Damage control at the Sun City 400, round four of the Absa Off Road Championship, has kept privateer Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst at the top of the Production Vehicle leaderboard.
Visser and Badenhorst, in the RFS Toyota Hilux, rolled during the Donaldson Prologue at Sun City and were forced to start from the back of the field. A spirited fight back saw them finish seventh overall with the pair earning enough points to eke out a 13 point championship lead.
Behind Visser and Badenhorst a dogfight is developing. Reigning drivers’ champion Duncan Vos and Rob Howie (Team Castrol Toyota Hilux) are just one point ahead of Hannes Grobler/Hennie ter Stege (RFS BMW), who picked up their first non finish of the year at Sun City, and the Ford Racing pair of Neil Woolridge and Kenny Skjoldhammer.
Sun City winners Terence Marsh and Buks Carolin rocker from 12th to fourth in the championship in the Regent Racing Nissan Navara and are only another five points adrift. Also still in the championship frame are Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen (Atlas Copco Toyota Hilux) and the ultra consistent Mike Whitehouse/Matthew Carlson (Regent Racing Nissan Navara) who are locked together in fifth place.
Differences in points allocations for overall and class results see a slightly different state of affairs in the premier SP Class. Here the top three positions remain the same with Whitehouse/Carlson, the only team with a 100 percent finish record, in fourth place ahead of Marsh and Carolin.
Reigning champions Dewald van Breda and Johann du Toit, in the Northam Toyota Hilux, have a tight hold on Class D. A win at Sun City in their first outing of the season lifted Deon Venter and Ian Palmer, in the 4×4 Mega World Toyota Hilux, into second place.
Down in Class E a second win of the season has lifted teenager Lance Woolridge and Ward Huxtable, in the factory Ford Racing Ranger, into a comfortable lead. Woolridge, the son of Neil, and Huxtable now have a 16 point lead over Pikkie Labuschagne and Rikus Erasmus in the 4×4 Mega World Toyota Hilux.
The Ruwacon Racing Ford Ranger pair of Gerald le Roux and Willem Pretorius are only four points behind Labuschagne and Erasmus. The top three crews have all won events this season.
In the SA Manufacturers Championship it is no contest with Toyota (310) building up a huge lead over Ford who have 118 points. Nissan, who withdrew from off road racing at the end of last season, are third with 91 points.
The next round of the championship is the 4×4 Mega World 400 at Carnival City on the East Rand on August 27 and 28.