The stakes will be high for Special Vehicle category teams locked in stalemate situations at the top of the overall and class championships when they head for the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race, round three of the Donaldson Cross Country Championship, from June 26 to 28.
The iconic event is the halfway mark in the season, and could be a turning point in the overall and Class A and Class P title chases. As matters stand all three championships are deadlocked and, as the song goes, something’s got to give.
Former champions Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen (Motorite BAT Viper) and Lance Trethewey/Geoff Minnitt (LTE BAT Venom), are locked together at the top of the overall and Class A championships. Both crews have scored a win and a second and find themselves 20 points clear of Brett Parker and co-driver VZ van Zyl – who won the Desert Race with Greg Daus way back in 2002 – in the Sizanani Plastics Jimco.
Based on results on the RFS Endurance and Sugarbelt 450, the Hutchison/Stassen and Trethewey/Minnitt combinations look to be the class horses in the field, and the danger for Parker/van Zyl and the crews behind them is that the championship could turn into a two horse race. Third placed Jimmy Zahos and Zaheer Bodhanya (Cobalt Racing Stryker) are 35 points behind the two leaders, with fourth placed John Thomson/Maurice Zermatten (Zarco Magnum) a further three points adrift.
As an aside, Hutchison and Stassen will be out to exorcise a spectre from last year. The pair looked set for a certain win when the car caught fire just three kilometres from the flying finish – providing further evidence that the Botswana event invariably provides for a sting in the tail.
With the race now run over two heats there are 60 points up for grabs, and it does not need rocket science to work out how important good results over the two days are for Hutchison/Stassen, Trethewey/Minnitt and those doing the chasing. The Desert Race places a premium on reliability, and this is a commodity that has been in short supply among the Class A and Class P teams so far this season.
Zahos/Bodhanya started off brightly with a maiden podium on the RFS Endurance and then fell by the wayside on the Sugarbelt 450. Coetzee and Sandra Labuscagne (ChemSystems Porter), former Desert Race winners Mark Corbett and Juan Mohr (Century Racing CR5) and Sarel von Biljon/Philip Herselman (Atlas Copco BAT) also go into the race with dodgy form behind them and need to pull something special out of the bag.
It has been a bleak start for brothers Edoardo and Ricardo Argazzi (BAT) who have yet to finish a race this season. For them and Keith Makenete/Moalosi Borotho (BAT) the main item on the agenda is survival over the two heats.
There will be plenty of local support for Botswana drivers Keith du Toit and Mogrey Mabille who will be out in BAT models. Du Toit, who finished on the podium with Keith Solomon in 2013, will be partnered this time by Robbie Coetzee with the experienced Zelda Niemand co-driving for Mabille.
There is also a tie at the top of the Class P championship. A win and a non-finish apiece has installed 2013 champions Thomson/Zermatten and KwaZulu-Natal pair James Watson and John Thompson in a BAT at the top of the log.
Consistency has previously been a strong point for Thomson and Zermatten and results over recent seasons probably positions them as slight favourites. Watson and Thompson, however, finished on the overall podium last year and a good scrap is likely to develop between the two crews.
But neither Thomson/Zermatten nor Watson/Thompson can match the enigmatic Colin Matthews and Rodney Burke, back in the Century Racing CR3 after an outing in a new Century Racing CR-T, for sheer pace and if they can see out the distance over the two heats Matthews and Burke could give the Class A crews a run for their money.
The class is also pepped up via the appearance of veteran Richard Carolin, out of action for a number of seasons, and brothers Ian and Gene Boshoff. The years will roll back for Carolin, partnered by Andrew Massey in the Zarco Magnum normally campaigned by Nic Goslar, who won the Desert Race 20 years ago with his brother Buks.
The Boshoff brothers, who previously campaigned in the Production Vehicle category, also reappear on the national scene in a pair of the new CR-T cars developed by Century Racing. Gene Boshoff will be partnered by Alan Keyser and brother Ian by Martin Hermida, with the crews and cars likely to come under close scrutiny.
Race headquarters, the start/finish and the designated service point will again be located at the Jwaneng Sports Club and adjoining showground facility. Public access to these areas will be controlled, but there is free entry into spectator viewing points along the route.
The qualifying race on June 26 to determine grid positions will be run over 100 kilometres and will start at 11:30. Heats one and two on June 27 and 28 will be run over two laps of approximately 250 kilometres – with a compulsory 20 minute stop after the first loop – and will start at 8:30.