The Special Vehicle championship has warmed up following the 4×4 Mega World 400, round five of the Absa Off Road Championship, at Carnival City.
It was not a happy event for championship leaders Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau, in the Total Porter, who now find themselves under pressure over the remaining three events of the season. Variawa/Rousseau failed to finish the Donaldson Prologue after landing in a donga, and retired from the race with a gearbox problem.
The Total team’s woes gave other crews the opportunity to close the gap – and they did just that. Only 14 points now separate the first four teams and it is game on!
Variawa and Rousseau now lead the overall championship by just six points from 2008 champions Kallie and Quintin Sullwald in the Elegant Fuel BAT. The Sullwald’s followed up a win on the Sun City 400 with second place at Carnival City.
Seventh overall and second place in Class P kept Atlas Copco BAT crew Johan van Staden and James Rossouw firmly in the championship race. They are in third place and trail the Sullwald’s by three points.
Victory on the 4×4 Mega World 400 lifted Herman and Wichard Sullwald (Sullwald Racing SVR) to fourth place in the championship stakes. They are five points behind van Staden and Rossouw and 14 points behind the leaders.
Anomalies in the scoring for overall and class results paints a different picture in Class A where Kallie and Quintin Sullwald are the new leaders. They have a 10 point advantage over Variawa and Rousseau while Nick Harper and Herman Sullwald are tied for third among the drivers.
On the co-driver front Wichard Sullwald is alone in third place. Ryan Harper, who normally sits alongside his father, has missed the last two events through injury.
Two wins in a row have lifted Bes Bezuidenhout and daughter-in-law Lindie, in the Adenco BAT, into a commanding Class B lead. Early season leader and reigning champion Derick du Toit, who is also Cape Town based, has missed the last two events.
Van Staden and Rossouw, who early in the season made history by becoming the first Class P crew to win an event overall, still have a healthy lead in the class championship. Van Staden has a 15 point advantage over Archie Rutherford (Regent Racing Jimco), who won at Carnival City, with Swaziland driver John Thomson (Zarco) in third place.
Among the co-drivers Rossouw (71) leads Clinton McNamara (48) who accompanies Thomson. Craig Doubtfire, who was replaced by Jacque le Roux in the Regent Racing car on the 4×4 Mega World 400, is in third place.
The next round of the championship is the Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1000 Desert Race from September 24 to 26.
– Credit: www.saoffroadracing.co.za