Yamaha team mates Jade Gutzeit and Brian Baragwanath were the respective winners of the motorcycle and quad categories of the Bell 400, Round 4 of SA Off-Road championship, run in seriously wet and muddy conditions in the Hluhluwe area of KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend.
Gutzeit took the lead from team mate, Louwrens Mahoney, who started first after winning Friday's 40km time trial but had to retire with engine problems after about 10km. Motocross rider Ross Branch (Honda) was also leading the race at one point and claimed his first off-road podium position with a storming second overall and second in the OR1 Open Class. Riaan van Niekerk (TM) won the OR2 Class and finished third overall after starting seventh.
Altus de Wet (KTM) finished fourth, beating OR3 class leader, Marc Torlage (Yamaha) who injured his knee during the time-trial, to take OR3 Class honours. Christopher Webster (Yamaha) was sixth with Juan "Bollie" van Rooyen (Kawasaki) seventh, only 13 seconds ahead of eighth-placed Jonathan van Wyk (Honda) who was third in OR3. Scott Scheepers (KTM) was ninth, while Webster's brother Jonathan finished tenth after an enforced pit stop to change a front sprocket.
Wayne Farmer (Gas Gas) lost time with a broken exhaust, but still won the Senior Class from arch-rival Guy Henley (Kawasaki). The technical conditions suited enduro rider, Steve Landman (Gas Gas) who finished third, ahead of Johan Gray (BMW) and Glen Croeser (KTM).
QUADS
The difficult racing conditions took their toll on four-wheeler riders - a number were forced to withdraw when they had to ride without goggles and mud got in their eyes. Baragwanath led from start to finish with tough-guy Namibian Philipie Baard (Honda) second despite an injured hand and David Hollis (Yamaha) achieving his best national-level result yet in third.
Vincent Loubser (Yamaha) posted his best result for the season in fourth, Cornel Kannemeyer (Suzuki) was fifth after losing time with electrical gremlins and Christopher Fell (Yamaha) finished sixth, ahead of Hannes Saaijman (Suzuki), Leonard dos Santos (Suzuki) and John Aylward (Yamaha) who was ninth and the last finisher. There were no Q2 (Open Class) finishers.
Only two senior competitors finished in the quad category where Amanda Eardley (Can-Am) beat Claude Newberry (Can-Am). She also won the Q3 4x4 Utility Class (her team mate Kobus Visser was second and Newberry third) and was the first finisher in the Ladies Quad Class where she beat second-placed Melissa van Rensburg (Yamaha) and Anita Uys (Kawasaki).
Visser also finished second in the Master Class where defending champion, Jurie Meyer (Yamaha) took his fourth consecutive win of the season. Geoff Ochse (Can-Am) finished third.
The fifth round of the 2011 SA Off-Road championship, the RORMC 400, will be run on August 26/27 in the Vredefort area of the North-West Province.