Privateers Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen are hoping to go one better than last year when they line up the Atlas Copco class SP Toyota Hilux on the startline at Sun City for the fourth round of the Absa Off Road Championship this weekend. Second place in last year’s Sun City 400 behind eventual champions Duncan Vos and Ralph Pitchford in a factory Nissan Navara was a great achievement – bettered only by their win in the next event at Carnival City – and they are fired up to take their first victory of the new season.
“The premier class in the Production Category is as competitive as ever with no less than 17 SP entries this weekend, including the two factory Hiluxes,” said Bertholdt. “We came close last year and this time we will be pushing hard for a win. I can still taste the success we enjoyed at Carnival City last year, when we scored the only privateer victory of the year. We want some more of that juice!”
Two non-finishes in the last two rounds have negated the Atlas Copco pair’s good start to the season, when they came in second behind the Hilux of current championship leaders Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst in the Adenco 400 in the Western Cape. They find themselves in an unsatisfactory ninth place in the championship and are determined to rectify this with a good result on Saturday.
“A good performance in Friday’s Donaldson prologue is an absolute must,” said Bertholdt. “We need to be as close to the front for Saturday’s start as we can. Dust will be a big problem and so will overtaking.”
The four-car Atlas Copco team is well represented in the Special Vehicle category. Nick Harper, who will be partnered with Kevin Hume on this occasion, is currently fifth in the championship and third in class A in the Atlas Copco BAT Spec 4. Contesting class P are Johan van Staden and James Rossouw in a BAT Spec 2 and Bertholdt family patriarch Bodo, with Atlas Copco’s Phillip Herselman in the hot seat, in one of the first edition BATs.
Van Staden and Rossouw are second in the championship and first in class P after a fifth overall in the opening round and victory in round two in Lydenburg. Bertholdt senior and Herselman have work to do after non-finishes in the first and third rounds and third in class in round two, which sees them in eighth in class.
– Credit: Peter Burroughes Communications.