History made at Magalies 400

Published Nov 22, 2010

Share

The Class P brigade won the battle but Class A runners Kallie and Quintin Sullwald won the Special Vehicle war at a dramatic Magalies 400, final round of the 2010 SA Off-Road championship at Tarlton International Raceway at the weekend.

History was made when three Class P cars filled the first three places in a race that was packed full of drama. Archie Rutherford and Mike Lawrenson (Jimco) completed a perfect weekend when they came home ahead of Mark Corbett and Rudi Balzer (CR2) and Johan van Staden and James Rossouw (BAT), putting three Class P cars on the podium for the first time in the history of the series.

The Class P whitewash diverted attention from the father-and-son Sullwald team, which wrapped up the Special Vehicle and Class A championships. The Sullwalds went into the weekend trailing championship leaders Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau by six points but seventh overall was enough to clinch both titles.

The situation at the front of the field and the championship situation also diverted attention from a superb performance by veterans Keith du Toit and Ashley Thorn (BAT) who were fourth overall and won Class A. Lesotho-based Thorn is a former National champion, but for was a maiden National win for Botswana-based du Toit.

Second and third in Class A were the BATs of Guy Henley and Warwick Goosen and Nick Harper and Kevin Hume.

It was all over for Variawa and Rousseau when rear suspension damage sidelined them on the first of two loops. The Sullwalds lost their intercom on lap two and were also delayed by a puncture.

Sullwald senior said: “Not being able to communicate verbally made it difficult to stay on the pace. The puncture also cost us time so we decided to take it easy and make sure of the championship.”

Hopes of overall race wins for the Sullwald's and Variawa/Rousseau disappeared on the prologue to determine race start positions. The two crews were among a string of teams who ran into problems on a wet route and started 39th and 37th respectively.

Rutherford and Lawrenson were surprise winners of the prologue and proceeded to drive the perfect race. The pair never needed to get out the car - a sure recipe for success over 340km of racing.

Corbett and Balzer had a clean first loop but a shock absorber problem slowed them on the second lap, and they gradually lost ground on the race leaders. It also saw them fall into the clutches of Van Staden and Rossouw, who made history earlier in the season when they became the first Class P crew to win an SA Off-Road race outright.

Third place cemented the Class P title for Van Staden and Rossouw. Provisional scoring also saw the Pretoria crew finish third in the overall championship.

The Class B honours went to veteran Coetzee Labuscagne and daughter Sandra in their Zarco. In a family battle they had nearly an hour in hand over Driver's champion Bes Bezuidenhout and son Etienne who nursed home a very sick-sounding BAT.

PRODUCTION VEHICLES REPEAT WIN FOR TAYLOR/HOUGHTON

Lightning struck twice for Toyota crew Anthony Taylor and Robin Houghton when they won the Production Vehicle category of the Magalies 400 for the second consecutive year, to notch up their second victory of 2010.

It was also a great day for Free State crews with Louw de Bruin/Riaan Greyling (Ford Ranger) and George Barkhuizen/David van Wyck (Toyota Hilux) who scored career-best results to finish second and third respectively.

Any hopes of the overall and SP Class championships developing into count-out situations were lost when champions Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst (Toyota Hilux) and closest challengers Hannes Grobler and Hennie ter Stege (BMW X3) failed to finish.

A turbo sensor problem sidelined veterans Grobler and Ter Stege on the first loop, and Visser and Badenhorst, after leading at the halfway mark, joined them as spectators on loop two with a broken radiator.

Visser admitted: “It was a disappointing way to end the season but we've had a wonderful year. For a privateer team to win this championship is a feather in the cap for the whole crew.”

Team mates Duncan Vos and Rob Howie, who romped away with the prologue, were in trouble early on and limped through the first loop with power-steering problems.

The same problem hit Taylor and Houghton late in the race. They also picked up a misfire and a puncture, finally coming home only 44sec ahead of De Bruin and Bezuidenhout.

De Bruin and Greyling started third and sixth in class respectively, and were rewarded for steady performances. De Bruyn and Greyling held third throughout the race while Barkhuizen and Van Wyck profited from the demise of the Visser/Badenhorst and Grobler/ter Stege entries, who'd started ahead of them.

A brave drive took former SA champions Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer into fifth in their Ford Ranger TDCi. They lost a wheel on the prologue, started from the back of the field and had to hold off a determined challenge from Class D winners Deon Venter and Ian Palmer in a Toyota Hilux.

The win also clinched the Class D championship for Venter and Palmer. They were the only Class D finishers with outgoing champions Dewald van Breda and Johann du Toit (Toyota Hilux) and Cliff Weichelt/Johan Smalberger (Toyota Land Cruiser) falling by the wayside with mechanical gremlins.

Former champions Manfred Schroder and Ward Huxtable (Ford Ranger) took the Class E honours with Schroder standing in for injured teenager Lance Woolridge. The result gave Huxtable the co-drivers championship with the Ford Ranger to be retired after winning a fifth National title.

Woolridge missed out on the Drivers' title when Pikkie Labuschagne and Rikus Erasmus (Toyota Hilux) came home third behind the Ford Ranger of Gerald le Roux and Willem Pretorius. Provisional scoring gave Labuschagne the Drivers' title, with Erasmus again missing the championship bus after the pair lost the 2009 championship by a single point.

The 2011 SA Off-Road championship will start with the Adenco 400 in the Western Cape at the end of March.

Related Topics: