Ford Racing's former South African champions Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst made sure the Production Vehicle championship stayed alive when they won the Human Auto 400, penultimate round of the SA Off Road Championship in Thaba 'Nchu at the weekend.
Visser and Badenhorst, in a Ranger, held off a fierce challenge from championship leaders Duncan Vos and Rob Howie in their works Toyota Hilux to notch up their second consecutive win - and, in the process, trimmed the Toyota crew's championship lead from 24.5 points to 18.5 so, for the second year in a row the championship fight will go to the final race of the season.
Visser and Badenhorst, who started the day a second ahead of Vos and Howie, finally stretched the gap to 36 seconds. The two front-runners set a hot pace and were nearly five minutes ahead of third-placed Anthony Taylor and Chris Birkin, in a second works Hilux.
“The Ford crew drove a terrific race.”
A sporting Vos said at the finish: “We were waiting for them to make a mistake, but it never came.
“It was a very technical route with a good mix of fast and slow sections, and you had to be constantly alert. I think we both did a good job.”
Only four seconds separated Taylor and Birkin, Visser and Badenhorst, and Vos and Howie after the prologue to determine race grid positions. After the start Visser and Badenhorst were soon into the lead followed by Vos and Howie, with Taylor and Birkin dropping back.
After the first of the 170km loops that made up the race the gap between the Ford crew and Vos and Howie was only seven seconds. A fascinating cat and mouse game was played out over the second loop with Visser and Badenhorst holding their nerve under intense pressure.
“It was an awesome experience.”
Taylor and Birkin eventually got the better of Hannes Grobler and Hennie ter Stege (BMW X3) for the final place on the podium. The veteran BMW crew were a solid fourth but a little further back a huge fight developed with only 10 seconds finally separating three crews.
Off-road legend Alfie Cox and German co-driver Jurgen Schroder (Nissan Navara) finally edged out Christiaan du Plooy and Henk Janse van Vuuren (BMW X3) by four seconds with Lance Woolridge and Ward Huxtable a further six seconds adrift in the second Ford Racing Ranger.
The top 10 was completed by the Nissan Navaras of Mike Whitehouse and Matthew Carlson, Terence Marsh and George Smalberger, and Archie Rutherford and Paralympics swimming legend Natalie du Toit, in Rutherford's second consecutive successive top 10 finish with a sporting celebrity sitting alongside him.
Du Toit said afterwards: “Two punctures on the first lap hurt us, but we were 10 minutes faster on the second loop and a top-10 finish was great.”
CLASS D
The Class D battle produced a popular win for Mpumalanga brothers Johan and Werner Horn in their Toyota Land Cruiser. After a couple of near misses this season the Horns finally saw off championship leaders Cliff Weichelt and Johann Smalberger, also in a Land Cruiser.
A troubled second loop saw Weichelt and Smalberger under pressure from reigning champions Jack and Sarel Oosthuizen (Land Rover) who were only 14 seconds in arrears.
A sixth win in seven outings saw Dirk Putter and Koos Claasens (Toyota Hilux) wrap up the Class E title. After a disappointing prologue, Putter and Claasens made up more than four minutes to beat KwaZulu-Natal pair Rowan Lamb and Lyle Parker (Ford Ranger) by 44 seconds.
After prologue problems Bloemfontein Ford Ranger crew Gerald le Roux and Hendrik Badenhorst fought back to take third.
SPECIAL VEHICLES
Brothers Laurence and Gerhard du Plessis, in a Zarco Magnum, made it two in a row with another commanding performance in the Special vehicle category.
Their win, however, was overshadowed by the championship battle between Evan Hutchison and Danie Stassen (BAT Venom) and Johan van Staden and Mike Lawrenson (BAT) which will be carried over to the final event of the year.
Hutchison and Stassen came home in 1min07 behind the du Plessis brothers with team mates Nick and Ryan Harper, in a second BAT Venom, a further 1min07 down, to claim a second successive podium finish.
The Harpers were also an important buffer between van Staden and Lawrenson who were fourth. Hutchison and Stassen will now go to the final event with a nine-point cushion over van Staden and Lawrenson, with the title fight going down to the wire for the second consecutive year.
“Somebody was looking after us today.”
Hutchison said afterwards: “We finished minus a couple of gears and had they been damaged 20km earlier, I don't think we would have made it to the finish.
“On the bright side a two-point gain in the championship could turn out to be decisive.”
For their part van Staden and Lawrenson were left to rue a puncture on the first of the two 170km loops that made up the race. The flat, 20km from the finish, dropped them down to ninth among the Special Vehicles at the halfway point.
“We could see Evan and Danie ahead of us when we had to stop,” said van Staden. “It meant we had to really push on the second loop to do some damage control.
“We are a little disappointed, but it sets up a really interesting finale to the season.”
Van Staden and Lawrenson were comfortably clear of reigning SA champions Hermann and Wichard Sullwald, in their Porter, after a running battle with CR4 crew Mark Corbett and Rudi Balzer. The gap between fourth and fifth was finally 23 seconds.
Bloemfontein pair Pieter Ruthven and Leander Pienaar (BAT) and the husband and wife pairing of Marius and Jolinda Fourie (BAT) completed the top eight with 20 seconds separating the two cars. A disappointing second loop saw the Fouries drop down the order after running in the top three at the halfway mark, and they finished the race with a flat left rear tyre.
CLASS P
Championship leaders Colin Matthews and Alan Smith were early race casualties when their CR3 hit a ditch and lost a wheel. That handed the initiative to BAT crew Richard Fuller and Dennis Murphy.
Fuller and Murphy took full advantage of the situation to come home around four minutes ahead of the father and daughter combination of Coetzee and Sandra Labuscagne in their Zarco. Third were Nic Goslar and Andrew Massey, in another Zarco who fought back well after a disappointing prologue result.
Class B honours went to KwaZulu-Natal crew Leon Bothma and Quintin Brand in an early-spec BAT. They had more than an hour to spare over Sidriaan de Villiers and Dwayne Voogt who were the last of the classified finishers in a UTV.