followed home by two more Class T cars with another steady performance lifting Hennie de Klerk and Adriaan Roets into seventh place in the Treasury One BMW X3. De Klerk and Roets were just over a minute clear of Mpumalanga brothers Johan and Werner Horn (Malalane Toyota Hilux) who had a good day in moving from 15th at the start to eighth.
Ninth place went to a second Brazilian crew in Marcos Baumgart and Kleber Cincea in another NWM/Rally X Ford Ranger who lost a little ground during the course of the day. Both the Ford Rangers were built in Pietermaritzburg by Neil Woolridge Motorsport, with the two Brazilian crews taking advantage of the introduction of the FIA Class.
It was also a good day for Luke Botha and Andre Vermeulen, in another of the Red-Lined Motorsport Nissan Navaras. After a disappointing qualifying race they worked their way into the top 10 finishing ahead of the likes of Malcolm Kock/Johan Burger (Kock and Sons Toyota Hilux), Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer (NMW/Ford Performance Ranger) and Gary Bertholdt and former national rally champion Pierre Arries in the new Atlas Copco VW Amarok.
Apart from du Plooy and Janse van Vuuren the other big losers on the day were Terence Marsh and TV personality Marius Roberts (Red-Lined Motorsport Nissan Navara) and Kimberley based newcomers Otto Graven and Bobby Brewis in a Graven Motorsport Toyota Hilux. Marsh/Roberts were handily placed when they hit a rock and rearranged the Navara’s front suspension while Graven/Brewis, who started the day leading Class S for cars under four litres, also fell by the wayside.
The next event on the Donaldson calendar is a new innovation, a one day Super Sprint Race, on 7 May in Vredefort in the Free State.
CHAMPIONS CRUISE TO RFS VRYBURG ENDURANCE VICTORY
Reigning Special Vehicle champions Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen overcame a potential disaster to score what was ultimately a comfortable win on the RFS Endurance Race, the opening round of this year’s Donaldson Cross Country Championship, which ended in Vryburg today.
It was the perfect start for the Motorite BAT Viper crew, but they were given a scare via a gearbox problem after Hutchison/Stassen won the qualifying race to determine race grid positions. The problem was fixed and Hutchison/Stassen cruised to victory more than 12 minutes ahead of Atlas Copco BAT pair Sarel van Biljon and Philip Herselman.
“We sorted out the gearbox scare, and had a clean run today,” said Hutchison. “It was a fast and dusty route, but we have to be satisfied with the best possible start to the season.”
There was also plenty of space between van Biljon/Herselman and third placed Keith Makenete/Greg Godrich (BAT) who slipped back one slot after starting the day in second place. It was the first podium finish in Makenete’s career.
There was a fair bit of movement up and down the leader board during the two 245 kilometre loops that made up the race. The husband and wife team of Marius and Jolinda Fourie (PHB BAT) disappeared off the radar after starting the day in fourth place.
Jimmy Zahos and Zaheer Bodhanya, in the Cobalt Racing Stryker, moved the other way and, after finishing ninth on the qualifying race, they produced a strong performance to work their way up to fourth at the finish. Botswana crew Keith du Toit and Robbie Coetzee (White Star Racing BAT) were also on the move and after starting 10th on the road completed the top five.
Du Toit and Coetzee were given a little help when former South African champions Quintin and Kallie Sullwald, in the Motorite BAT Venom, were hit with a 10 minute penalty for a jump start. That dropped the Sullwalds, who missed the whole of last season, down to sixth place.
Australian Dave McShane and Leander Pienaar (Fox Racing Porter) were next up and well clear of a tremendous battle for eighth place and Class P honours between newcomers Willem du Toit/Bertus Goussard, in a CR-T, and reigning champions John Thomson and Maurice Zermatten in a Zarco.
Swaziland driver Thomson and Zermatten started the day around seven minutes clear of du Toit/Goussard who chipped away at the lead. They eventually finished just 12 seconds clear of Thomson/Zermatten to take a maiden national class victory.
Stefan van Pletzen and Jaco Pieterse (Chenowth) also dropped down the order but hung onto 10th place ahead of Lourens/Carien Booysen (BAT) and John Telford/Victor Ntsekhe in the Calcamite Hellcat. That also gave the Calcamite pair third place in Class P.
The next race on the Donaldson calendar is a one day Super Sprint event on May 7 in Vredefort.