Castrol Team Toyota Hilux driver Leeroy Poulter is within touching distance
of another entry into the South African motorsport record books.After winning the Production Vehicle category on the Nkomazi 450, round four of the Donaldson Cross Country Championship, the versatile Poulter and co-driver Rob Howie are in a near impregnable position in both the overall and premier Class T title chases.
Their third outright win of the season – to go with a heat one win on the Toyota 1000 Desert Race – leaves Poulter and Howie 44 points clear of Castrol Team Toyota team-mates Anthony Taylor and Dennis Murphy.
The salient factor, however, is that there are only two events remaining
with a total of 60 points up for grabs. That puts everyone bar Taylor/Murphy
out of the championship running, and leaves Poulter poised to add the
Donaldson Cross Country Championship to the South African Rally Championship
he won last year with co-driver Elvéne Coetzee.
It does not, however, end there. Poulter has also been winning regional,
national, European and world championships in motocross, karting and circuit
racing since he was a boy in short pants. Add national cross country and
rally titles and a Dakar rally top 20 finish to that list, and you have one
of the most versatile and successful competitors in South African motorsport
history.
A non finish on the Nkomazi 450 for Taylor and Murphy has taken much of the
sting out of the championship battles. A miserable weekend for the Ford
Performance factory team and Ford privateers also saw Mpumalanga brothers
Johan and Werner Horn (Malalane Toyota Hilux) and North West youngsters
Jason Venter and Vince van Allemann (4×4 Mega World Toyota Hilux), move into
joint third place in the title chases.
The Horns and Venter/van Allemann leapfrog Gary Bertholdt/Siegfried Rousseau
(Atlas Copco Ford Ranger), who missed the Mpumalanga event, and Lance
Woolridge/Ward Huxtable, in the Ford Performance Ranger. Bertholdt/Rousseau
and Woolridge/Huxtable have also been joined in fourth place by Regent
Racing Nissan Navara pair Johan van Staden and Mike Lawrenson.
In Class T, for cars above four litres with independent rear suspension, the
top three remain unchanged with Poulter/Howie leading Taylor/Murphy.
Venter/van Allemann and the Horn brothers are again tied for third while van
Staden/Lawrenson move into fourth place one point ahead of Woolridge and
Huxtable.
The championship situation in Class S, for cars up to four litres with solid
axle rear suspension, is a lot more fluid although it is also shaping up to
be a battle between two crews. A second win of the season on the Nkomazi
event took Portuguese crew Rómulo Branco and João Serôdio in the Regent
Racing Nissan Navara, to within nine points of North West crew Heine
Strumpher and Henri Hugo in the 4×4 Mega World Toyota Hilux.
Third placed Freddie and Sune Kriel (Uni Freight Ford Ranger) missed the
Mpumalanga race with Deon Venter/Jaco van Aardt (4×4 Mega World Toyota
Hilux) hit by non finish. Both the Kriels and Venter/van Aardt are, however,
still in with a mathematical chance of sneaking in the back door.
The next event on the Donaldson championship calendar is the Vryburg
Endurance in North West province on September 11 and 12. The weekend will
also incorporate a round of the Northern Regions Cross Country Championship.