Tight and tricky course for Sugarbelt 450
Building on a season opening victory in the Special Vehicle category will be top of the agenda for Motorite Racing crew Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen on the Sugarbelt 450, round two of this year’s Donaldson Cross Country Championship, in KwaZulu-Natal on May 8 and 9.
Former South African champions Hutchison and Stassen, in the Motorite BAT Viper, got this season’s campaign off to a dream start with a win on the RFS Endurance in Harrismith. A convincing victory in conditions that led to a high attrition rate ensures that Hutchison/Stassen go into the race weekend high on confidence, with a platform from which to consolidate an early lead in the overall and premier Class A championships.
Sugarbelt 450 routes are always tight and tricky affairs and this year’s course will be no different. The trick is to find the balance between a racer’s instincts, and the need for the consistency that is always a vital part of winning championships.
Hutchison and Stassen are multiple South African champions, and will go into the weekend carrying the smart money. Contrary to expectations, however, their biggest threat is likely to come not from the Class A ranks, but from Class P and the new Century Racing CR-T in the hands of Colin Matthews and Rodney Burke.
Few Special Vehicle crews can match Matthews and Burke for sheer pace, and in the tight conditions the Class P runners have a slight manoeuvrability advantage. But hanging over Matthews is always the matter of whether he can marry a heavy right foot to a modicum of circumspection.
Reliability has been a hindrance for Mark Corbett and Juan Mohr in the Century Racing CR5. If they can avoid technical issues Corbett and Mohr will be strong victory contenders, along with Lance Trethewey and Geoff Minnitt in the LTE BAT Venom that, in Motorite colours, carried Hutchison and Stassen to a South African championship.
Trethewey is a local favourite and home ground advantage always carries with it a psychological boost. The Trethewey/Minnitt combination were a solid second on the RFS Endurance, and go about their work in a fashion that is almost always guaranteed to produce good results.
The RFS event produced a maiden podium finish for Jimmy Zahos and Zaheer Bodhanya in the Cobalt Racing Stryker. Zahos is cast in the same mould as Matthews and a lack of consistency has been a perennial problem.
A solid weekend in the Free State produced an encouraging result for Brett Parker and VZ van Zyl, in the Sizanani Plastics Porter, and they will have their sights set on another top five finish. But for other Class A runners like Sarel van Biljon/Philip Herselman (Atlas Copco BAT), Coetzee/Sandra Labuscagne (ChemSystems Porter) and brothers Eduardo and Ricardo Argazzi (BAT) the main focus will be to get a finish on the board and pocket some points.
The majority of the Class P runners are in the same boat. Only KZN crew James Watson and John Thompson (BAT), the class winners, and Matthews/Burke saw out the distance on the RFS Endurance. That has given them a hefty early championship advantage and the likes of reigning drivers champion John Thomson and Maurice Zermatten (Zarco Magnum) have plenty of ground to make up.
Race headquarters, the start/finish and the designated service point will all be based at the Beaumont Eston Farmers Club with public entrance to these areas and spectator points along the route free of charge. The 100 kilometre qualifying race to determine grid positions will start at 11:30 on May 8 with the race, to be run over two 160 kilometre loops with a 20 minute service halt after the first lap, to start at 08:30 on Saturday, May 9.