EARLY PRODUCTION VEHICLE CHAMPIONSHIP
March 31, 2010 by ProMotor
EARLY PRODUCTION VEHICLE CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD FOR VISSER/BADENHORST
A popular victory on the Adenco 400 in the Western Cape has given Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst a flying start to the Production Vehicle championship in the Absa Off Road Championship.
Visser and Badenhorst, in the RFS/Visser Transport Toyota Hilux, romped to a comfortable win ahead of Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen (Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux) and veterans Hannes Grobler and Hennie ter Stege in the RFS Toyota Hilux. It was a first overall win for the racing Visser family since Chris’s father won the Roof of Africa in 1975.
It is going to take a while to sink in, but we had a great race,” said Visser, hugging his small daughter, after the race. “It was tough going in the sand but the vehicle was great, Japie was in form and it worked out well.”
Bertholdt and Vermeulen unobtrusively worked their way through the field to collect second place overall. It was a good start for the Atlas Copco pair as well as for Grobler and ter Stege who, despite being two of the most experienced campaigners around, were competing together for the first time.
The surprise package came in the form of Ramon and Maret Bezuidenhout who were fourth in their first outing in the Red Star Raceway Toyota Hilux. There was also a noteworthy Class SP debut for Mike Whitehouse and Mathew Carlson (Regent Racing Nissan Navara) who prevented a Toyota clean sweep of the top five places.
Although there are anomalies in off road championship scoring with different points allocated for overall and class positions, the top five in the overall title stakes remain the same in the class championship.
Reigning champions Dewald van Breda and Johann du Toit (Northam Toyota Hilux D4D) took the early lead in Class D. Competition is likely to hot up in the next few races, with three new Super D vehicles in the pipeline.
Rookies Gerald le Roux and Willem Pretorius also took an early lead in Class E. The pair scored a creditable win in their first ever national event in the Ruwacon Racing Ford Ranger which was last year campaigned by Louw de Bruin and Riaan Greyling.
The next race on the Absa Off Road Championship calendar is the Toyota Dealer 400 in Lydenburg on April 16 and 17. Race headquarters, the Donaldson Prologue start/finish and designated service point will all be at that the Rooikat Club. The start of the race will be as in the past at Lydenburg Toyota in Voortrekker Street. Entrance to the start/finish and designated service point as well as all spectator points on the route is free of charge.
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